Chapter 4

The Bug Badge

After the excitement of catching her new pikachu, Shauna was practically asleep on her feet by the time they got to the Pokemon Centre. She barely got her team healed up before her head hit the pillow and she was snoozing away.

Avaline was tired too, but couldn't get to sleep as easily; the time difference was still affecting her somewhat. Despite that, she felt that she was starting to settle in, even though she'd not really had any time to properly "settle" at all. Nobody had sneered at her accent and she felt like Shauna and Calem were going to be great friends. Shauna was especially easy to get along with and always upbeat and positive. Calem seemed more reserved, but he was very knowledgeable and willing to share.

It was still fairly light outside, even though dusk was obviously approaching. Avaline sighed. She was never going to get to sleep at this rate. She might as well get started on researching mega evolution, even though she probably wouldn't find more than Professor Sycamore's assistants had shared with them. Still, it would give her something to do, and she might actually look knowledgeable when they eventually met the world-famous professor. Maybe.

Mega evolution must have been a relatively niche topic itself because her search criteria didn't turn up that many results to begin with. Like Dexio and Sina had said, most of what they "knew" was rumours and legends. There was one account from maybe a hundred years ago, which someone had written down in a diary. It seemed quite detailed, covering three pages in stilted, old-fashioned dialogue with cramped handwriting. For some reason, the website it was on seemed to have had a lot of posts removed, because none of the links seemed to work, and the only context was: 'from Frederic DuBois's journal, vol. 3'. Still, Avaline supposed it would give her something to do if she printed them off and tried her hand at translating them herself. She probably needed to work on reading Kalosian anyway.

When she had the printouts in her hands, she sighed, wondering what to do next. Calem's first thought had been that the gyarados was a previously unknown form. Maybe there would be people who had similar thoughts, who had seen a mega evolved pokemon without realising? She tried searching for 'pokemon transformation' and 'pokemon new forms'. A lot of it was just junk, or pokemon their trainers had dressed up, or photo edited stuff... but there was one photo of a lucario, buried way back in the search results, that caught her eye. The photo looked like it had been taken on a bus or car; the shot was a bit blurred and the lucario was some distance away from the camera.

Avaline tried looking on the website it was on for more information, but it was just somebody's holiday snaps on a blog that hadn't been updated in five years. All it said was 'Look at this awesome lucario I saw in Kalos!' She sighed. Detective work was hard. Still, she printed off that picture too in the best quality she could manage, and wrote the address of the blog on the back so she would be able to find it again.

Avaline's eyelids were starting to grow heavy. It was later than she'd meant to stay up and it seemed like she hadn't made much progress at all. Yawning and feeling disappointed, she went up to bed.

The next morning Avaline was woken by the sound of a loud bang. She sat upright in bed, but there was only Shauna looking sheepish. "Sorry! I knocked the clock off and it broke. Doyou think the nurses will be mad?"

Avaline's laughter was swallowed up by her yawn. "Thing looks like it came out of the dark ages," she said. "They were probably due a new one."

She found it impossible to get back to sleep, though, and after twenty minutes she gave up and started for the communal showers. They were pretty gross. Maybe she should get a pair of shower shoes? Ugh, little things kept popping into her head. And she'd wanted to go Santalune's fashion boutique today!

The day got worse. The lovely dress she'd worn yesterday was definitely in need of a wash, so she put it to one side with a sigh and braced herself to face her mother's fashion choices. She found a pair of her old skinny jeans, still in good shape, which she thought was a good compromise on her mother's part.

Then she pulled out the shirt.

"I don't know what she was thinking!" she ranted to Calem and Shauna over breakfast. "I mean honestly, I've got plenty of plain black shirts and that would've been fine, but no, she has to put the green one in there. How does she expect me to wear that with this hat? And the bag! She could see that whilst she was putting the shirt in."

They were staring at her a little wide eyed.

Avaline bit into a piece of toast mutinously. She knew that not everyone cared about fashion as much as she did, but it was important to feel good about yourself. Clashing colours like this surely couldn't make anyone feel good about themselves.

"I've got two of this t-shirt, so I just packed both," Shauna said.

"I wish I'd thought of that," Avaline said. "I've got another dress like that in reverse colours at home."

"You could just get a plain black t-shirt," Calem offered tentatively. "Black goes with pretty much anything. Right?"

She was feeling a bit better now they weren't looking at her so strange. "Yeah. I can always keep this one as a bed shirt, I guess."

"Maybe you should get a jacket too?" he said. "Or at least an umbrella, just in case. Even Shauna remembered to bring one of those."

Avaline couldn't help giggling at Shauna's indignant 'hey!', although she wondered if Calem wasn't being over-cautious. "Isn't it summer?"

"It still rains in summer," Calem said. Avaline remembered, belatedly, her mother's love of thunderstorms, and felt silly for thinking a Kalosian summer would be just like the ones in Johto. "We've been having unusually hot weather, but still. Anyway, there are some places in Kalos that stay cold all year round."

"Dendemille Town in the mountains is nearly always covered by snow!" Shauna added. "My daddy grew up there. We visit Auntie Alice once a year and brr, it's freezing! They have some really awesome pokemon up there in Frost Cavern, though, so you'd probably want to go."

Johto was pretty temperate, and didn't have very changeable weather, except the odd (but predictable) storm. Avaline sighed. The climate here seemed to be doing a number on her hair, too. "Okay, I'll look into it. It might have to wait until after I win at the Gym, though, I don't have that much cash."

"Have you thought of what you're going to do if you don't beat the Gym?" Avaline blinked at him. He held up his hands placatingly. "It can be harder than you expect, and we have to meet up with the professor later in the week, so we can't just stay until everyone beats Viola."

It was a sensible thought. Avaline still felt a little stung by the implication that she might not be able to beat the Gym in a week. "It's only the first Gym, it can't be that hard?" It came out more uncertain than she had meant. Maybe she really was being overconfident? Calem must know a lot more about training than she did… Well, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to have to try again. "So, I assume you're going to have a go at the Gym, too?"

Calem nodded. "But I want train up my pidgey first. Since she'll be the main pokemon I use to take on the gym, she really has to be good."

Avaline tried not to pout. Sure, Calem could get a pidgey. The ones in Johto used to love her! "I have quite a lot of pokemon, so I think I'll be okay. I might take my zigzagoon out to see how it does."

He blinked. "How many pokemon did you catch in the end?"

"Six. I'm planning to pass some of them on the nurses, though." She was already quite attached to Queenie and had read in the pokedex that zigzagoon were excellent at finding lost or hidden items, but she didn't really feel able to handle more than four pokemon and the moment, having just started out. Even four was probably pushing it.

"Pass them on?" Shauna asked.

"Yes, if you don't want to keep a pokemon, the nurses in the pokemon centre can forward it to someone to help with research, or to a charity, or..." A horrible thought suddenly occurred to Avaline. She turned to Calem. "They do do those sorts of things in Kalos, right?"

"Don't worry, they do," he said reassuringly, as Shauna said 'oh yeah!'. "Anyway, I'm going to head out to the forest for the day. I might be back a bit late. Good luck with the Gym if I don't see you, Avaline!"

Avaline smiled and waved goodbye. Maybe Calem did think she was being overconfident, but he seemed sincere enough about wishing her the best, anyway. "You too!"

Still, Gym battle or no, there were more important things for Avaline to take care of first.

"Shauna, did you have any plans? Want to come shopping with me?"

"I'd love to!" Shauna said brightly.

Avaline felt better after changing shirts. There had even been a special offer on, so she was able to buy one short-sleeved and one long-sleeved shirt, which would mean she didn't have to do laundry quite so often. She also picked up an umbrella in case it did rain. It was fairly cheap, so she would probably have to replace it at some point, but it folded up small enough to keep in her bag. Some of the hats were gorgeous and there was a black-and-white cap which would've made her green t-shirt nearly wearable. Sadly, Avaline and her pokemon still needed to eat. She would have stayed longer, just trying on hats for fun, but Shauna got bored of shopping and asked if they could do something else.

Shauna wasn't interested in challenging the gym, but she did want to spend some more time with her pikachu and scatterbug. They decided to go out onto the short route between the forest and the city, where there would probably be some trainers for Avaline to fight, but Shauna could play with her pokemon in the sunshine. Avaline thought it might be a good opportunity to get to know her new zigzagoon. She'd read on the pokedex that the species was generally quite active, but she must have gotten a strange one because he seemed to just want to snooze.

The zigzagoon did turn out to be good in a fight… when he could be bothered. Avaline won most of her trainer battles with some help from Queenie and Senshi, but couldn't bring herself to have a proper pokemon fight with the tiny preschoolers, so she suggested a pokemon race instead. They found it hilarious when Sunny, the newly named zigzagoon, wouldn't even move from the starting line. Apparently a race isn't worth the effort, Avaline thought ruefully. It was a little exasperating, but it reminded her of the way Appa used to behave when it was raining and he didn't want to go outside. She hid her smiles as best she could when telling Sunny off, although, judging by his yawn, Avaline didn't think it had sunk in.

There was one trainer who seemed to only have six freshly-caught caterpie. It turned out to be more of a spectacle than Avaline expected. Sunny begged out halfway through the battle to nap, so Queenie ended up defeating the last three caterpie by herself and afterwards, to Avaline's surprise, Queenie evolved into a kakuna. Their opponent wasn't even mad, congratulating Avaline as he handed over the prize money.

"No way! You got to evolve a pokemon first!" Shauna said, clapping her hands together excitedly. "Bug types are supposed to evolve really fast, but it's still cool…"

Avaline decided that was probably going to be the highlight of the day. Plus, Sunny didn't seem to want to move anymore.

She and Shauna found a quiet little cafe where trainers could eat with their pokemon. It was probably a clever ploy to sell more food, because Senshi, Marie and Sunny all demanded their tidbits and Avaline had to order another sandwich. She was lucky that Queenie didn't need to eat anything in her kakuna stage or she'd go broke very quickly. Still, she managed to get Sunny hyped for the Gym battle by promising to get him some cake if they won.

That was as good a preparation as any, Avaline thought. Tomorrow, she'd try the Gym.

Avaline wasn't sure what she was expecting when she entered the Gym, but it wasn't a photographer's studio.

She wondered for a moment if she was in the wrong building. But no, the outside had been grandly built, with the official symbol of the Kalos League plastered over the doors. She must be in the right place... still, she'd never heard of a Gym pulling double duty as a studio before. If you were a Gym Leader, surely you could afford to rent a proper space for a studio?

The assistant at the door waved her over cheerfully. "I'm guessing you're here to challenge Viola to a Gym battle?" he said casually. "It's just downstairs, the Gym entrance is over there. Viola is a bug type specialist so be on your guard! Best of luck, trainer."

Avaline smiled and nodded her thanks, although she'd already known this was a bug type gym. She walked over to where the man had indicated, expecting to see a set of stairs, but instead found herself looking at a fireman's pole.

She looked back at the assistant, wondering if she'd somehow misinterpreted or gotten lost. But no, he just gave her a reassuring smile and two thumbs up. Avaline looked back at the pole dubiously.

Kalos was so weird.

Thankfully, the little Gym puzzle was something she was more familiar with from Johto. Viola had constructed a bunch of walkways, suspended over a safety net. There were ropes to hold on to as you crossed from platform to platform, but Avaline still had to be careful about her balance. It didn't help that there were also a few Gym Trainers waiting on some of the wooden platforms to jump out and distract you with a battle.

Still, she made it through and used some potions to heal up Marie and Senshi before the main battle with Viola, who was waiting on a much larger platform overlooking the whole room. Avaline had been careful to save Sunny for the main battle, partially because it would be good to have at least one pokemon completely fresh, and partially because she wasn't sure if even the lure of chocolate cake could get him to put that much effort in.

Avaline tried to look more confident than she felt as she walked up to Leader Viola's platform. Maybe she was rushing into things too fast? Being overconfident, like Calem implied? She only really had one more pokemon than he did, and she hadn't been raised by two famous trainers - by a former Gym Leader, in fact! Now wasn't really the best time to be doubting herself, but she struggled to push the thoughts out of her head.

She was standing right in front of the steps to the platform. Viola was looking at her directly - expectantly, it seemed to Avaline. She took a deep breath and started up the steps.

There was a click and a bright flash.

Avaline tried to rapidly blink the afterimages away as Viola laughed and lowered her camera. "Sorry, sorry! But I just love to see the expression on trainer's face when they step up onto that platform. It's your first Gym battle! The nerves, the excitement! Are you good enough? Are your pokemon good enough? Do you shy away from the challenge, or do you face it head on? You can tell a lot about a trainer from their expression at that moment."

Well, Leader Viola was obviously very passionate about her photography, in a way that was kind of awe inspiring. Except that pretty much the last thing that Avaline wanted to hear at this point was grand speeches about a trainer's future. Half the reason she was even challenging the Gym was to get the cash for a pair of shoe skates. What did that say about her as a trainer?

But then Viola surprised her. She put the camera away very carefully, and pulled out her first pokeball with a huge grin on her face.

"This is going to be great," she said. "I can tell."

Avaline was taken aback, and just nodded as firmly as she could manage. She couldn't get distracted now. She had to focus on the battle. She took another deep breath to calm herself.

Her hands were still shaking, though.

Avaline busied herself releasing Queenie from her pokeball. Then she remembered that this was an official Gym battle, and this could be misconstrued. "Um, she isn't going to take part, but is it okay if she watches…?"

"Of course! That's a lovely idea!" Viola nodded, waving to Queenie. "Bug pokemon in their cocoon stages need lots of stimulation."

Even though Queenie couldn't say anything, Avaline felt better to have her there. It reminded her of Queenie perched on her shoulder in Santalune Forest, showing her the way. Like a good luck charm.

Avaline took another deep breath. Hopefully she wouldn't need Queenie's luck.

Who shall I lead with? It was important to make a good all-round choice, because whilst she had some idea of what pokemon Viola would use purely based off the fact that she was only the first Gym Leader and specialised in bug types, that still covered quite a lot of potential pokemon and strategy.

After a moment, she selected Sunny's pokeball. Senshi was her strongest pokemon, so whilst she could lead with him and hope to overpower Viola really quickly, if Viola then produced something unexpected she wouldn't have Senshi to fall back on. Also, Avaline was pretty sure she was wise to that strategy given that she battled so many new trainers and, well... it wasn't the most sophisticated battle plan in the world.

"Ready?" Viola said. Avaline nodded, and they released their pokemon together.

Viola had chosen a surskit, which Avaline knew was a bug/water type. Senshi wouldn't have been a great choice then, as he likely wouldn't have been able to do much damage, and the whole "overpower quickly" idea would have fallen apart before it even began.

Did she do that on purpose, as a test? ...This platform was raised slightly higher than the others, after all. Viola would have been able to see her battle the Gym Trainers. Well, they did say that a Gym battle was meant to be a test of your worthiness as a trainer as well as your mere battle skills.

Maybe a hint of her thoughts showed on her face or maybe she was just taking too long, because Viola smiled at her encouragingly.

Avaline didn't know much about surskit apart from its typing, but it looked fast and agile. Her best bet was to make powerful attacks, but without overtiring Sunny. A difficult thing, considering that it was Sunny.

"Keep your guard up," she eventually said to Sunny. His fur bristled as though to say, 'Yeah, I knew that already.'

"Not going to make the first move?" Viola said. "If you insist. Use bubble!"

The surskit obediently let off a stream of bubbles, which made Sunny flinch and back away. Pokemon attacks at this level always hurt more than they looked like they should. Avaline winced in sympathy. "Get out of the way, Sunny!"

He made a mad dash for open ground. The unusual zig-zagging movement of his species actually came in handy, because when Viola's surskit tried to turn to follow him, still releasing bubbles, it made it difficult to aim. But Avaline saw that that wasn't going to work for them forever. The surskit obviously liked to attack foes from a distance and wear them down, and was probably very well trained, to be able to keep up that bubble attack for some time. It would have to let up at some point, but that might only be a narrow window to attack.

So the best method was to get up close, fast, even if that meant taking more attacks.

"Sunny, tackle it!"

Sunny barked at her, and for a heart-stopping moment Avaline worried he would ignore her - but no, after his display of 'I'm not sure about this', he put his head down and charged in the surskit's direction.

Of course, he would be running headfirst into the stream of bubbles, but it was imperative that he didn't let it slow him down. "You can do it! Keep going!"

"Move!" Viola spat quickly, but the surskit didn't move quickly enough, and Sunny's keen eyes noticed the movement and followed it. It wasn't as big a blow as Avaline had hoped for but it did send the surskit tumbling. It curled its legs up tightly around it and let itself half-roll, half-bounce away.

"We need to recover, fast!" Viola said, at the same time that Avaline was telling Sunny to make a follow up attack.

The surskit was so light that it actually went quite a distance and didn't even stop until Sunny was nearly upon it. It let out a high pitched squeal as Sunny didn't so much tackle it as leap on it.

Viola facepalmed. "Okay, that's enough. You gave it your best shot."

Sunny helped the little surskit stand up before it was recalled into its pokeball.

After a moment's thought, Avaline asked Sunny to come back, too; they'd ended the battle quickly but also in the way that would cause the most damage. She thought he would be able to take on Viola's next pokemon when it was weak, but only if it was absolutely necessary.

Sunny rubbed up against her leg before he let himself go back into his pokeball. Avaline thought it was a sort of apology for doubting her tactics, but maybe that was wishful thinking. She felt like she was glowing inside.

Viola picked up her second - and last - pokeball. Avaline's choices were Marie or Senshi. Perhaps if the surskit was a more 'offensive' type, Viola's last pokemon would be more of a 'defensive' type? It wasn't much to go on, but she decided to choose Marie. The fletchling's type advantage would hopefully be able to overcome Viola's defences, and shouldn't be a bad pick even if she had judged wrong.

As it was, Avaline thought she'd made a lucky choice when she saw Viola's vivillon, after a moment of being dazzled by it beautiful purple wings. She'd completely forgotten in the heat of the moment that many evolved bug types could fly. It would have been really tough for Senshi to face a flying pokemon, and even tougher for Sunny after his battle with the surskit.

Marie was the best choice she could have made, but just from looking at the vivillon, Avaline could tell that it was a much better flier than her fletchling. Marie probably couldn't stand up to very many powerful attacks, either. The best bet then was probably to be aggressive, do as much damage as possible and hope Senshi could fight it at a less significant disadvantage.

Avaline tried not to feel bad at the thought of damaging those beautiful wings; pokemon were hardy creatures and it wouldn't be permanent.

Viola might have been expecting her to sit back again, because she had opened her mouth to say something and looked astonished when Avaline abruptly called out, "Marie, fly up and peck it!"

Marie must have sensed the urgency in her voice because she took off at top speed. She was a bit overeager and didn't actually manage to peck the vivillon, instead flying straight into it. The vivillon fluttered away woozily, though, so Avaline considered it a win. "Try again!"

"Poison powder!" Viola called out to her vivillon.

The vivillon was still recovering and didn't seem to react straight away, but when Marie came at it with her beak Avaline saw that the vivillon's wings had taken on a slightly different texture and, sure enough, the poisonous spores caught on Marie's wings and body as she pecked at it. After taking a few pecks at Viola's pokemon Marie seemed to also realised what had happened, and started to look panicked.

"It's okay, ignore it for now! Keep attacking the vivillon!" Avaline called. She felt her gut twist to say it, but for the moment it would barely affect Marie, and this was their best chance of winning.

"Follow it up, Diva!" Viola called. Ah, so that must be the vivillon's nickname.

Diva had taken advantage of Marie's distraction to flutter away and it looked like it was preparing another kind of attack. Marie flew after it again.

Avaline wasn't sure exactly what happened; it wasn't an attack she had seen before. All she knew was that the vivillon tackled Marie with a sudden burst of speed and hit her with some kind of bug type attack that made Marie do a full body shudder. She dropped two feet before she regained control of herself, but it was obvious that the effort was costing her. Every muscle seemed to be trembling, and with the poisoning too... She won't be able to last much longer!

"You've done really great, Marie," Avaline said, trying to sound as firm and encouraging as possible even though she felt sick with nerves and adrenaline. "Just one more attack. Let's give Senshi the best chance we can! Go for its wings!"

The fletchling was already on the move, and she was just about able to angle herself slightly so that she tore part of Diva's wing near where it joined her body.

Avaline immediately ordered Marie to return after the attack. She very nearly dropped out of the sky and her landing was very uncoordinated. Avaline gathered Marie up in her arms. "You did so well," she whispered, hoping it would make her feel better. "Really, you should be very proud of yourself."

Marie gave a weak chirp and nuzzled her finger before returning to her pokeball. Avaline paused for a moment before she released Senshi. The vivillon was still in the air, but each flap of its wings seemed to be exhausting it.

We really might win this, Avaline thought suddenly. She forced herself to put it aside. The vivillon's combo of poison powder and... whatever the other attack had been... could weaken Senshi as quickly as Marie if she wasn't careful. The image of little Marie unable to even land properly made her chest feel tight. She'd be okay when they got back to the pokemon centre.

Luckily, she thought, as Senshi emerged from his pokeball, twitching with excitement, Senshi doesn't need to make physical contact to attack it.

"Senshi, it will try to weaken you with special moves, so do your best to avoid them and you'll win this for sure!" Avaline said, trying to project confidence.

Senshi bobbed his head to let her know he'd understood. The vivillon didn't give her chance to say anything else; it fluttered over weakly, trailing its poisonous powder.

Avaline had a sudden idea. "Use your special bubbles! It'll help prevent your skin from absorbing the powder!"

Thank goodness she was reading pokedex entries religiously, or she never even would have known about the coat of bubbles that froakie used to protect themselves. It seemed to work; the poison particles passed over Senshi but Avaline saw most of them stick to the outer layer of bubbles. He would absorb less than Marie had so it would take more time for it to affect him badly.

Viola seemed to have noticed this too. She was chewing her lip thoughtfully, but Avaline didn't want to give her an opportunity to come up with another strategy. "Senshi, use water pulse! Try to knock it out of the air!"

Senshi sent out a blast of water at the vivillon. Water pulse was a slightly different attack to water gun, in that the latter normally aimed to cause damage by knocking the opponent into something and there wasn't much actual water type energy behind it. Froakie couldn't use water gun because the way they produced water didn't let them eject it with enough power. But with the vivillon this weakened, even water pulse should be enough to knock it out of the air.

Senshi seemed disappointed when Diva dodged his attack, but Avaline knew that quick dodges would be difficult when the vivillon was so tired. "That's okay, Senshi, keep it up. Keep Diva under pressure!"

Despite Avaline's thoughts, Diva kept out of Senshi's range for longer than she'd predicted. But Senshi wasn't letting up very much with his attacks, so she had no space to recover and prepare a counter attack.

One of Senshi's water pulses suddenly found their mark; the water soaked the vivillon's wings and even beating them fiercely, she started to sink to the ground with her antennae drooping.

"That's absolutely it! No more," Viola said. There was a slight snarl to her tone which startled Avaline. She hadn't been paying much attention to the Gym Leader at all, but now she saw her tense stance and clenched fists.

Avaline's stomach seemed to drop out from underneath her. But then she saw the vivillon as it fluttered to the ground, making small noises of protest and doing its best to get into the air again, and realised Viola wasn't talking to her at all. Diva... still wants to fight?

Viola's stern expression could have been carved from granite. After a moment, Diva gave up arguing and consented - Avaline thought kind of sullenly - to return to her pokeball. Viola visibly relaxed and offered Avaline a tired smile. "Sorry about that. Diva just never knows when to quit! She's too stubborn for her own good, that one."

Senshi let out a loud croak and bobbed his head. Avaline knelt down to gently pat him. "You did it, Senshi! And on our very first try, too." Her stomach finally felt like it had returned to its rightful position, but she didn't know what to say. Viola's argument with Diva had lessened the impact of the moment, but… they still won.

She didn't really know what to do with that thought. We won.

The froakie nudged the Avaline's bag, sniffing around until he found a pokeball.

It was actually one of her empty ones, but she understood what he meant. "Ah, we can celebrate with them later, Senshi. They need to be healed up at the Centre and to rest. As do you!" She wagged her finger at him so he would get the message. Avaline wasn't sure if she ever wanted to see any of her pokemon fight on when they were as exhausted as Diva. "Hopefully next time we'll do better…"

"What are you talking about? You did amazingly!" Viola said.

Avaline jumped. She'd nearly forgotten Viola was there.

"I knew this was going to be a great battle; I could see on your face, the way you steeled yourself..." She laughed gently at Avaline's scowl. "I'm totally going to break that photo out at the big party when you become Champion, just so you know."

Avaline was taken aback. "What?"

She'd thought about doing some of the Gyms for cash and so Senshi could really test himself. It had never occurred to her to even think about challenging Kalos' Elite Four. Senshi seemed excited by the idea, jumping up and down to get her attention and then putting his webbed hands on her leg. He seemed to be trying to make his eyes look even bigger than normal. It wasn't quite as effective on a froakie as it had been on Sunny the zigzagoon. Besides, Avaline didn't want to encourage him at something that might still be beyond them. She settled for patting him again.

Viola didn't seem to notice how shocked she was, and continued casually, "Yup! You already have a good grasp of strategy and risk management. You even reacted really well to a completely unknown move! It's called Infestation, by the way. Diva and I have been working on it for a while."

So she had created a new move by herself? Even for a Gym Leader that was... impressive.

"Oh! I know." Viola turned to rummage through a bag off to the side. Avaline had assumed it was all camera stuff, but Viola pulled out a shiny disc. "Why don't I give you a copy? We just got the TM approved. Think of it as an early present for when your kakuna evolves." She winked.

"Oh… thanks," Avaline said awkwardly.

Senshi seemed to know who it was for, because he raced up to Viola, opening and closing his mouth. Viola correctly interpreted this as asking her to give it to him, and then Senshi hopped over to Queenie, dropping it in front of her and letting out a loud croak. When Queenie didn't reply, he looked at Avaline in confusion.

She remembered that he hadn't seen much of Queenie in her cocoon stage, yet. "Ah, she can't learn it yet, Senshi. Queenie is still… getting ready to evolve?"

He seemed to accept this, and brought the TM over to Avaline's bag, instead.

Viola was smiling. "What a thoughtful pokemon! No wonder you did so well. You have a great team behind you, too." That, at least, was something Avaline could agree with wholeheartedly. "Before I forget, here's the Bug Badge and the prize money you were here for in the first place."

Avaline wasn't sure what to do with all of Viola's praise, or the way that she casually threw out that she expected her to become Champion. But she was very sure about what she was going to do with the prize money, and tried not to look to greedy when she smiled at Viola as she handed it over.

Finally, I'm going to get me some of those cool skates!

...And some pokemon food and other necessities. She really had to drop off the caterpie and bunnelby with the pokemon centre before she went broke trying to feed six pokemon.

Current team:
Froakie (M) - Senshi
Fletchling (F) - Marie
Zigzagoon (M) - Sunny
Kakuna (F) - Queenie

A/N: Longer chapter than normal! I thought about moving the early stuff to the previous chapter, but it just felt tacked on. And the first detailed pokemon battle! I found that writing pokemon battles was not my favourite part of the story, so there aren't as many as I initially had planned. But I tried to give decent screen time to the ones I felt were important, and the first Gym battle is pretty important. Hope you enjoyed it!