The sun was bright and shining overhead and there was a warm early-morning breeze blowing. Cutter would have been enjoying the pleasant weather, probably some of the last before the heat of summer hit Johto, had he not been struggling to convince Rillo to enter Union Cave in front of them.

"Rillo. Come on girl, I need you to be brave for me. My flashlight died last night and I can't see in Union Cave without you," Cutter pleaded, crouched down talking to his only pokemon out of its pokeball. Rillo backed away, ducking her head down into the wool on her chest.

Really, Cutter couldn't blame her for not wanting to enter. The entrance to the cave was kind of scary looking, Cutter admitted. And just inside the mouth of the small opening, just barely large enough for someone Cutter's height to walk through comfortably, were a cluster of sharp rocks, threatening to stab anyone who made a wrong step. Cutter hoped the entirety of Union Cave wasn't like that. IF it was, well, without flash or any other source of light, Cutter was practically dead already.

xx

Cutter had taught Rillo flash the day before. He spent close to thirty minutes trying to figure out how to put the TM perfectly onto the pokeball before remembering that there was a device specifically for transferring a TM's knowledge of the move to the pokemon. He kicked himself for not remembering that sooner. It was in one of his storage balls and once he finally remembered that, the process only took another two minutes. Then they had tested out, with much begging on Cutter's part, flash.

After Rillo used the move Cutter was blinded for several minutes. He had to sit down where he was, and Rillo had bleated in worry for her trainer. After that, Rillo decided to stop using flash completely. The last thing she wanted was to hurt her trainer.

Once Cutter's eyesight had returned, he had spent the next hour trying to convince Rillo to use flash again. They needed to practice using flash for longer periods of time in order to get through the darkness of Union Cave, but Rillo refused. She just bowed her head and occasionally bleated in protest. Cutter eventually gave in and returned her for the night. He didn't want to push her into doing something she didn't want to do. It was going to be difficult to get her to become a battling pokemon, but if she didn't want to be one, she didn't have to be one.

He spent the next hour after that teaching mega punch to Silver. It only took Silver a couple of tries to get it down and then by the end of the evening the Larvitar had the move pretty much perfected. He thought about teaching the move to Bellow as well, but ultimately decided against it, at least for now. Bellow was a quick hitter, not a power-packed puncher. While mega punch would certainly give her a little bit more power, it wasn't an attack that would benefit her that much. Her true strength lied in attacking quickly and, in the case of swift, from distance. Mega punch took too much time to charge and Bellow was too fragile for her to spend an extended amount so close to the opponent. Cutter would look back into it once she evolved.

Cutter called out Rillo once more to see if he could coax one more flash out of her, but to no avail, so he just said goodnight and returned her. She still didn't like sleeping outside of her pokeball and Cutter had to respect that. He wouldn't like sleeping out in the open either if he was as fearful as she was.

xx

"If you won't use flash, will you at least walk with me in Union Cave? You don't have to do anything you don't want to do, but I'd love for you to just walk with me." Cutter was crouched on one knee, staring with wide, pleading eyes. The more time Cutter spent with her, the closer they would grow, and being close with his pokemon was by far the most important thing to him. Being a strong trainer didn't matter if he didn't have pokemon that loved him by his side.

Rillo looked past him at the entrance to Union Cave, then back at him, then back to the cave's entrance again. She nodded hesitantly, looking at her trainer with more than a hint of fear in her eyes. Cutter rubbed the underside of her chin where her blue fur met her yellow wool, eliciting a pleased "maa" from his the Mareep. As he scratched her, he noticed that a small patch of the wool was starting to fall out. He rubbed the spot where the wool was missing and hid the worry from his face. He didn't need his most fearful pokemon to have a reason for any more distress than she already did.

xx

From the moment the light that trickled in from the entrance faded into darkness, Cutter could tell that Union Cave was going to be a pain in the ass to traverse. He and Rillo walked along slowly, and with every step Cutter used his foot to test the ground in front of them before putting any weight on it, for fear that they would step into one of the many rivers or ponds that Union Cave was home to.

Every now and then sparks would dance along Rillo's yellow wool, giving him a quick glimpse of her, but that was a rare occurrence. For the most part they were immersed in darkness.

Occasionally there was the sound of a pokemon, almost always a Zubat or Sandshrew, or the far off trickling of a stream, but generally it was silent. Cutter debated on whether or not to bring out Silver for protection. On one hand, he would be at home in this cave and the rocky environment would be to his advantage in battle. On the other he would be almost completely blind. He wasn't completely sure but he didn't think Silver could swim, and he didn't want to risk his starter's safety unless it was absolutely necessary. Then again, maybe he should work on improving Silver's vision in darkness. A wild Larvitar would have the advantage of seeing in the dark, an advantage that could certainly come in handy, especially once Silver fully evolved into Tyranitar and was partially a dark type. Ultimately Cutter decided against it, at least for the time being. His starter's safety was of utmost importance. He already had to worry about watching out for Rillo. The last thing he needed was the safety of two pokemon to worry about.

His thoughts switched over to Bellow. She could use swift, which would, however momentarily, light up the path in front of them. The downside to that was that it would probably disrupt the local pokemon's peace and he wanted to avoid that if at all possible. So, Cutter and Rillo walked on.

After about an hour of painstakingly slow travel, Cutter's foot touched water instead of solid ground. "Rillo, stop." He heard her stop next to him. "There's water. I don't know how far it goes." Silence. Cutter decided to try again, "Could you use flash? I have sunglasses specifically for flash, so you won't blind me again." There was silence for a while longer.

Damn. I need to be able to see. This is going to be a long trip.

xx

Ordinarily trekking through Union Cave only took a day, max. But in Cutter and his team's case, it took them three. It was slow going. The first day dragged on, but it dragged on without event and Cutter supposed that was a decent enough tradeoff. The most eventful thing that happened was when Cutter saw a Zubat fly by when he released Bellow and returned Rillo. Even then, it was headed in the opposite direction. As much as Cutter enjoyed the peace of the cave, he secretly longed for something to happen. Nothing terrible, just something that would require him to think on his feet and just go for it. He got his wish on the second day.

Shortly after Cutter returned Silver and Bellow after lunch on their second day in the cave, he heard a high pitched squeal off to his left. He turned, startled, and reached for Rillo, his first thought to protect her. For a second he thought it was her that had caused the noise, but he realized that her cry was deeper than that of the squeal they had heard. His arm was around her and he could feel her trembling body as he picked her up and cradled her in his arms, ignoring the slight static shocks that this brought.

He gulped down his fear. He had to be strong for the scared Mareep in his arms. Cutter had to show her that he could be brave. Hopefully this would help her realize that she too could be brave. As he began to walk towards where he thought the sound came from, another scream came from off to his right, and he felt Rillo tense up in his arms. Then a cacophony of screams began and all hell broke loose.

They were dive-bombed by what he figured were Zubat. Luckily for them, the Zubat weren't using their teeth in the attack and instead were just divebombing him. It still hurt, though, and his main priority was protecting the pokemon cradled in his arms. Cutter struggled to pull Silver and Rillo's pokeballs out of their pocket on his vest, but Rillo's bulk was preventing much arm movement. He tried to set her down, but she refused, and it was too loud for him to explain why. So he decided to run.

Running wasn't much better than standing, but it was something. At least he thought it was before he felt his foot catch on a rock and he fell. As he fell he twisted around so that his back hit the ground first, protecting Rillo. She bleated when they hit the ground, but ultimately she was unharmed. Cutter was fine as well, just winded.

As it turned out, running did almost nothing. He had barely made it ten feet and the Zubat were quicker in the air than Cutter was on the ground. They continued their bombardment on the defenseless Cutter and Rillo. Cutter struggled to turn over to protect the terrified electric pokemon in his arms, but before he could do anything else to help her, she lit up with a flash of bright white light, rolling out of his arms. For the briefest of moments Cutter hoped that she was evolving, but he realized that she was using flash, blinding him again.

With her out of his arms he reached into his vest pocket and pulled out Silver's pokeball. He thought about returning Rillo, but due to her sudden spike in bravery he decided against it. He didn't want to discourage it.

Silver appeared in the cave, the flash of his pokeball drowned out by the light emanating from Rillo. "Lar?" Silver shielded his eyes, blinded as well by the flash.

"Sandstorm. You don't need to be able to see. Just sandstorm. No rocks. Rillo is out," Cutter wheezed, still trying to catch his breath from the fall. Without a reply, Silver started up a sandstorm and soon it took up the area around them. Cutter blindly felt around for Rillo, trying to protect her from the sands that were whipping mercilessly around them. It only took him a second to find her and pull her close into his body, protecting her as much as possible.

After almost a minute, Cutter called Silver off. For a moment Cutter stayed tense, fearing the Zubat would resume their attack, but there was nothing, save the sound of running water somewhere off to their right. When Cutter was sure they were safe, he collapsed onto the ground, letting go of Rillo. Both Silver and Rillo rushed to him, Rillo still glowing slightly, giving the area around them an artificial yellow tint. Rillo gingerly licked her trainer's forehead with a rough tongue while Silver checked out Cutter's arms and legs which were raw and tender from the sandstorm. His hands and face had been protected from the worst of it with Rillo's wool. Luckily Cutter had endured this before from all the times that he had slept with Silver when he was young, so while the tender skin still stung, it didn't bother him like it used to.

"Thanks you two. I don't know what I would have done without you." He turned to the newly-brave Mareep. "Rillo, you were so brave. That flash was incredible! And Silver, I'm lucky your sandstorm is so powerful." He saw both of his pokemon grin in the fading glow of Rillo's flash. He reached out and rubbed Silver behind his horn and Rillo at the top of her wool, eliciting a pleased rumble and bleat from them respectively.

xx

The three of them walked on for a while before he decided to release Bellow as well and the four of them went on together. Silver walked next to his trainer, Bellow sat on his shoulders and Rillo walked ahead, keeping up a dim version of the flash, illuminating the cave around them.

Every so often Rillo would turn back around to check on her trainer, and she never wandered more than a few feet from her trainer. At first Cutter thought it was out of fear of the Zubat in the cave, but as it went on he realized that she was being protective of him. It seemed that the event with the Zubat wasn't just a stint of bravery. Cutter could only hope that it lasted.

xx

That night Rillo slept out of her pokeball, not two feet from her trainer. The gravity of that didn't escape Cutter, and he realized that her using flash and saving him had done something for her. It seemed that she was getting braver.

The next day passed quickly and before they realized it, they had reached the exit for Union Cave. Silver had had to ward off a couple of rogue Sandshrew they had stumbled across, but other than that the rest of the trip was uneventful. Cutter had briefly considered catching one of them, but decided against it. He had his hands full with the team he had. He didn't need to add another member quite yet, and he wanted each of his current pokemon to feel as if they were getting enough individual attention and training. As time went on and he got more pokemon, that wouldn't be nearly as plausible, but for now it was and he didn't want to waste that.

xx

During the rest of the trek Rillo's bravery had held strong. She never used an attack other than the dim flash, but she wasn't nearly as skittish as she had been. She had a long way to go, but Cutter couldn't help but smile at how far one event had helped her come.

As Cutter and Bellow stepped out of the cave's entrance and back into the open air, they were greeted with a downpour of rain. Cutter had been so excited to get out of the cave that he had completely ignored the fact that the sun wasn't shining.

They hurriedly scuttled back into the mouth of the cave, standing there staring out at the rain falling onto the grass in front of them. Bellow shook herself dry and hissed at the water threateningly, and Cutter realized that he had forgotten how much she hated water. He chuckled lightly as she looked up at him, gesturing at his vest. "You want to be returned?" She answered with a nod and she disappeared into the pokeball. Cutter sent out Rillo. He figured she could get some extra electricity from the storm.

Cutter sat down, back against the cave wall, gazing out absentmindedly at the rain. He knew they were still two or three days from Azalea, and it was nearing night anyways. As much as he didn't want to, it wouldn't hurt to stay one more night in the cave.

He released Silver to sit with him while Rillo played in the rain. He wanted to go play with her, but she was a natural lightning rod, or so it seemed, and he really didn't want to die. Not then at least. He still had a Silver Conference to win. So, he just sat there with his starter. They started out in silence. After a while, they began to play a game. Cutter would toss up a rock and then Silver would attempt to snipe it using a small pebble. It started out simple, but after a while Cutter was tossing up multiple rocks in different directions and Silver was getting good at it. Cutter knew it seemed silly, but it helped a lot with Silver's reaction time and accuracy. Even when playing games Cutter was trying to train.

Most Tyranitar were beasts, all brute strength and pure endurance and willpower, but Cutter wanted more for Silver's future. He wanted Silver to have the strength and endurance that most Tyranitar had, but he wanted Silver to be smart and able to think and react on his feet. He didn't want Silver charging into every challenge head on. He needed him to be able to be innovative like other Tyranitar and similar pokemon weren't able to be.

Cutter smiled to himself as Silver hit his most recent targets—four medium rocks tossed up at the same time and low to the ground. Silver smiled and looked at his trainer expectantly. "Let's take a break, okay? It's getting close to dinner, don't you think?" Silver rumbled in agreement and Cutter called Rillo back over to them while releasing Bellow.

An hour later they were all full off of a dinner of peanut butter and honey for Cutter and Bellow, rocks for Silver, and grass for Rillo. They were lounging lazily in the mouth of the cave, the rain still pouring heavily just feet away. Occasionally Bellow would swipe at the water that dripped in from the lip of the top of the cave's entrance and then hiss at it, but for the most part everything was peaceful.

Cutter startled awake sometime later, not even aware that he had been drifting off. He had been dreaming about the swirling black mass and bright white light from the vision again. It seemed that Cutter couldn't sleep without that vision invading his subconscious. The dream was just as confusing as always. He couldn't see anything more than the swirling black and bright white. As of late the dream was silent as well, so he couldn't even try and tell anything from the humming that had previously overwhelmed him in the dream.

Cutter looked over and Rillo was curled up next to him, asleep. With each breath, her small body rose and sparks danced on her thick wool coat. Sprawled out on his lap was Bellow, drool hanging from her open mouth, the crescent moon on her forehead dim but still glowing nonetheless. He kept telling himself to look into that, but he kept forgetting. He made a mental note to ask the nurse at the Pokemon Center in Azalea about that, along with Rillo's wool falling out. Until then, he could check the Pokedex, he realized. He didn't know why he hadn't thought of that before, and he mentally smacked himself for just now thinking of it. Across from him Silver sat, leaned against the wall, eyes wide open and reflecting the pale, rainy moonlight that crept into the cave.

"Silver." His starter's head turned towards him, clearly startled. He hadn't noticed that Cutter had awoken. Silver got up from his spot on the wall and came and sat next to his trainer, being sure to avoid Cutter's already scabbing arms. "Why haven't you slept yet?" Silver looked away from him and back out at the rain. Things were silent for a moment.

"Larvi." Silver looked back up at Cutter, eyes wide. Cutter couldn't help but smile at him. "I know you care about me and want to protect me. And I'm so thankful for that. But you won't be able to battle properly if you aren't well rested. You're the strongest on the team, and I'm going to need you for this next gym battle." Silver replied with a nod of his head, and Cutter leaned his forehead down, Silver pressing back with his horn. For a second, they were connected—trainer and starter. Then they both pulled back and Cutter offered Silver a smile, which the Larvitar returned.

Silver got up to walk back to the other side of the cave but Cutter wasn't having it. "Stay. Let's all sleep right here together. As a team." Silver hesitated and his eyes flitted from his trainer's face to his hurt arms and back again. The glance wasn't missed by Cutter. "I'll be okay. I promise. This is nothing." Silver nodded and settled back down, nestling into Cutter's side. They both drifted off to sleep with smiles on their faces.

When Cutter awoke the next time, it was day and the sun was peeking hesitantly through the clouds. The rain had stopped, but the clouds made it apparent that the storm could pick up at any moment. He looked around and saw his team waking up as well. Silver had clearly been up for some time, and Rillo was stretching next to him. Bellow was sitting on his lap, looking up at him with a huge grin on her face. She leapt at him and he wrapped her up in a hug. "It's good to see you too girl. How'd you sleep?" She answered him with a lick to the face. He laughed and hugged her tighter before letting her go.

He stood up and stretched, his body complaining with soreness from the hard bed and irregular way he had been situated while he slept. He and his team ate a quick breakfast before heading out of the cave and into the cool morning air. Cutter soaked in the coolness, realizing that this storm brought what would likely be some of the last cool weather before the summer heat. Summers in Johto were hot. They weren't nearly as bad as the summers in Hoenn but Cutter had never been to Hoenn, so he didn't care too much about their weather. In all, the weather in Johto was very temperate. Sure, it got colder up north near Mahogany and was warmer in the south, specifically the southwest where the beaches were, but all in all Johto, along with Kanto and Unova, were very temperate regions. Alola and Hoenn were, for the most part, very warm. Kalos tended to lean towards the cooler side, while Sinnoh was just downright cold, especially in the north. Cutter had heard horror stories of blizzards and Abomasnow attacks, and he couldn't imagine being a new trainer in that region. Especially since they had the training age at fifteen. In Cutter's humble and expert opinion, that was entirely too young.

Bellow sat on Cutter's shoulders as they walked. She hated water, even if it was just puddles on the ground. He tried to get her to walk several times but she heartily refused. Silver and Rillo walked on either side of him. Rillo still seemed to be wary of him, but ever since the Zubat incident she didn't seem to be scared of him, which Cutter saw as another huge stepping stone.

They battled several trainers along the way that first day. At first it was hard because in some capacity none of his pokemon really wanted to battle. Bellow hated water and, until Cutter bribed her with some Oran berries, outright refused to battle. Cutter knew that she could be a little prissy, but he hadn't realized that she was this much of a diva. Silver was weak to water, and even the puddles on the battlefield still caused him to be wary. And Rillo was still too scared to actually battle. She had come a long way, but she hadn't come that far. Not yet at least.

But still they prevailed. They didn't lose any of the three battles they had after lunch. Silver and Bellow both stayed away from the water while battling and Rillo was learning just from watching, or so Cutter hoped. Cutter really wanted to work on Silver's water weakness. He had done some research into helping to eliminate type weaknesses, but there was no surefire way to go about it. In some capacity, Silver would always be weak to water, but there were ways that he could reduce that weakness. The easiest way was to teach Silver harden and get him to use harden, especially outside of battle, and then soak him with water while he was still using harden. Then from harden Silver would learn iron defense, which was essentially just a stronger and more protective form of harden. Cutter hated the idea of hurting his pokemon on purpose, but he could bring the idea up to Silver and let him decide for himself. The second option was much simpler. Just feed him Passho berries. Passho berries were a lot like Babiri and Chople berries, but instead of building up fighting or steel resistance, it built up water resistance. The only problem was that Cutter had no idea how to get his hands on any Passho berries.

The next day passed much the same as the first day. Then so did the third day, until the late afternoon at least. Cutter was only a couple hours from Azalea when he happened across the trainer that had trounced Terrance on their way to New Bark Town.

"Hey kid." Cutter turned around and saw him, the same smug smile he had on his face when they had met the first time widened into a grin when he recognized Cutter. "You're that kid that wouldn't battle me before. When I stomped that other kid a while back."

"What do you want?" Cutter asked, irritated already by the older trainer.

"I just want to battle. Is that too much to ask? You don't have to get so snappy with me." He feigned the look of a kicked Growlithe and Cutter just groaned. "I tried to be nice. Let's battle."

"Fine, fine." Cutter raised his arms in defeat. "One on one?"

"Sounds good to me kid." The older trainer calling him kid was starting to grate on his nerves.

"Cutter."

"What?"

"My name. It's Cutter. And I'm eighteen, so I'm not a kid." Cutter clenched his fists, the other boy wearing on his nerves.

"Mm. I see. And I'm Logan, a name you should remember, but until you prove yourself worthy as a trainer to me, I don't give a Rattata's ass what your name is. Kid." The way that Logan had put emphasis on "kid" really grated on Cutter's nerves. There was a bout of silence before he spoke again, a smirk cropping up on his face. "I like you, so I won't use Bones. I'll give you a fighting chance. This is one of my newest pokemon." He winked at Cutter and tossed out a pokeball, a small pale green pokemon with a dark green magnolia leaf sprouting out from the top of its head. Chikorita. "This here is Gracie. Isn't she the cutest little thing you ever did see?" he cooed at the grass type, the baby voice he put on looking comical in contrast to his punk look.

"Bellow, you're up." Bellow released from the pokeball and appeared in between Gracie and Cutter.

"I'll get this started. Razor leaf." The sweetness he had shown toward his Chikorita was gone, replaced by a fierceness Cutter recognized from his short time battling.

"Swift." The razor-sharp leaves met the glowing stars with a small explosion, but Cutter didn't waste any time. "Quick swift," Cutter called out, his voice low enough so that hopefully only Bellow could hear him. She blurred into a quick attack, zigzagging around the Chikorita, firing swifts at random at the Leaf pokemon.

"Multivine on the ground." At least ten vines sprung out from the necklace of buds around Chikorita's neck and began to slap at the ground, creating a cloud of dust around Gracie. "Blow it." Chikorita spun her vines, effectively making a gust. The sand began to blow out in all directions from Chikorita, effectively coating most of the field in a sand attack, limiting Bellow's sight.

Just as Cutter opened his mouth to call out a command, he heard a yelp that undoubtedly came from Bellow. "Finish this. Slam him." Cutter saw nothing for a moment. Then he saw two vines holding a struggling Bellow rise up from the cloud of dust.

Cutter's face remained steely but his insides were going wild. He was panicking, not even because he was about to lose to this jerk of a trainer, but because the battle had gone on for less than a minute. But why did he care so much? Logan had clearly been a trainer for a considerably longer time than Cutter, so it shouldn't bother him if he lost. But something in him was striving for this trainer's approval. He realized that he didn't even really want to win for the sake of winning. He just wanted Logan to think he was a good trainer. Why did he want to win his approval so badly? Cutter pushed these thoughts out of his mind and focused on the battle. A battle he was clearly losing. "Baby tears!" Cutter cried out in a last-ditch effort to turn the tide of this battle. He didn't even know if the Leaf pokemon could see Bellow through the small makeshift sandstorm, but he had to try something.

Bellow started crying with her big, black eyes staring down at her opponent below. For a moment, there was nothing but the sound of Bellow's wailing, but then Logan decided he had had enough. "Gracie, slam him!" The Chikorita's leaf twitched slightly, but that was the only acknowledgement that Logan got from his pokemon. Slowly the Chikorita began to lower Bellow to the ground. Without Cutter's instruction, Bellow fired a large flurry of swifts at her opponent, causing a small dust cloud to stir up. Cutter sighed in relief. The baby tears tactic had paid off, but the battle wasn't over yet.

Bellow sprinted back to their side of the makeshift battlefield. Out of the dust flew a razor leaf attack, the leaves coming in too fast for even Bellow to get out of the way. Bellow wasn't the only one hurt by the attack, though. This was an outdoor battle in the middle of nowhere and there was no psychic barrier to protect the trainers. One of the leaves had gone astray and Cutter barely had time to turn his head to the side before the leaf grazed his cheek, tearing a huge gash on his face. And then the blood started to flow, and there was a lot of it.

Cutter pressed his hand to his face, and the blood he saw on his hand dropped him to his knees. He still hadn't registered any pain, but Cutter had just never been one for blood, and his own was certainly no exception. He just sat there, hand pressed against his face, not knowing what to do. Bellow ran over to him with eyes wide in alarm. She was covered in her own share of gashes, though none of hers as bad as his. Pokemon were more resilient that way. Even though she had taken the razor leaf attack more head on and more directly than Cutter had, she still had only taken minimal damage, and no blood was shed.

Both Cutter and Bellow missed the look of alarm cross Logan's face before he returned Gracie and sprinted over to them. "Dammit, kid. Let's go. We've gotta get this cleaned up. He hurriedly pulled a rag out of his backpack and pressed it against Cutter's face, telling him "hold this there." Cutter made no move to do as the older trainer said, so Logan took Cutter's hand himself and moved it up to his face himself. "Now, have you ever teleported before?" Cutter didn't respond. "Didn't think so. This is going to be… interesting." Logan released a Mr. Mime and grabbed on to both the Mr. Mime and Cutter. "Azalea Hospital, Reef." The only response the Mr. Mime, Reef, gave was by teleporting them into the lobby of Azalea Hospital. Logan released Cutter's arm and was gone again without even a flash of light or a pop from the Mr. Mime's teleporting. The fact that there was no telltale sign or evidence of the teleportation showed just how well trained the Mr. Mime was.

The receptionist squealed at the sight of the suddenly appearing and disappearing boy, but then quickly regained her composure upon seeing Cutter's bloody face. She called something out but Cutter didn't hear her. He felt a pair of large hands grab him and he thought he heard a voice talking to him, but he couldn't make out any individual words.

xx

Three hours and sixteen stitches later Cutter was walking alone out of the hospital, all his pokemon in their pokeballs. He had been told by the doctor he was lucky. The razor leaf had hit his cheekbone. Had it been an inch higher it would have taken out his right eye. The doctor wanted him to stay overnight, just in case of complications from the hit so close to the eye, but Cutter insisted upon leaving. He would still be in Azalea, so should anything happen he could easily and quickly make his way back to the hospital. He had had to promise the doctor that he wouldn't leave Azalea Town's city limits until at least twenty-four hours later, but that promise had gotten him the doctor's approval for release.

He supposed that he should be grateful he still had his eye, but the only emotion that he could muster was embarrassment. He was a good trainer with a badge and three pokemon. He should have a better reaction time or something at this point, right? He should have been able to dodge the attack.

All the training his pokemon were doing would help him as well, Cutter realized. As he walked he thought about his approach to battling. It was very head on, and he didn't worry much about dodging. Cutter relied on his pokemon to take hits and then go in for attacks of their own. That wouldn't work forever. His team had yet to come across a talented trainer or a good pokemon with a type advantage, but realistically, at this point in his pokemon's lives at least, one super-effective attack could, and would, put them down for the count. If that had been Silver against that Chikorita then he would have fainted from the razor leaf, if not sooner. Plus, Bellow wasn't built to take hits. She was smaller than most of her species. Her true power lied in speed and evasiveness, not bulk. Their next training session would have to include evasive techniques. That also meant that Cutter had to learn up on some evasive techniques.

Before Cutter even realized it, he was in front of the Azalea Town Gym. The Gym Leader, oddly enough named Bugsy, was a bug type specialist. Cutter had heard people joke about whether he trained bug pokemon because his name was Bugsy, or if the name Bugsy was more of a nickname that came about because of his immense love for bug pokemon. Bugsy's signature pokemon, a Scizor, wouldn't be used against Cutter. Scizor, once a Scyther, was his starter pokemon and much too strong to be used against a trainer with only one badge and no evolved pokemon. Cutter knew that even though the gym leader wouldn't be using his Scizor, Bugsy would still give him a run for his money.

Cutter remembered stories that his father told of Bugsy from back in his day. They were both boys of the same age from Azalea Town, so for a while they journeyed together. They both started with bug types, Bugsy a Scyther and Cutter's father a Ledyba. Ledyba tended to be looked down upon as not only the weakest bug pokemon but one of the weakest pokemon that there is. Cutter's father proved everyone wrong by advancing to the finals of the Silver Conference when he was fourteen with a team that had a Ledian as its star pokemon.

Cutter turned away from the gym and began walking towards the Pokemon Center, his face set in a determined smile. He would win his second gym badge within the next couple of days and nothing could stop him.

The rest of that day was spent at one of the battle plots inside Azalea's Pokemon Center where he would be staying for the next several days. Cutter released his pokemon and had them do some simple exercises with their moves. He planned on challenging the gym soon and wanted his pokemon to be in tip-top shape. That night was a little heavier duty, but the next day would be just light exercises.

At first he had Rillo just work on some cardio and flash exercises. Bellow worked on improving her quick attack speed and endurance with the attack along with the accuracy of swift on the move. For Silver, Cutter had him focus on the strength and size of sandstorm—making it large and encompassing and then bringing it down and making it incredibly strong yet small in a compact ball of swirling sands. For about an hour they worked on these things. Then they got a short break before moving on to some light sparring.

Cutter explained to his pokemon that their next exercise would have Silver and Bellow sparring in the dark, depending on senses other than sight for this fight. This went back to when the old man from the forest, Ray, had his Cacnea attack Silver and Bellow when they were focusing on other things, but it also was about fine tuning their senses. Some trainers would use moves like sand attack, blinding the pokemon, or double team, making it hard to tell which pokemon was the real one. Cutter wanted his team to be able to tell which pokemon were which based on sound and smell and feel—all of which were much more reliable than sight. Neither of them were allowed to use any actual attacks though, only wrestling and boxing, of a sort.

For the next hour, it was total darkness, except for the occasional flash Cutter had Rillo use to throw Silver and Bellow off balance. Once they were done, it was apparent that Silver had ultimately come out victorious. It was what Cutter had expected, after all. Silver could use his connection to the ground to always tell where Bellow was. Plus, his natural rock typing made it hard for any of Bellow's punches to make an impact. Without the use of metal claw, Bellow was hard pressed to even hurt Silver. Silver didn't come out completely unscathed, though. Bellow was quick, making it hard for Silver to always get hits off, so by the time they were finished they were both panting and tired.

Once their training was done for the night it was time to eat and for bed. Cutter wanted everyone to be well rested for the adventure that the next day held in store. His parents had made him promise to always take a break from training while in a new town and Cutter had a few ideas for what he wanted to do in Azalea Town.

Cutter rolled over sleepy eyed and still tired and checked the time on his Pokedex. 7:45 a.m. Somehow his pokemon had let him sleep in, even if only a little bit. Cutter laughed inwardly at himself, finding it almost hilarious that he now considered 7:45 a late time to be waking up.

Once the team was ready to go, they headed out of the pokemon center and out of Azalea Town, full off of a breakfast buffet that the Center provided complimentarily. They headed east towards what was known as Slowpoke's Well. Both his mother and father had recommended visiting the well. Even if the wild pokemon there weren't overly rare or strong, there was an occasional trainer and the connection that the well held to the Rocket Revival was something that needed to be seen with his own eyes, his parents had told him.

It only took an hour to get to the well, and once he was there he returned his pokemon. None of them would be able to climb the ladder down into the well with him. He stepped up to the giant well and looked down into its gaping mouth. There was a rickety ladder connected to the side opposite Cutter and the well seemed to go down forever. How this passed any kind of safety laws, he had no idea.

Cutter walked around to the other side of the well and swallowed down his fear of heights as he swung his legs over the side of the well and began the descent to the bottom. As he climbed, it was eerily silent, with only the occasional drip of water or screech of a Zubat. It didn't seem that there were any other people down there.

Several minutes later and Cutter's feet touched solid ground once more and he released a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. He released his three pokemon and looked around the large cave. The only light source was the sunlight shining in through the well's mouth, so Rillo used flash and illuminated everything around them. The cave was considerably larger than Cutter had initially thought. It wasn't full of tunnels like Mt. Moon, but instead it was just one cavernous room. Even Rillo's bright flash couldn't illuminate all the way across the giant underground chamber.

They made their way forward into the cave, making sure to stay away from the stagnant pond off to their left. All over the walls, Cutter noticed, were large faded red "R's". Rocket, they stood for. Cutter remembered the story that his parents had told him about this place. It was shortly after Cutter's father had left on his journey that Slowpoke Well had been discovered to be hosting an illegal underground, literally, Rocket Operation. The Rockets had been using Slowpoke's Well as a hideout, as well as a source of Slowpoke tails, a nutritious and tasty, yet very illegal, treat.

During that time Slowpoke were an endangered species in Johto so catching them was strictly prohibited. It was especially terrible when it was found out that Rocket was capturing Slowpoke, cutting off their tails, and then setting them free, back into the wild mutilated and in pain. Not only that, but then the Slowpoke couldn't evolve naturally. Without a tail to fish for Shellder with, they had no means to an evolution until their tail regrew, but that could take upwards of six months.

Soon after the Rocket Operation was found out, it was shut down. Bugsy's father, the old Azalea Gym Leader and bug type expert, led an assault against the Rockets with an old trainer named Kurt.

Cutter wasn't recalling all of this from memory, of course. There was a plaque in front of the wall that held host to the majority of the "R's" that gave him most of this information.

Cutter and his team made their way through the cavern, Rillo's bright yellow light casting an eerie glow on everything around them. Large outcroppings of rock cast large shadows and every Zubat that flew by had an even larger shadow accompanying it. But still no wild pokemon bothered them.

They explored for the next couple of hours, making sure to never wander too far from the cave's entrance. He didn't want to get lost and die in Slowpoke's Well before he even truly got into his journey.

Out of all of his pokemon, Silver certainly enjoyed the cave the most. The small Larvitar was uncharacteristically happy and "talkative". Silver's usual calm and poised demeanor was lost in the cave, joking about and playing with his fellow teammates. As Cutter sat on a small boulder watching his pokemon play he couldn't help but smile. Even though they only had one badge, they would be strong. He already had a diverse team and he could tell that each of these three pokemon would grow to be immensely powerful in their own right.

Later that night, following a short training session on a battle plot back at the Pokemon Center, they settled into the room with to-go plates from the cafeteria. They ate and laughed together, Cutter talking about their fun and relaxing Slowpoke's Well adventure. Then, without even climbing into bed, the four of them fell asleep in a pile on the floor, Cutter laid on his stomach, arms under his head. Silver was leaned against Cutter's side; Bellow was lying on his back and Rillo was fast asleep between Cutter's legs.

The next morning Cutter awoke to the sun pouring in through the window and his pokemon still asleep around him. He tried to stand without disturbing them but found that it was impossible, so he just laid there for as long as he could and tried to entertain himself by thinking about the battle he would be having in just a short while. That lasted for all of fifteen seconds and then he got bored. He gingerly removed himself from the pile of pokemon, waking both Silver and Bellow in the process. Cutter stepped over the still-sleeping Rillo and grabbed his Pokedex, checking the time.

NOON? Holy hell. How did we sleep so late? Gotta go gotta go gotta go. Cutter began to internally freak out, not sure how he had managed to sleep that long. They had turned in early that night and regardless his pokemon usually woke him. He wanted to be done with the battle by about eleven a.m., but that certainly wouldn't be happening.

Cutter gently roused Rillo. Once he was sure all of his pokemon were awake he brushed his teeth and they were out the door.

They ate a quick, light breakfast, or really lunch, before heading to the same indoor battle plot they had used the night before. Cutter had the whole team, himself included, jogging around for a while before he split them up to work on individual techniques for a short while.

Thirty minutes later and Cutter was out into the Azalea Town streets, in front of the gym, his pokemon returned. The gym seemed much larger today than it did yesterday, and Cutter noticed that the nerves he felt from his first gym battle were back again. This time however, it seemed that they were more subdued than before. He smiled softly to himself and pushed open the glass double doors, letting himself in.

"Welcome to Azalea Gym, bug type gym. Are you here to challenge the Leader?" Cutter looked behind the desk to see a young man, around twenty, clicking away at the computer, completely disinterested in the new challenger.

"Yes. I am. Here's my Pokedex." Cutter slid the small red device across the counter. The man registered it and slid it back across the desk.

"Go in the doors to my left, Bugsy will be in there waiting." And that was it. The boy, whose nametag read "Ken", never even glanced up at him. Cutter just shrugged it off and went into the room Ken had told him to. The room was huge, although nothing compared to the cavern they had been in yesterday, and either side of it was taken up by massive stands. Those, Cutter supposed, were for when people with six or seven badges came in and the general public wanted to come in and see a good battle. For now, no one would be coming to watch, and unless they were family or very close friends, no one was allowed to. Once you got more than four badges, you had to schedule your battle at least a day in advance. That way the gym could advertise for the battle in case anyone wanted to come and watch. The reason for this, Cutter's father had told him, was so trainers with less than four badges could get used to battling strong trainers without the added stress of a crowd. But once you got more than four badges you were well on your way to the Silver Conference, where there would be hundreds of thousands of people watching. It was all about the League looking out for the trainers.

The battle plot was ankle high grass and sporadic flowers scattered about. In the left corner closest to where a man, who Cutter assumed to be Bugsy, stood was a giant tree that stretched up nearly to the roof. Around the room there were smaller trees and flowers.

"So you're old Carey's son, huh? I remember your father quite well. He was quite the battler," Bugsy said with a hearty chuckle. The two of them met halfway on the battlefield and shook hands, Bugsy's giant hand encompassing his own. Bugsy was a lot taller and more muscular than Cutter had expected. The pictures Cutter had seen had been from nearly thirty years back, but back then Bugsy had been quite small. "But, you're here for a battle. We can talk about your father later, huh?"

"Yes we can. I'm here to battle," Cutter said with a confidence he almost felt.

"That's what I like to hear. Greg over there will be the referee. It'll be a two-on-two battle. I can make no substitutions, but you can make one whenever one of my pokemon faints. How does that sound?" Bugsy let out another hearty laugh, putting Cutter more at ease.

"Perfect," Cutter smiled.

"Well good luck." They shook hands once more and made their way back to their respective sides.

"I'll release first. This one is in honor of your father." Bugsy tossed out a pokeball, releasing a Ledyba, Cutter's father's starter. Cutter just smiled and responded by throwing out a pokeball of his own, releasing Bellow onto the field. He had debated on whether or not to start with Bellow, but he decided that he needed Silver to be in tip-top shape for whatever Bugsy's second pokemon would be.

"Begin!" Greg yelled out, swinging the two flags up into the air.

"Ledyba, swift!" While Falkner had been calm and collected, it seemed that Bugsy got very involved in the battle. Even though only one attack had been called, Cutter could already tell by the way Bugsy swung his arms around while calling out the attack that they were two very different gym leaders.

"Swift back." The attacks met and resulted in a brilliant explosion of yellow and white, but neither Cutter nor Bugsy wasted time watching the spectacle.

"Quick attack," they two trainers called out simultaneously. Both the Ledyba and Bellow blurred into a nearly invisible quick attack, but Cutter didn't plan on leaving the footing even. "Feint attack." At her trainer's command, the blur of tan that was Bellow turned a deep black and disappeared. An instant later it reappeared to the right of the Ledyba, slamming into it, executing a perfectly timed feint attack.

"Nice, boy. You certainly are Carey's child. Ledyba, quick attack again."

Cutter waited for the Ledyba to get close enough before yelling out Bellow's next move, "Baby Tears!" Bellow's eyes grew wide and sad and she began to wail, halting the Ledyba in its tracks mere feet from where Bellow stood. "Now quick attack into scratch!" The quick attack might have been overkill with how close the two pokemon were to each other, but Cutter knew better than to underestimate Bugsy.

In a blur of claws and tan fur Bellow slammed into dazed Ledyba. With its guard down from Baby Tears, Ledyba didn't stand a chance and was promptly returned back to its pokeball.

"Nice one. Too bad Carey couldn't be here to see you battle. Let's see how you handle my next pokemon. Ledyba was just a warmup." Bugsy tossed a pokeball onto the field, and in a flash of white a bipedal green pokemon appeared. With wicked sharp scythes instead of arms and four buzzing wings on its back, Scyther was not a pokemon to be taken lightly. Even from all the way across the field Cutter could see the blades glint in the artificial light of the gym.

"Bellow, stay back. Try and fight from distance." Bellow nodded in response and readied herself.

"Sam, use quick attack and slash." Sam sped into a quick attack that made Bellow look slow, even when she was at full speed. She wasn't going to be able to run from the Scyther.

"Swift!" Cutter cried out, realizing the danger. A flurry of swifts were fired from Bellow's maw, but the insanely fast Sam just leapt over them and slammed into Bellow, slashing at her with his scythe-like arms. Bellow never stood a chance.

Sam flew back to his trainer's side of the field and Bellow disappeared in a flash of red light. Cutter put her pokeball back into his vest pocket, pulling out Silver's in turn. He grimaced, angry that Bellow had been taken down so easily. He had been up one, with Bellow taking no damage in her first fight, but now they were even. It was up to Silver now.

"Sandstorm!" A sandstorm whipped up and encompassed the battlefield, straining the psychic barriers that kept battles restricted to the field. Even though Cutter and Bugsy were even in number of pokemon left able to battle and he had a type advantage, he knew better than to underestimate his opponent. Silver's training on detecting even the most minute movement on the earth would hardly help against Sam unless the Scyther landed. Being able to sense the earth didn't help if the opponent never touched the earth. This would be tougher than Cutter had hoped. "Rock tomb around the arena. Don't worry about trying to hit Scyther. Just make them as large as you can."

Cutter knew that Silver couldn't keep up the sandstorm forever. The sandstorm, in the long run, would end up hurting him more than it would the Scyther. Sam would continually take minor damage from the sandstorm but it would just tire Silver out even more. "Compact it!" Suddenly the sandstorm fell from covering the whole field into a dense, swirling bubble of sand, branching out ten feet in any direction from where Silver stood in the center.

Now that Cutter's sight was no longer inhibited by the blinding sands he could see that Silver had succeeded in creating the rock tombs. At least ten, ten foot tall spires of rock were sporadically jutting up from the battle plot. Scyther would have trouble building speed and flying straight, Cutter smiled to himself. Across the arena Bugsy's reaction was quite opposite his own. Whereas Cutter was smiling, Bugsy's face was hard, his mouth set into a line.

"Sam, get in close to it. Fly into the sandstorm."

"Wait for it, then launch as many rock throws as you can." Cutter's entire body tensed as Scyther buzzed above the rock tombs and sped towards the Larvitar. "Now!" Several rock throws flew from the compact sandstorm. The Scyther had to slow its assault towards Silver to dodge the flurry of rocks being launched at it. Silver was accurate with his rocks, but Scyther was quick. Bugsy's next command of "agility!" only served to increase Scyther's speed.

Cutter scowled and racked his brain. He could have Silver create more rock tombs, but Scyther could easily fly over those. His best bet was to let Scyther get in close and then hit it hard. "Drop the sandstorm, stay on guard!"

"Sam's father is my starter Scizor, so that's where this move came from! Metal claw, Sam!"

Cutter waited until the last possible second, which didn't take long considering how fast Sam was, to call out "mega punch!" Silver swung at Scyther with a mega punch, but the Scyther feinted to the side and slammed his metallic blade into Silver, sending him flying into a nearby spire of rock. For a moment Silver just laid there and Cutter was afraid that he wasn't going to get back up and that the battle was finished. Silver stirred, pushing himself to his feet, and Cutter breathed a sigh of relief.

"Your Larvitar's got spunk kid, but that won't stop this next metal claw from knocking it out!" Sam sped into a quick attack, readying another metal claw, this time one that would end the battle.

"Rock throw! Each side!" Silver barely had any time to prepare a rock throw before Sam was on him, slashing away. A cloud of dust had enveloped the two brawling pokemon but once it settled it appeared that the tide of the battle had turned. Silver had gotten the rocks ready and by pure, dumb luck, the Scyther had gotten its blade-like arms stuck in the rocks.

"Sam, get out of there!" The Scyther turned to flee, but the dense rocks hanging from its blade-like arms were hindering its movement.

"Rock throw!" Cutter yelled. Silver formed a large ball of rock and launched himself forward, slamming the rock throw into the back of the slowed Scyther, who unsuccessfully tried to feint out of the way. Sam was down and he didn't get back up.

"Scyther is unable to battle! Bugsy is out of any useable pokemon, so Cutter wins!" The announcer's words were like music to Cutter's ears.

"Silver! We did it!" Cutter ran to Silver on the battlefield, making sure to avoid the giant spires of rock that littered the battlefield.

"Larvitar." The small rock pokemon nuzzled his head into the chest of his trainer and growled tiredly.

"You must be tired, huh? Let's get you back to the Pokemon Center, okay? Good job buddy." Silver disappeared in a flash of red light and Cutter tucked Silver's pokeball back into his vest pocket.

"Excellent battle today. That was impressive, using the rocks to hinder Sam like that. You're definitely your father's kid. He'd be proud." Bugsy clapped one hand on Cutter's shoulder and with the other held out a small metal badge—red and black, looking like the back of a Ledyba, it glinted in the bright lights of the room. "Get some rest kid. The gym leaders only get harder from here. But come back by here before you leave Azalea. I want to talk to you."

"You got it!" Cutter turned away and headed out of the gyms battle room into the main lobby where Ken was sitting behind the desk, still in the exact same position as when Cutter had been in there before. As he walked he pulled out his badge case from his backpack and placed the Hive Badge next to the Zephyr Badge. Cutter couldn't help feeling some pride at the win. His pokemon had worked hard, and Bugsy himself had told him that his father would be proud. His father was a great trainer so that was a great compliment! As Cutter headed out of the gym and back towards the Pokemon Center, he couldn't help but smile to himself, practically giddy over the win. One fourth of the way there. I'm one fourth of my way to the Silver Conference.

xx

Hey guys! Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter out. Classes have been insane and I just haven't had as much time to write as I would have liked. If you have any ideas or thoughts about my story feel free to let me know!