Ellie arrived to her scheduled Gym match five minutes before she was suppose to. Her hands shook as she carefully rubbed the pokeballs on her belt to calm her. Eventually she was led to an Elevator that seemed to go up on forever, her ears even popped from the air pressure. She was then led to a huge arena on top of the building that was the gym. She had to keep bushing her bangs back in place as the wind moved them into her eyes. She knew that this was not the type of arena she would like to battle in, however it really wasn't her choice and she promised herself to get stronger. She had spent the last few days training so surely the match would turn out in her favor.

"Hello, my newest challenger! I'm Falkner, the Violet City Pokemon Gym Leader! I won't allow any insults to bird pokemon! Let's battle!" The blue haired boy said. They shook hands agreeing on a two-on-two battle. As accordance to League rules the gym leader would not be able to substitute his pokemon and Ellie silently agreed she wouldn't either. The ref called for the start and Ellie sent out Nila. Falkner sent out his Pidgey as Ellie suspected he would. The Pidgey hovered in the air waiting for it's command.

"Water Gun, Nila!" Ellie ordered.

"Use Gust to blow-" Falkner began to command but was soon cut off as it was too late.

"Nila, Rage!"

"Gust."

"Nila, stand your ground!" The commands were flung out neither lost on the pokemon in question. Nila used Rage and dug her appendages into the ground enduring the Gust but while the same taking damage.

"Use Tackle Pidgey!"

"Nila, stand your ground until the last second then rage," Ellie said. Falkner tried to get out of the trap but it was to late Pidgey already hit Nila. Nila unleashed all the built up anger and tackled the Pidgey to the ground causing a lot of damage.

"Finish it off with bite, Nila!" Ellie said, growing excited.

"Doge, Pidgey!" Falkner cried, but it was no good his Pidgey was still recovering from the pain of the Rage attack and was knocked out as soon as Nila's teeth made contact.

"Gym Leader Falkner's Pidgey is unable to battle," The ref called.

A few boos came out of no where and Ellie finally noticed that some student trainers had came out to watch. She stuck out her tongue at them and waited as Falkner released his Pidgeotto into the air.

"Nila, Water Gun try and get it's wings wet!" Ellie said.

"Dodge, then gust!" Falkner commanded. The Pidgeotto dodged the Water Gun and then made his way and hit Nila sending her flying a few feet back into Ellie. Ellie fell but held on to the water pokemon. This was enough to knock out the poor tiny pokemon who was tired from the hits she took early.

"Challenger's Totodile is unable to battle!" The ref called. A few cheers went out and Ellie sent out Ariana.

"Ariana! Thunder Wave!" Ellie called.

"Oh think you''re going to win now you have an Electric pokemon on the field? Well you're wrong! Bird Pokemon are better! Pidgeotto try to dodge!" Falkner cried from the other side of the field. Unfortunately for him the Thunder Wave hit the Pidgeotto and the Bird pokemon was forced to land on the ground.

"Sand-Attack Pidgeotto!"

"Flash, Ariana!" the two trainers ordered. Ariana was quicker and let out a bright white light which temporary blinded the flying pokemon.

"Take then a close range Thunder Shock to finish this off!" Ariana complied and let out a even stronger Thunder Shock which was enough to make the bird pokemon faint.

"Gym Leader Falkner's Pidgeotto is unable to battle, the Challenger wins!" The ref called much to the disappointment of Falkner's fans.

Ellie cautiously touched Ariana's fur to test it and when it was the familiar dull sensation she picked up and hugged the pokemon.

"Yes, we did it!" She said. Falkner walked over to Ellie and waited for this celebration to be over.

"For Pity's sake! I can't believe I lost with my dad's precious bird pokemon...but a defeat is a defeat. Take this official Pokemon League Badge. This one is the Zephyr Badge. There are Pokemon Gyms in cities and towns ahead. You should test your skills at these Gyms. As for your next move... I would suggest Azalea Town. I'm going to train harder to become the greatest Bird Keeper of all!" Falkner ranted.

Ellie returned Ariana to her pokeball and took the badge and prize money. Ellie examined at the shiny material of of the badge. She personally thought it looked really stupid but she didn't say anything and placed it in her Badge case which in turn disappeared in her traveling bag.

Ellie took the elevator back down and began to walked out just to be greeted by a familiar annoying voice.

"Ellie! I saw your battle! It was really cool and your Mareep is really adorable! Ooooo and your Totodile is so much stronger then it was~" Lyra ranted on. "Um yeah, cool. Say shouldn't you already be in Azalea you got your badge days ago," Ellie said, already feeling a headache coming on.

"Nah, I was waiting for you! Nurse Joy was really worried about you, I don't see why though all you did was train! What's so wrong with that anyway? Well, then I decided that we should travel together to Azalea. I don't want to go through Union Cave alone!" Lyra said.

"Ugh, really? I'm not leaving until tomorrow, my pokemon need to rest," Ellie replied, trying to get Lyra to ditch the idea of traveling together.

"Oh that's okay! I can wait until tomorrow!" Lyra said and plunged into pointless chatter. Ellie refrained from rolling her eyes at Lyra after all just a few days ago Lyra was mad at her. Now Lyra wanted to travel with her.

They walked back to this Pokecenter like this and then even as they waited for Nurse Joy to heal their pokemon. Even then Lyra didn't stop until Ellie finally got a word in and shut the door to her room, leaving Ellie alone by herself to figure out a plan. She figured if she got up early enough to leave then Lyra wouldn't be there to accompany her. She curled up with her pokemon in the small bed and soon drifted off to a deep sleep.

Author's note: Ok so I'm not the best at battle scenes! Sorry. Erm I think Lyra is only in the next couple of chapters and then there are only mentions of her throughout the rest of the story until the very end. However, I may not add her into the ending . I'm not really sure as I am considering different endings.

A new character is going to be introduced soon! Look forward to him! In Chapter 11.

Disclaimer: Just wanted to remind you that I do not own Pokemon.