3

The second day since Emerald/Wally arrived at the Battle Frontier.

'Hey, Emerald, where are you? It's already too late.' Todd, a reporter and friend of Emerald/Wally, muttered himself as he rushed to the room the green haired trainer had stayed.

Soon after the defeat of Lucy, the Pike Queen, Emerald/Wally collapsed immediately at the battlefield, and had to be carried to the dormitory. Todd, as a friend of the trainer, had of course done the voluntary job.

Now it seemed like 9pm and 9am made no difference to Todd, the scene in front of him was almost exactly the same as what he had seen last night, the only difference was the brightness.

Quickly, he woke up the still unconscious trainer.

'Wh…what?' said the still sleepy trainer. 'What? It's 9am in the morning now!' shouted the impatient reporter. '9…9?' Emerald/Wally shouted in shock, then got of the bag as fast as he could with a grab for his bag.

'Battle Factory.' The two looked up at the large building in front of them. 'You're finally here.' Noland, the Factory Head, welcomed the green haired trainer and his friend with a little dissatisfied tone as they walked into the building.

'Sorry I'm late' Emerald/Wally apologized. 'Well you don't really have to say that' the Factory Head replied with a slight change in his tone 'you still look tired with all your sleep.' 'No I'm fine, thank you.' Todd, concerning his friend, whispered to him 'you actually look tired, your eyes are very much resembled to the one of a Zigzagoon.' 'Really?' the green haired trainer blushed 'anyway I'm ready for the challenge. This time I'll choose…' 'You don't need to choose your pokemon, or I should say they won't be needed here.' Noland interrupted.

'What do you mean? How can I battle without my pokemon?' Emerald/Wally asked in confusion.

'Trainers here, including me, can only use rental pokemon that are randomly chosen for you by the computer.' Noland informed the confused trainer.

'But how do I battle if I don't know my partners well?' 'That's why this facility requires knowledge of pokemon, the more you know about them, the more advantages you will have.' 'You should begin the challenge by now.'

Emerald/Wally stepped into a room to choose the rental pokemon he will be using, followed by Todd, he didn't want to miss the chance of recording the challenge this time.

'Professor Oak, are you sure this is going to be fine? This was the first time for Crystal to be mad towards her much respected professor as well as her employer.

'Worry not super serious gal, you must have faith in the professor.' Said Gold, attempting to mimic the professor's tone dramatically.

'I would have kicked you already if we're not in such serious situation, we're supposed to help the professor, not fooling around.' Said the enraged Crystal 'besides you still got an unfinished task aren't you? So please shut up and concentrate.'

'It has been two months. Still, nothing happened. I wonder if it only work for dull guys?' Gold wasn't so lucky this time, Crystal, as she couldn't withstand the annoying trainer anymore, kicked him in his face with no mercy.

'Maybe you two will like to go out for a walk?' professor Oak finally spoke, he wouldn't make statements like this usually without the presence of Gold.

'Sorry, professor, for disturbing your work.'

'You're needed incase there are obstacles in catching Jirachi.' The gray haired professor continued.'

'Maybe I can show my really cool skills to the new comers by then?'

'Shut up and get back to your work!' Crystal cried out loud as she kicked Gold again.

'Alright…'

Inside the Battle Factory, Emerald/Wally had had countless battles, with his team changing every time he ended a battle. Hours had passed since he started the challenge and eventually, he had started the battle with Noland after all these battles, and now both trainers had got only one pokemon left.

'Go Sceptile!' Emerald/Wally sent out the green lizard like pokemon. 'Walrein, your turn!' Noland sent out the enormous blue pokemon.

Walrein, a blue pokemon with wet skin, probably a water type pokemon. Thought the green haired trainer. 'Leaf blade!' Sceptile slashed with the razor sharp leaf on its arm. The massive blue pokemon wasn't fast enough to evade the strike, yet no observable damage had been done on the gaint sea lion like pokemon.

'Hail!' Noland commanded, Walrein blew a chilly storm, rock solid ice fell from the ceiling.

Maybe it's an ice type, Emerald/Wally shouted 'Iron tail!' Sceptile toughened its tail to steel hard level, and swung it towards its foe. Noland didn't even bother ecading the attack and let Walrein took the hit directly. Again, the damage done by the strike can barely been seen.

Noland then gave the command 'Blizzard!' Emerald/Wally, knowing the attack will be fatal to Sceptile, shouted 'Detect!' Sceptile, sensing a slight change in temperature, rapidly took a great leap and avoided the attack.'

'Why use detect when the move blizzard can be easily dodged.'

'The move blizzard cannot be evaded in a hail in regular conditions unless I use defensive moves, you must know it, right?' the green haired trainer replied the question.

'You know about pokemon quite well,' commented the Factory Head 'and in that case you must know that detect is not quite a reliable move when used continuously, right' Noland continued 'and therefore you must have a plan to defeat me before my next strike.'

'Yes sir,' Emerald/Wally replied 'with both leaf blade and iron tail failed to do effective damage, and judging by appearance, Walrein should be an ice and water type pokemon.' 'Correct' 'with Sceptile having been injured severally by the hail and the unavoidable blizzard coming up, you should believe that victory will be yours.' 'Then I shall see if your plan can work.'

'Bullet seed!' 'Blizzard!' the two trainers shouted almost at the same time.

A strong wind with probably 0 degree Celsius was blown from the massive blue sea lion like pokemon.

Knowing the attack couldn't be evaded this time, Sceptile stood firm, steel hard seeds appeared near its arm, it then waved its hand to arrange the seeds into a circular pattern, and fired.

The chilly storm about to end the battle was cut through by the seeds at high velocity, faded.

Shocked by the attack, Noland Couldn't react in time. Emerald/Wally on the other hand, didn't hesitated for even a millisecond 'Leaf blade!' His plan to succeed depends on agility, any delay in action will lead to his failure.

Fortunately Sceptile stuck well to the plan, commencing the attack just in the appropriate time, giving a critical hit to Walrein, and leading to the victory of Emerald/Wally.

'Impressive!' commented Noland 'I wonder how did you come up with the plan?'

'I'm just being lucky,' the green haired trainer replied 'I've faced similar situation before.' He said, then to Sceptile 'you've done well, it's not easy to follow the plan so tight.' Sceptile apparently was embarrassed by the statement 'the way you battle reminded me an old friend.' Said Emerald/Wally, with a little bit sadness in his eyes as he received the symbol of knowledge from Noland.

He walked away slowly, at the same time Sceptile caught up with him 'Seems like it like you.' Noland commented 'it has always been a cool one.'

'Ugh…thanks..' Emerald/Wally said as he rushed out of the facility.

'It seemed upset, maybe it wanted to come with you?' Todd commented 'I can't take away rental pokemon, and I'm just its temporary trainer anyway.' Emerald/Wally replied.

'Hello there,' thevoice came from Brandon, the Pyramid King, catching the attention of the two young men.

'You should come with me and begin the challenge of the Battle Pyramid.' Brandon demanded. 'No thank you, I think I should take some rest today…' Emerald/Wally's statement was interrupted by Brandon as he dragged the green haired trainer away violently.

"Stop that, what are you doing?' Emerald/Wally protested some time before the great pyramided shape appeared in his eyes.

'It's still early, you'd better start now.' Brandon said 'it may cost you a hole day.'

'But..' Emerald/Wally didn't even have the time to say a word as he was pushed onto the teleportation entrance pf the Battle Pyramid.

Inside the Battle Factory.

Noland, after being defeated by Emerald/Wally, was managing data collected from the Previous battle not long before he sensed a mysterious presence in his facility.

"He's a quite noisy thief.' Noland said to himself, taking pokeballs nearby as he turned around to investigate.

The unusual noise leaded him to a dark corner. Sounds like metal clicking, thought the Factory Head. Within seconds the sound changed, noticing that, Noland quickly dodged an assault from an unknown object.

With the only known fact being the object was made of metal, Noland struck back. 'Flamethrower!' he shouted as he sent out Houndoom, burst of flame struck its target and illuminated the surrounding as well as a side effect.

Blast of flame flew back right after Noland had got the image of his foe, knocking him unconscious.

'Faster than I expected.' An armored figure said as he walked away pleasantly.