"I can't believe this!" I run toward the gym, my excitement buzzing through me like a zap from a Pikachu.

"Guys we're here, we're here!"

Riolu and Ralts run ahead of me, Ralts is a ball of excitement just like me, Riolu keeps pace with her but he is more focused than she is.

"Our first gym battle." I feel myself bubbling up as we stop at the front doors. Ralts leaps into my arms and Riolu stands there with his arms crossed and his gaze set ahead.

"We're really doing it guys." I breathe the excitement simmering into focus as we approach the doors and push them open.

"That's not fair!" A boys voice echoes through the gym. "I was gonna win, you cheated!" He yelled as he stormed passed me, he stopped when he saw Ralts in my arms.

"What is she a baby?" He sneers clearly upset. Riolu growls at him, stepping forward.

"What's wrong with you?" He snaps at Riolu. He looks down at Riolu, The boy's hair is jet black and sits in a mess on his head. His eyes are this incredible lime green and they're even more striking again his tan skin.

"Hey." I finally intervene "you don't have to be so rude." I hate to admit it but the Jolteon jacket is so cool and the goggles on his head are just the right touch

"Maybe you should control your Pokémon better." He smirks at me and snaps his fingers, a red light streams out of his pocket and a Charmander emerges from the beam in goggles that look just like the like the ones on his trainers head.

"Char Char!" The little guy meets Riolu's eyes and notes the way he's looking at his trainer and narrows his eyes at Riolu, stepping forward, Riolu doesn't even flinch he smirks and Ralts hops down from my arms to stand by her friend.

"You have a Charmander." I exclaim excitedly.

"No duh." He rolls his eyes at me "tell me something I don't know and his name is Pepper."

I frown at him "you're just a rude kind of guy, aren't you?"

"Only to stupid people." He smirks.

"I am not stupid." I yell back "what's your name anyway?"

"Cole Saito, I'm from the Kanto region and I'm here to get all the badges and compete in the Pokémon league." His eyes light with a challenge "and after I win I'll be that much closer to becoming a mega evolution master."

"You'd better think twice because I'm here to win that competition."

"Yeah right." He scoffs "but I guess you can always dream."

A man steps out then and walks up to me "Are you the next challenger?"

"Yes I am." I hold my hand out for him "my name is Ori and I'm from the Kalos region, I'd like to challenge Valerie to a match to win her badge.

"Well good luck." Cole barks "she's a cheater."

"Maybe you're just not as good as you think you are." I shoot back. He scowls at me but doesn't say anything else.

"Please, right this way, Miss Ori." The man leads the way and Cole makes a kind of growly grunt to let out his frustration.

The gym is massive.

I've never really been in an official gym before, even Ralts seemed to share my awe.

"Isn't this amazing Riolu?" I ask

He growls glaring at everything around him.

"That jerk won't be bothering us again." I try to soothe him.

"Ri…u." He growls deeply he walks right beside Ralts and me.

"Welcome friends!" Valerie's voice is soft but it carries easily over the gym, she strides over to me and hugs me as if we're long lost friends.

"I am Valerie, leader of the Laverre city gym." She kneels down to look Ralts and Riolu in the eye. "Welcome… Ralts Ralts… RI Riuu." She smiles at them both, Ralts returns her smile but Riolu doesn't. He glares and I'm a little worried he's going to attack her or bite her or something but she seems to sense his sour mood because she offers him a friendly smile and steps away.

"Riolu doesn't like it in here." I note,

Valerie nods. "I want him to feel comfortable, will he do better outside?" She was all smiles and big gentle eyes. I looked to Riolu.

"You wanna go outside?" I ask him. He jerks his head in a nod. I turn back to Valerie "please, show us the way."

"Of course." She looks at Riolu "right this way."

Valerie leads us toward the side doors and out into a well manicured battle field. Riolu seemed better already. Valerie seemed to notice too because she left him alone and addressed me.

"You are here to win my badge, correct?" She asked in her delicate voice.

"I am." I bob my head

"We can get started right away if you'd like." She already has a poke ball in her hands.

"Oh yes, please." I clasp my hands together like a plea, she giggles and nods enthusiastically.

"As you wish." She throws a poke ball into the air "come on out Spritzee."

"Alright Ralts, lets se—"

"Riu." Riolu steps forward eyeing Spritzee like he was thinking of something.

"Ralts." Ralts shook her head and tried to step around him but he blocked her and shook his head.

"Ralts." She pouted at him but he glanced back, his voice dropping low.

"Riuu." He seemed to be pleading with her, whatever he said worked because she backed off, she stood by me and Riolu took his stand on the battle field.

"Riuuuu." His voice was more of a bark, like a challenge.

"Your Riolu is very protective of your Ralts." Valerie noted with a smile. Riolu flicked his nose and he stood taller, a smirk tainting his mouth.

"Ri Ri."

"Spray spray!" Spritzee shot back looking on at Riolu like she wanted to put him in his place. Well, we'd show her, we'd show everyone the kind of team we are.

"Your move." Valerie extends her arm to me.

"Alright, Riolu, you heard her." I'm so ready for this, I've waited so long for this. "Double team." Riolu moves so fast, I can't keep up with him as copies of himself fill the field getting closer and closer to Spritzee.

"Spritzee, dodge it." Valerie seems to know her command is useless, Riolu is too fast he collides with her and sends her into the ground.

"Good job, Riolu." Riolu leaps away, back in front of me.

"Your Riolu is fast." Valerie doesn't say it like a compliment, she says it like she knows better.

"He is." Riolu and I both watch her as her Spritzee gets back up and looks as mischievous and sly as her master.

"Spritzee, use trick room now." Blocks of transparent colors spread over the room, boxing our Pokémon in place,

"Huh… What's this?" I watch Riolu, he seems bothered. "Are you okay?" I call to him. He glances at me over his shoulder, his eyes shift to Ralts for just a second before they come back to me, he smirks and nods.

"Ri."

"Then lets do it." I call on the same confidence I had to have before, when we fought the Kalos kings. I believe in him. I trust him.

"You understand your Pokémon?" She asks curiously

"I'm starting to." I tell her. It was interesting. I could feel a difference everyday we were together.

"Is this your first gym battle?" Valerie asks.

"Yep."

She smiles "you're brave to pick my gym first."

"I wanted to start things off right." I tell her.

"Well, I wish you the best of luck." She smiles "but I'm afraid you don't have the experience to handle this battle."

"Maybe we can gain it, Riolu, double team." Riolu lowers and lunges forward but he staggers, he's moving slow.

"What the…" Riolu didn't seem surprised but he was annoyed.

"You'll find this battlefield a little more difficult to fight in." Valerie smiles in her knowing way. "Spritzee, moon blast." A bright light forms in front of Spritzee and it shoots out in an explosive beam throwing Riolu back into the transparent walls.

"Ralts!" Ralts exclaimed. We'd never actually seen Riolu get hit, not that hard, not so firmly.

"Riolu!" I call out as he slides down the wall to the ground.

"Ri…lu…" he pants getting to his feet.

"Are you okay?" I call back, if he can't win this one, I don't know what I'm gonna do, Ralts doesn't have enough experience and neither do I, Riolu is the one with all the experience, he's the one that keeps saving our hides.

"Riolu, do you want to keep going?" I ask him because this resets on his shoulders and we all know it.

"Ri." He barks determined.

"You can do this." I tell him because he can, I just am not so sure I can, anymore. Oh, Ash made this look so easy.

"Alright, Riolu." I straighten my back and stiffen my lip "agility followed with smash punch." It worked before maybe we'd have the same luck.

Riolu rushed forward as fast as he could but it was painfully slow, I could see the frustration burning behind his eyes but he dutifully obeyed my command.

"Again." I said when Spritzee easily dodged the move

"Again." I repeated. Riolu didn't doubt me for even a second, he pressed forward, again and again. Until the finally, the box disappears and suddenly Riolu rushes forward and this Spritzee head on.

"Yes!" I shout.

"Don't celebrate so soon." Valerie warns. I don't get it, not at first but when Riolu staggers and Spritzee's tackle knocks him over, he's worn out.

"Oh no… Ralts–"

"Ri Ri!" He shouts at me but I can see how tired he is, he can barely stand.

"Riolu, you're tired." I try to reason with him.

"Ri." He shakes his head. "Ri Ri RI!" He shouts, he wants me to give him a command.

"Riolu–"

"RI!" He shouts.

"Agility." I give in to him, he doesn't want Ralts to fight. He staggers and falls face first to the ground.

"Call your Riolu back." Valerie suggests.

"Riolu, return." I hate making him go back in his ball but he won't come back, he's determined to keep Ralts safe even if this battle is something she wants.

"Ralts Ralts!" Ralts leapt onto the battlefield but Valerie calls back her Spritzee.

"This battle is over." She declares.

"But Ralts–"

"Your Riolu is struggling so hard to protect her, if you call her out now, while he is incapacitated, he may never forgive you."

"But…" she's right, Riolu will be upset, he will be absolutely furious with me if I let her fight and he wasn't even awake to cheer her on, he will lose his trust in me as his trainer.

"Ralts." I sigh "come back."

"Ralts Ralts!" Ralts was upset with me but her anger would pass.

"Come on, Ralts." I start out "we gotta get Riolu to the Pokémon center."

"Ralts Ralts Ralts." Ralts pouted all the way there.

"I know, Ralts." I sighed, kicking my feet as we waited for Riolu. "You will get your chance but we can't do that to Riolu, Valerie is right, he'd be so mad at us."

"Ralts." She crossed her arms and turned her head away from me.

"Sometimes, Ralts, we gotta lose to win." My mom always said that to me but I never understood it until this moment.

"We lost the battle, sure, but Riolu's friendship means more to me than some badge, there will be other times to win those but if we lose Riolu's trust, well I don't think we'll ever get it back, even if he did forgive us."

Ralts puffed her cheeks up once last time before deflating and meeting my eyes.

"Ralts…" she sighed and rested her head against my shoulder.

"We're going back though, Ralts, and next time, we're going to win."

…..

"Ori." Nurse joy called. Ralts and I leapt to our feet.

"Yes, here." We ran up to the desk and Nurse Joy smiled at us.

"Your Riolu is all–"

"Ri RI!" Riolu burst through the doors, hands at his sides, panting, he looked angry.

"Ri RI RI!" He pointed at Ralts but he was looking at me. "RI RI RI RI!"

"Riolu." I smiled, relieved.

"Ri ri ri LU!" He yelled. I shook my head.

"She didn't fight." I tell him.

"Ri…" the surprise was clear on his face.

"We ended the battle after you passed out." I tell him.

"Ri…Lu?" He looked to Ralts as if looking for confirmation, I guess finding her uninjured did it because he sighed, walked over to her and pulled her into a hug.

"Ri Ri." He looked to me and I swear I knew what he was saying, thank you

"But, Riolu, we do need to talk about something." I tell him.

"Ri?" He looked up at me questioningly.

"Ralts is going to have to fight at some point, and not just you."

He frowned at that.

"If she didn't want to I wouldn't make her do it." I tell him, "but she wants to fight and get stronger, she wants this too."

Riolu pulled back from Ralts and looked at her. He looked pained.

"Ralts." She bobbed her head, agreeing with me.

"Ri…." He seemed to rethink whatever it was that he was going to say because he just drops his head and takes her hand. "Ri lu." He leads her outside.

"Thank you, Nurse Joy." I call to her as I follow my Pokémon out.

Riolu's personality seems to shift outside the door, he moves in front of Ralts but she shoves him aside and stand by his side.

"Told you she was a cheater." Cole sneered from the battle field.

"She's not a cheater." I defend her "she's just better than us, that's why she's the gym leader and we're the trainers."

"Fine." Cole shrugged "she's not a cheater." His smile shifts like he knows he's about to say something clever "she just got lucky."

"You're just a brat." I shoot back at him.

"Maybe." He shrugged "but I'm a brat that could beat you and your little baby Pokémon."

"Ri-Lu!" Riolu barked before either Ralts or I could say anything.

"Ri Ri Ri Lu!" He yelled at Cole, his Charmander Pepper stepped forward with his chest puffed up and got in Riolu's face.

"Char Char." Pepper huffed fire and Riolu smirked, turning his nose up at Pepper.

"Ri Ri." He sounded dismissive. By the way Pepper's face brightens and his tail flamed upward, I imagine it was exactly what it sounded like.

"Char Char MANDER." Charmander leapt back and put his fists up, Riolu just smirked and stretched as if he didn't have a care in the world.

"Ri… lu…" he practically yawned.

"Char Char Char Char." Charmander prattled.

"If your Riolu keeps teasing Pepper, we're going to have a problem." Cole warned.

"Maybe you should have better control of your Pokémon." I smiled at him as I said it, his face went red and he ground his teeth together.

"That's it, we're battling, now, Pepper!"

"Riolu." I can't help but mimic his expression. " what do you say?"

"Ri." He yawns and shrugs but takes up a half heart fighting stance.

"Of course you'd use, him." Cole goads me.

"What are you trying to say?" I snap back.

"You call yourself a trainer and you use the Pokémon that you has a chance at winning, you're not letting your little baby Ralts learn anything."

"Ralts is not a baby and she could win the same as Riolu." I argue but in truth, he was right, I had no idea how well she'd fair in this battle. I had not idea how good Pepper and him were but I did know how good Riolu was. I used him to play it safe.

"Ri Ri!" Riolu was trying to get my attention, but Cole was right, I wanted to be a trainer, it was time Ralts got some training.

"Riolu, come back." I said "Ralts has got this one."

"RI-LU!" Riolu shouted shaking his head "Ri Ri Ri, Ri Lu!" He jabbed his hand at Pepper and Cole and I knew exactly what he was saying.

"They might be jerks, Riolu but they're not gonna hurt Ralts the way you think, you saw it with the Kalos kings, I thought we were passed this already, Ralts has to fight, she needs the practice and she needs you to believe in her and cheer her on the way she cheers you on."

"Ri…" he ground his teeth together now. He clenched his paws into fists and glared at Pepper. Stalking over to Pepper, Riolu grabbed him by the shoulder and stared directly into his eyes.

"Ri… Lu…" he growled before releasing Pepper and stomping across the field. He softened when he pulled Ralts into a hug and pulled back.

"Ri Ri Ri, Lu lu Ri." He demonstrated a few moves for her and she bobbed her head excitedly and mimicked before Riolu pointed toward Pepper and Cole.

"Ri lu." You can do it I swear that's what he was saying to her.

"Ralts." Ralts bobbed her head one last time and walked out onto the field. Her first official battle.

"You've got this, Ralts." If call out to her.

"Ri Ri Ri lu!" Riolu cheers beside me but I can see the tension through him, he wants to be out on that field instead of her. I wonder why he's so protective of her.

"Ralts!" Ralts yelled to the worlds as if to announce her pretense,

"Char Char." Pepper was smiling like he thought this was going to be an easy battle, he was mistaken, Ralts had spunk and spirits, she was a fighter and I'd help her prove it to anyone that questioned it.

"Pepper, lets start things off with flamethrower!" Pepper obeys with a giant breath.

"Dodge it, Ralts." Ralts leaps out of the way with no time to spare. "Smack!" I follow it up quickly. Ralts doesn't know that many moves yet, we're going to have to get creative if we don't want to sound like a broken record.

"Quick attack." Ralts bounces back on each attack, dodging and attacking.

"Ri…" Riolu watches her as if he's seeing something about her for the first time.

"She's getting better with each battle, you know?" I look at him, he meets my eyes and nods, a bit begrudgingly but he can't deny it. Snapping back to attention he points to the field.

"Ri Ri." He wants to giver her some advice.

"Please." I tell him.

"Ri Ri Ri RI Lu!" He calls to her, Ralts glances back jut fors. A second and smiles at us before ducking Pepper's tail whip attack. She knocks his legs out from underneath him and flips into the air, coming back down with her foot. I wince when it hits and Pepper lays there for a moment longer than every other time she knocked him down. I stare at Riolu for a moment.

"How do you know these things?" I ask him.

"Ri Ri lu." He calls again.

"Pepper, head butt!" Cole calls out. Pepper regains himself and charges Ralts.

Ralts doesn't back down, she stands at the ready and when he's close enough, she jumps leaping over his attack and straight onto his back.

"Char!?" He exclaims as Ralts covers his eyes.

"Ralts!" Ralts cheers herself on and Riolu smiles at her kind of proud, kind of sad.

"What wrong?" I ask him. The second he realizes I'm looking at him the look is gone.

"Ri Lu." He brushes me off. "Ri RI RI LU!" He calls out to Ralts. Ralts nods, presses her feet into Pepper's back and shoves him down.

"Pepper!" Cole calls out. Pepper lays there and Ralts cheers herself.

"Ri Lu!" Riolu barks and Ralts freezes "ri Ri Ri lu Ri." I get the sense he's telling her not to celebrate too soon. Ralts bobs her head and settles down, watching, a new kind of intensity to her eyes.

"Come on, Pepper, get up." Cole stood, hands clenched, his Jolteon hoodie flapping with each breeze passing through.

"Char…" Pepper struggled to his feet, he tried to shake it off but one step and he was back down.

"Pepper!" Cole ran to his friend and finally that smirk was gone from his face, it was replaced with concern as he carried his friend off the field.

"We underestimated your Ralts." Cole said "I won't do it again, we'll see how you do against Spiney." Cole threw a poke ball out and the red beam left the most adorable Chespin I'd ever seen on the field. The only thing that kept me from running onto the field to to snuggle him was the same look his trainer keeps plastered on his face. I guess not just Pepper picked the look up.

"Ralts, you ready?" I ask. Ralts bobbed her head and looked to Riolu, Riolu smiled and gave her a thumbs up.

"Let's do this guys." I nod to Ralts and she returns her attention to the battle.

"This Ralts likes to shoves Pokémon into the dirt, Spiney." Cole starts "lets show her how the pros do it, Vine whip."

"Dodge it!" I call out but Ralts isn't fast enough, I wasn't fast enough, Chespin coils her up in his vine whip and smashes her into the ground.

"Ri…" Riolu growls beside me, anger emanating from him.

"Ralts, get out of there." I don't know what else to say, she's bound, how do I get her out?"

"One more time!" Cole cheers Spiney on. Spiney lifts Ralts up and smashes her down again.

"Riolu." Riolu growls low and dangerous.

"Riolu." How does she get out of this?" I ask him, he has to know, he'd know how to get out. He makes a move forward.

"No, Riolu, she doesn't need you to save her she needs you to teach her." I snap at him, I know what he's planning to do, he wants to interfere with their battle.

"Ri" he bites out. Wait, that's it.

"Ralts, bite him." I call out just as Spiney brings her down for a forth smash. Ralts is dizzy and she's hurt but she opened her mouth as he brings her down again and bites.

"Chespiiiiiiiin!" He retracts his vine whip and Ralts rolls across the ground.

She struggles back to her feet but she does get back up.

"Ri lu!" Riolu calls out to her, she waves her hands at him but she's pretending, she's actually hurt.

"Ri lu ri lu!" He's pleading with her but she shakes her head.

"Ralts, Ralts." She stands tall, staggering a bit as she steps forward.

"Ralts." I call to her "can you keep going?" I already know the answer, she's beat, she's tired and she's gonna need a long nap and big meal after this.

"Ralts." She shakes her head.

"We have to let her find her limits, Riolu." At this point I don't want her out there anymore than he does but she needs to feel as confident as Riolu does on the field and that means making the call herself.

"Ri." Riolu growled at me but stayed put.

"Let's finish this off with seed bomb, Spiney."

"Chespin pin Ches." Chespin shot back seeds into the air.

"Try to dodge as many as you can!" I call out to Ralts but she was barely standing.

"Raaaaalts!" Ralts staggered around and fell and the seedbombs fell.

"Ri lu!" Riolu became a blur and the when the smoke cleared Ralts and Riolu were on the other side of the field.

"Ri lu lu Ri." Riolu pointed to Chespin "ri r ilu." She's done, it's my turn I swear I heard his words sometimes.

I ran over to my Pokémon and grabbed Ralts. "You gonna finish this up?" I ask him.

"Ri." He nods, smirk in place now that Ralts was off the field. He took her place where the seedbombs had fallen.

"One more time!" Cole cheered having taken out one of my Pokémon, we were even. One on one, this was the deciding match.

"Vine whip and smash him into the ground." Cole laughed, sure he had this in the bag but he had yet to see Riolu fight.

"Dodge it and follow it with smash punch." I know he'll be able to dodge this, I know he'll hit his mark because he always does.

He does.

"Chespiiiiin!" Spiney skid across the ground and found himself staring up at Cole.

"Ches pin pin Ches." He hopped back to his feet and shook himself off.

"Seedbombs, Spiney, lets go." Cole called out." Spiney smirked sure that no one could dodge this but Riolu already had, with Ralts.

"Dodge it, Riolu, follow with agility." I have full faith he'll complete his move.

He does.

Ralts sits in my arms and looks up at me. She looks sad. I offer her a smile "you can't win them all." I tell her.

"Ra…lts." She sighs looking out at Riolu. He does she's thinking.

"No, he doesn't either, we jut lost to Valerie, remember?" I ask.

"Wrap him in vine whip and hold him still for another seedbombs." Cole calls out.

"Quick attack, Riolu." I call out. Riolu is nothing but a blur, dodging Spiney's vine whip and connecting full force into Spiney.

"Spiney no!" Cole called out.

Spiney hit the ground and skid to Cole's feet.

"Spiney!" Cole knelt beside his Pokémon "are you okay?" Spiney

"Ches…Pin…" he passed out for good. Cole got back to his feet and sighed, he lost the smirk and smiled at Spiney.

"Good job, we'll get them next time." He holds Spiney's pokeball out and the beam sweeps him away.

"You're good." Cole admits.

I shake my head as Riolu rejoins me. "No." I say "he is, he coached her and through and then he took over, Riolu seems to be the one training me."

"Yeah well, it takes a good trainer to accepts training." He tucks his pokeballs always.

"What?" I didn't get it.

"Anyone can order a Pokémon around, you listen to your Pokémon, you ask them for advice and you ask them what they want, I respect that." He offers his hand to me.

"Friends?" He asks. I nod and take his hand.

"Don't let anyone tell you it makes you less of a trainer to get your Pokémon's input." She said seriously "you may have been lucky or it may be some kind of fate that this Riolu found you and chose to be yours but it's still up to you what you decide to do with it." Cole retracted his hands yawned and stretched.

"Also, you relaxed once Riolu was on the field, had you had that same energy when Ralts was, I don't think she would have lost."

"What do you mean?" I think I already know.

"You put full faith in your Riolu and it's more like your testing the waters with your Ralts. You know Riolu is fast and strong and has experience, with Ralts it's like you're a completely different trainer. You need to have that same kind of confidence with both your Pokémon, they feel stuff like that and they're going to battle that way especially if you want to mega evolve them one day."

"Mega evolve? You mentioned something about that when we first met."

"I did." He holds up his wrist there's a pretty stone in a band around his wrist "Pepper and I have the stones already but we're nowhere near ready for it, we're working on forming our bond first and getting him to his final evolution before we even think of trying it." He tucks his hands into his hoodie pocket.

"Both Lucario and Gardevoir are able to mega evolve with the right stones, maybe we can have a mega battle sometime down the road." Cole'e eyes brighten "a battle I'll surely win."

I narrows my eyes at him.

"But you'll be tough to beat if you keep up your training."

"Thanks," I smile at him "and I'm sorry I called you a brat."

He shrugged "I was being one, I'm like that to new people."

"How come?" I demand.

He smiles all confidence and like he knows something I don't "I don't think people should get the best of you until they've seen the worst. Otherwise you never know who you can trust." He winks at me and turns his back on me. "I'm headed to the next town. Start my badge collecting there, what about you?" He asks.

"I want to beat this gym first." I tell him "but I'm sure we'll run into each other again."

"If you can keep up that is." I catch the half smirk on his face.

"Cole!" I growl at him. He laughs and takes off down a trail and into the woods.

"Wait!" I call after him "don't your Pokémon need to go to the Pokémon center?"

"I have potion." His voice was faint but I'm pretty sure that's what he said.

I shake my head and look down to to Riolu, "lets get her inside." I say. He nods and walks beside me.

"Hey Riolu." I start. He meets my eyes. "Thanks." He smiles and bobs his head. "Ri."

"Before we go back to beat Valerie, we've got to do our homework." I tell him. He and Ralts both nod. "Starting tomorrow. Tonight we're gonna relax, you both were amazing today

Author's Note

Cole is not my character he is an OC of Hey I See You. thanks so much for the OC. Ori enjyoed making a new friend and I really had fun with Cole and his pokemon. I hope I did him justice and stay tuned because Cole will definitely be back for more.

u/11144766/Hey-I-see-You

P.S. very sorry is takes me so long between chapters, when working with other characters i have to be careful about making them sound as the way they are described to me and figuring out their interactions with Ori and hers with them. Thanks for your patience and I hope you enjoyed this chapter.