Author Note: Thanks to everyone who's reviewed the story so far. n_n I'm always happy to hear any opinions you might have.


"Do you have a dream, White?" Bianca asked.

It was almost night now, and the setting sun coloured the sky in a brilliant amber. The three of us – Bianca, Cheren and I – had retreated to the homely warmth of the Pokémon centre before the frost began to set in. We weren't the only ones – the air was thick with the steady murmur of fifty different voices and the musty scent of bodies, set off against the sharp tingle of disinfectant and floor polish. We were lucky enough to have secured a table, which we sat around in a vague circle. I rested my chin on my hand. Occasionally I would feel fur brush briefly against my ankles, as my friends' Oshawott and Snivy chased each other in loops around our feet.

"Well, last night I dreamt that I was a Patrat," I replied, "And there was this huge cheese that I had to-"

"No, silly!" She giggled. "I mean, like a goal, like... like Cheren wants to be the champion!"

I snorted. The day Cheren became champion was the day I ate my hat.

"I don't really have a dream, I guess. Me and Tepig are just gonna play it cool."

"That's ridiculous," Cheren scoffed. "If you don't have a dream, what do you have to aim for? What's the point of doing anything?"

"Fine then, Mr Smarty-pants, if you really have to know," I grinned, "Me and Tepig are going to become rock stars!"

Cheren gave me an incredulous look. "You have no musical talent whatsoever."

"Exactly."

Bianca giggled in a way that I might have thought was childish, if I didn't know the kind of outrageous things that went on in her head. "Oh, stop fighting, you two! You're like a married couple!"

Eww! Me and... Time to change the subject, I think. "So what's your dream then, Bianca?" I asked.

"Oh, uh..." She took off her green beret and started to fiddle with it, folding the soft fabric between her fingers. "I don't know... I suppose my dream is to find out what my dream is!" She rammed the hat decisively back onto her head. Her Oshawott bumped into her leg, and gave an absent-minded mewl before skittering off again.

I glanced over my shoulder, to where Nurse Joy was busy checking on injured Pokémon. I had given her Tepig to look over, and she was taking a bloody long time about it, too – I had to remind myself not to be impatient. After all, half the world seemed to have decided to turn up at this centre today. The gathered crowd was still buzzing with excitement over Team Plasma's speech, which had been playing on my own mind non-stop since the event. Liberation? What does it mean? And not only that, but the things N had said, about Pokémon-

"What did you think of them, White?" Cheren asked.

"Ohhh, it's not fair!" Bianca wailed, as she pulled her hat down over her ears. "I can't believe I missed the whole thing! Everyone's been talking about it all day!"

"You didn't miss out on much, trust me," said Cheren. "Bunch of freaks and crazies, the lot of them."

"Huh? What are we talking about?" I murmured. I turned around to face the pair, and tried to drag my mind back into the present.

"Those Team Plasma loonies, trying to convince everyone to release their Pokémon," said Cheren. He crossed his arms. "As if. People and Pokémon only make each other stronger."

I frowned. "I don't know. I mean, battling and stuff... what if it really does hurt Pokémon? Maybe they don't like it..."

"You can't honestly believe that," Cheren said. He smirked in that know-it-all way of his. "You're just saying this because you're smitten with that N person."

"Can you blame me? The guy looks like sex on legs."

"Oooh, White has a crush!" Bianca squealed. Her eyes lit up like a sparkly vampire. "Tell me, tell me! What's he like?" She clapped her hands together.

"Oh my gosh, Bianca, you should of seen him, he was so cute, he had this like, cool green hair and this cool little hat and his face, oh my God, I swear, I'm in love with him, we're gonna get married and have loads of little green-haired babies-"

"Do you always have to be so over the top?" Cheren broke in. Shut up Cheren, this is my husband we're talking about. "You barely even know the guy."

"But I love himmmmmmmm," I whined.

"You don't love him, you lust after him. There's a big difference."

"Oh, what do you know?" I pouted. "You've never even had a boyfriend."

Cheren faltered. Yeah, take that, Cheren. "Girlfriend... You mean girlfriend. I've never had a girlfriend."

"That just proves my point further, doesn't it?" I gave him my brightest smile. He scowled.

Bianca chimed in with a cheery, "You know, Cheren, it's ok to be gay! We'll still accept you. We promise!" She winked, and nudged him with her elbow.

"But guys, I'm not-"

"Oh, but you totally are!" Bianca interrupted. She grabbed my shoulder. "You remember that time, in Nuvema, there was that guy with no-"

"Yeah, yeah, and he couldn't take his eyes off him!" I finished. We collapsed in a heap on the table, shaking with laughter.

"I'm not... Oh, I give up. You two are impossible, I swear," he muttered, and started fiddling with his glasses like he always does when he's ticked off.

"You know, you look really gay when you do that," I teased.

Something within him must have snapped; his face shot into a maddened grimace like a spring-loaded dagger, whatever the hell those are.

"At least I don't look like a SLUT!" he screeched.

Bianca gasped, and clasped her hands over her mouth; I stood, slowly, and slapped my hands down on the table with such force that the very earth might have quaked.

"Oh no you DIDN'T!" I aimed an accusatory finger right at his smug little face. "Bitch is going DOWN!"

"Hilda White?" A clear voice rang out over the intercom. "Miss Hilda White to the front desk, please."

I shuddered. I loved my mum, and everything, but she had the worst taste in names of anyone I had ever met.

"You got lucky," I muttered. I pointed to my eyes with two fingers, then back at Cheren. "This isn't over." He just smirked, while Bianca tried to muffle her laughter.

I stalked over to Nurse Joy and, oh dear, she was frowning at me. What had I done wrong now?

Her pink pigtails bobbed up and down in indignation as she handed Tepig over to me. "You should have come to me sooner. It's infected."

Huh? I looked down at Tepig. The deep scratch running across his nose had a strange purple tinge to it that I hadn't noticed before. My stomach panged with guilt.

"Take these antibiotics; there's instruction for use on the box," she said, handing me a pot of small blue pills. "Make sure he finishes the entire course. Still," she paused to ruffle his ears, "He seems happy enough. You must be doing something right. Just don't let this happen again."

I wandered back to our table, feeling a little put out. I couldn't help wondering if there was any truth in what Team Plasma had said – people battle, and Pokémon get hurt. Here was the proof, right in front of me... But, if the way Tepig snuggled against my arms was any indication, he seemed to like me, in spite of my negligence. He looked up, his black piggy eyes staring deep into mine. It was a look that seemed to say, "Don't worry about it. We're safe, blud." I smiled back. Of course Team Plasma was spouting nonsense. Of course they were, I told myself. No weirdoes in fancy dress could come between this friendship. Daw, I felt myself come over all mushy.

"I loveded you, piggy," I whispered to him.


It was the day after the day after that, and the early morning sun was shining like a big shiny ball of flaming gas in the sky. The gas it was burning could have been the hot air that kept spewing out of Cheren's mouth, because I swear that boy just didn't understand the meaning of shut up. It was all Snivy this, battle that, gosh... Maybe I was being a bit harsh, but thirty-six hours of non-stop Cheren can grate on the nerves. Anyway, it was just me and my two best friends – Tepig and Bianca – plus that annoying dork-face who insisted on following us around.

We'd spent the last day traversing Route 2, and training our Pokémon. Both Snivy and Oshawott had learnt new attacks, but of course Tepig was still the most powerful by far, and I wasn't just saying that because he's mine. Ok, perhaps I was, but I was sure as hell that Tepig could kick these two's butts. This little piggy got some FIERCE battling moves, yo. I could tell he was confident, too, from the way he swaggered as he trotted in front of the group. Unfortunately (for them) the others didn't share our conviction in our combat prowess, so we were just gonna have to teach them a lesson the hard way.

"We should battle," said Cheren. Yeah Cheren, that's exactly the kind of thing you would say. Well, prepare to be dazzled. "To test our Pokémon before we challenge the Striaton gym," he continued.

"Are you sure?" I asked mockingly. "I wouldn't want to dampen your spirits before the big match."

He laughed. "I've been studying your weaknesses, White." Really? What a nerd.

"Oh? And what would those be, smarty-pants?"

"Like I'm going to tell you. Snivy!" The little grass snake jumped in front of him, wearing the same smug expression that often graced Cheren's ugly mug.

"Whatever, dude. It's fire against grass-type, you don't stand a chance." I stuck my tongue out at him.

He pushed his glasses up his nose. "Type advantage isn't everything; we good trainers tend to rely on skill."

"Oooh, burn!" Bianca cried.

"Enough of this tomfoolery!" I declared. "Let us commence to begin battle! Go, wonder pig, use tackle!"

"Dodge it." Cheren countered in a calm voice. Snivy side-stepped the onrushing Tepig with ease, and spun around to slap him with his tail. The blow sent Tepig flying. He landed at my feet with a thump.

"What the hell kind of move was that?"

"It's called 'Strategy,' you should try it sometime." Cheren grinned. Damn it, he was mocking me! He wasn't going to get away with that.

"Super ember attack, full power!" I shouted to Tepig, who let forth potent burst of fiery cinders.

"Vine whip." Snivy slapped away the embers as if they were nothing, and wrapped its vines around Tepig's midriff. Well, shit. I watched in horror as Tepig was lifted off the ground and held upside-down over Snivy's head. He then began shaking him from side to side.

"No, stop!" I cried. "He's not a piggy bank!"

Cheren smirked. "Whatever happened you 'you don't stand a chance?'"

"Snivy, Snivy!"

Damn it, now Snivy was laughing at me too! The little-

"Tackle!" Cheren commanded, and Snivy dropped Tepig, only to barrel into him with all the force of a maddened Bouffalant. The piggy rolled clumsily through the dirt, stopping at my feet, and struggled clumsily back onto his trotters. Well, this obviously wasn't working. Time to give Cheren a taste of his own medicine. I had to come up with a strategy.

"Tepig!" I cast around for a tactic to take, racking my brains for ideas. "Jump up and down!"

"What?" Cheren and Snivy could only watch, dumbfounded, as Tepig obeyed my order without question. It was a bloody good thing for me that he had, because it saved me from looking like a complete idiot. I honestly had no idea where I was going with this; I had only said it to buy some time, and it seemed to have worked at least for a few seconds but now I was wasting that time with this stupid internal monologue and fuck, there was nothing else for it. We'd just have to attack.

"CHAAAAAAAAAAARGE!" I screamed, pointed at Snivy with the most dramatic look I could muster, flames smouldering from my eyes. Metaphorical flames sprang up around Tepig, too, the burning tails of a shooting star, and he hurtled towards Snivy like a great giant pig crashing through space- No, wait a minute, he actually was on fire. What?

Tepig smashed full force into Snivy, sending him flying this time – ha – and when his flames petered out, he looked around at us as if he was more confused than I was.

"Looks like Tepig learned flame charge. Impressive," Cheren grunted. Was that a compliment? Wow.

"Sweet! Charge again, piggy!"

"Dodg-" He didn't have time to finish before Tepig had collided with Snivy again. This time, the snake stayed down. I gasped.

"When did Tepig get so fast?"

"That's flame charge for you. It increases the user's speed when they successfully hit an opponent with it." Annoying or not, I had to admit that having a walking encyclopaedia for a friend did come in handy.

"Ha, we actually beat you! In your face, Cheren!" I squealed. I started doing the happy dance, which Tepig joined in.

Cheren sighed, shrugged his shoulders, and returned Snivy to its pokéball. "Do you have to be such a bad winner? Besides, you got lucky."

"Say what you want, you know we owned you." I tried to keep a cool composure, but I couldn't help gloating a little; inside I was bubbling with the excitement of victory. I picked up Tepig, who was panting heavily. His face was flushed a brighter red than usual, giving him the complexion of a ripe tomato. In spite of his exhaustion, he gave an oink that sounded almost as self-satisfied as I felt.

"Wow, wow! You two are such strong trainers!" Bianca punched the air, and stamped her feet shoulder length apart in a heroic pose. "And I'm the official cheerleader!" She grabbed Oshawott, and squeezed him in such a tight embrace that his eyes bulged. "Don't you think it's interesting how we all chose Pokémon that are similar to us?"

"Do you mean like how Oshawott is adorable, just like you?" Cheren asked slyly, ever the romantic. Yeah, right. This must have been part of some elaborate scheme to get her on his side, rather than mine.

"Oh, Cheren you sweetheart," she blushed. "And Snivy is so intelligent, like you!"

Okay seriously, what is this? I hadn't realised Valentine's day was in September.

"What about me and Tepig?" I asked.

Bianca suppressed a giggle. "Well, White... you eat like a pig!" She burst into laughter.

Cheren snickered. He waggled one finger at me, his other hand placed on his hip in a way that made him look ridiculously camp. "Yes, you do eat far too much, thunder-thighs."

Ok, that was the final straw! I felt the steam pouring out of my ears. "Fuck you, Cheren! I have an excellent figure."

"Hilda White! How dare you use such atrocious language!" Bianca shouted, her hands on her hips and her eyes bright with mock-anger. "I have half a mind to wash your mouth out with soap, young lady!"

I rolled my eyes. "You're not my Mum, Bianca."

Speak of the devil: My Xtransceiver chose that moment to ring. Friday, Friday, gotta get down on-

"Hello, Mum. Your ears must be burning."

"Hi, sweetie! It's me, your Mum!" she said.

"I know Mum, I can see you on the screen..."

"You'll never guess what happened today!" She flapped her hands in excitement. "I walked out of the house, and there were two Pidoves, doing it right there on the front lawn!"

What the hell? "Mum, did you ring me just to tell me that?"

"Yep. I love you. Bye sweetie!" With that, she hung up.


And now it was later that same day. We had found our way in Striaton, and not a moment too soon (we were all beginning to smell a bit after a day and a night out in the open – luckily, Pokémon centres provide free showers for trainers) and after resting for a few hours, plus a slap-up lunch, we were raring to go. Bianca had rushed back to Route 2, claiming she wanted to capture a Lillipup before she challenged the gym, so Cheren and I made our way over there without her.

The busy streets of Striaton provided a stark contrast to our hometown of Nuvema – there was actual pavement underfoot! How fancy. Cheren led me through the roads bordered by towering stone giants and assorted buildings. It wasn't a large city, but it was so different to what I was used to, and Tepig and I stared in amazement at the urban scenery. We might have gotten lost if we were alone, but luckily our hero Mr Nerdy-Pants had memorised the town map. And that wasn't the only thing he'd been swotting up on, which he made sure to tell me at every opportunity.

"Do you know anything about the gym leader?" he asked, as we rounded a corner, passing a bunch of kids who were chasing after a Patrat and making more noise about it than a bloody noisy thing, and lots of them. Damn kids.

"All I know is that we're gonna kick their butt so hard they won't be able to sit down for a week." I smiled haughtily. "Right, Tepig?"

"Tepig, Tepig!"

"You can't just barge in without a strategy and expect to win, you know." Cheren adjusted his spectacles and pulled a small notebook out of his pocket. He flicked through the pages, every inch of which were covered in his pointed handwriting. "I've been researching the leaders' battle style, and I believe I have the perfect plan to assure victory."

"Really? When did you find the time to do that?"

"Back in the Pokémon centre, I used the computer to access the gym leader battle video database." The what now? I didn't even know one of those existed. I'd have to take a look for myself later.

"Oh, is that what you were doing? I thought you were watching gay porn."

He gave me a look that said, quite clearly: You are the stupidest person alive. "Why the hell would you think that?"

"All I could hear from that computer was a bunch of men screaming. I thought it sounded dirty."

"You think everything sounds dirty."

"True."

I followed Cheren into a small restaurant, which was odd, because I thought we were going to the gym? But hey, if Cheren's paying, I'm not complaining. The decor was warm and inviting; chocolate brown set against a red, blue and green motif. A waitress in a rather revealing skirt bustled over.

"Table for two?"

"We're here for a gym battle," Cheren told her, and she led us towards the back of the building, a set of velvet curtains parting dramatically as we passed. So this was the gym? But I was hungry...

Three men stood waiting for us, dressed in identical black suits and frilly aprons, each with their own fancy hair do. Wow, this must be the kind of thing Cheren dreams about. The waitress bowed and hurried away, leaving the men to introduce themselves.

The red one said, "I'm Chili, and I like to heat it up with fire types, pew pew!"

The blue one said, "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I am Cress, and I specialise in water types."

The red one cleared his throat loudly, and waggled his eyebrows meaningfully at the blue one. The blue one sighed.

"Fine... Water types. Splish, splish."

The green one said, "And I'm, uh... My name..."

"Cilan," the blue one prompted.

"Right! I'm Cilan, and, I like grass types. Um..." He turned to the red one. "What noise does a grass type make?"

"Buggered if I know," Chili said cheerfully.

"Well, I'm White," I said, leaping forward, "And if you want to save yourselves some embarrassment, you might as well hand over the Trio badge right now!" From behind me I heard the familiar sound of Cheren's palm hitting Cheren's face, but I ignored it. I pointed to Tepig, who was stood beside me with his chest puffed out. "This little piggy's gonna mess ya up."

"So Tepig is your partner," said Cress. He walked towards me, his movements fluid and full of self control. He held one hand flat on his chest, the other behind his back, and bowed. "That means you will be battling me."

"Wait, what? You're going to make me battle the one Tepig's weak against? How the hell is that fair?" I crossed my arms. "I want to fight the green one."

He let out a short, bubbly laugh. "Gym battles are meant to be a challenge, after all. You either battle me, or you leave empty handed." He closed his eyes and lowered his head momentarily. "Of course, I should warn you that even if you do choose to battle, there is still a large chance that you will not win."

"Uh... Give me a second, will you?" I sidled over to Cheren, and whispered in his ear. "So, do you wanna tell me more about that strategy you mentioned earlier?"

He raised a cheeky eyebrow. "Give me one good reason why I should help you."

"Because we're friends?"

"Try harder."

"Um... I'll be nice to you for the rest of the day?" I tried.

"Now there's an offer I can't refuse." He rolled his eyes. "Well, I suggest you use flame charge. If you can get Tepig to increase his speed sufficiently, you may have an easier time dodging their attacks and getting in close for a tackle. Also-"

"Flame charge, tackle, got it. Thanks!"

"But I'm not-"

I stepped forwards and nodded. "Okay! Cress of Striaton gym, we challenge you! Prepare to be assimilated!"

"Panpour, my friend." A blue monkey appeared before me. It was pretty cute actually, with its chubby little monkey-cheeks, aww. But this was no time to mess around.

"Flame charge!" I commanded. Tepig stampeded towards Panpour, who stood perfectly still, wearing an incurious blank expression.

"Use water gun to knock them away." Panpour sprung into action, blasting Tepig with a jet of icy-cold water. It hit him head on, and forced him backwards with such power that he collided against the wall behind me with a loud CRASH! It left a small crater at the impact site.

Ok, so that was a pretty bad start. We probably couldn't afford to take another hit like that. It just meant that we'd have to be a bit more careful.

"Flame charge again!" The air around Tepig ignited once more, and he rushed towards Panpour, who's cheeks bulged as he shot another stream of water.

"Watch out, quick!" I squealed; Tepig did a barrel roll to the left, and the water missed him by an inch. His flames dissipated, however, and he had lost all momentum from his charge.

"Ok, flame charge one more time!" Third time lucky, right?

Cress raised an eyebrow. "You just keep repeating the same moves. Do you really think that's going to get you anywhere?"

I growled under my breath; if we could just get this hit in, I knew we could take him down. The fire rose up around the piggy, but Panpour leapt right over his head as he steamed past. Ah crap, he was gonna crash right into the wall again – his trotters scrambled franticly in an effort to stop himself, and he ended up toppling into a jumbled heap.

"This is our chance, Panpour! Get in close and use scratch!" Cress shouted. The monkey leapt towards Tepig, but Tepig had untangled his feet in the nick of time and soared right back at him, knocking Panpour down with vigour. Tepig wasted no time in forming another flame charge, and this time it connected! Woot! The force sent Panpour skidding back towards his trainer.

"Sweet! Now, one more time!" Tepig was so much faster this time, just a blurred red dart hurtling towards its blue target. Yeah! We had this in the bag.

And then the damn monkey side-stepped it as if it were nothing! Bloody hell, that thing was speedy. Tepig ground to a halt, snorting in annoyance. Well, Cheren's stupid strategy wasn't working, so it was time to start thinking on my feet. I did have one secret special technique that I had been saving for an emergency, and it looked like it would be our only chance to win this match.

"Okay, Tepig," I declared, "Use your SUPER SEXY TAIL WHIP!"

Tepig turned around and began shaking that thing all up in Panpour's face. The monkey could only stare in awe as Tepig's generous buttocks wiggled and danced. Aww yeah.

"Snap out of it, Panpour," Cress barked. Of course, I couldn't give Panpour a chance to recover. I had to play my part.

"Hey, Cress," I called seductively; I bent forwards, using my shoulders to push my chest out, and shimmied. I threw in a wink for good measure.

His face flushed bright red. Great success! And now to fulfil the final stage of my evil scheme.

"FLAMING PIG OF DEATH!" I screeched, so loud that the sound reverberated throughout the whole restaurant, causing a waitress to drop a plate of soup into a man's lap. Serves them damn right for serving soup in plates, the weirdoes.

Tepig barrelled into the stunned Panpour, sending him soaring across the battlefield; he immediately jumped back onto his feet, but stumbled a little – at last, we were getting somewhere.

"Panpour..." Cress mumbled, shaking his head to bring himself out of his daze. "Use, um... Lick..."

Use what now? Panpour advanced menacingly on Tepig, wiggling his fingers above his head and twirling his tongue around his lips suggestively. Hell no, no Pokémon of mine is getting molested!

"Tepig, protect your flower! Use tackle!" Tepig smashed into the encroaching Panpour in one last devastating blow, knocking him to the floor, too tired to get up again.

I could only stare in amazement at the scene; slowly, it dawned on me that we had actually done it.

"Tepig!" I shrieked, jumping ten feet off the ground, "We actually won our first gym battle! WE'RE INVINCIBLE!" Tepig was clearly exhausted; he flopped over onto his side, panting, but still managed to give a victorious squeal. I withdrew him into his pokéball.

Cress chuckled nervously. "I must concede, you certainly have a... strong bond with your Pokémon."

"And I believe that it's my turn now," Cheren said, stepping forwards. Chili nodded at him.

Five minutes later, I was gawping in slack-jawed astonishment. Cheren brushed past me, wearing an arrogant little smirk.

"That's how you do it."

"You... He..." I babbled, "You defeated him in two attacks! He didn't even touch Snivy! How the hell did you do that?"

"I told you, if you just take your time to plan out your attacks... Whereas you, White, just rode in on your high Blitzle and expected it to be easy. Really, you're far too overconfident."

"Oh, is that the weakness of mine you were talking about this morning?" I asked, as we walked out of the restaurant slash gym thing.

"One of them, yes."

"Well, I know what your weakness is," I said sweetly, giving him my biggest smile.

"Oh? And what is it?"

"You like it up the bum."

I could see his face turning red with rage, as he hissed grouchily, "You have to be nice to me, remember? That was the deal."

"Oh. Sorry."

"Go on, then."

"Uh... You're pretty?"

"Be serious, White." He folded his arms and tapped his foot. "I'm waiting."

"Fine," I grumbled, "I... am actually a little tiny bit jealous of your intelligence."

"I knew it!" He grinned.

"Hey, I said only a little-" I was interrupted by sudden screaming.

"Help, help! Cheren, White – please, oh God, we have to help!" Bianca barrelled into both of us, nearly knocking us over in her panicked frenzy. Tears were streaming from her eyes.

Cheren grabbed her. "What happened? Bianca, are you alright? Are you hurt?"

"They're beating it!" Her high-pitched wailed rung in my ears. "This poor little Pokémon, they're hurting it – it was crying! Please, we have to help it!" She ran, and we rushed after her.

She led us through the city, to an area I haven't seen before - it was dimly light, surrounded on all sides by trees. We followed her through the ruins of an abandoned building, its roof fallen in places, broken glass littering the floor. But there was no time to take in the scenery. She stopped abruptly and pointed.

"There..." she croaked. I followed her gaze.

Two human figures, one male one female, and a little pink blob, were standing in the gloom. I recognised the people instantly – they were wearing the same outfits, that weird knight-armour-suit thing, as I had seen in Accumula town. Team Plasma.