I know it's been a while, but thank you to ClinicallyInsaneAndDangerous, Ketchum Kid, JoshDW, and pikachuhunter1 for reviewing!

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Chapter 7-

"So it's been two weeks, what do you think of the place so far?" Schuyler asks.

The question comes out of nowhere. Evan, Schuyler, and I were in Schuyler's room talking about the D-5 championships that were going to be starting in three weeks. I hadn't even realized I have already been here for two weeks. I look down at the Mawile relaxing in my lap. I had come to start calling her Vikki, short for Victoria, the ancient goddess of victory (Nike in a different culture) after I had beaten Evan in a battle with her. Even though we lost a battle apiece to Meriah and Schuyler, she's still a tough little fighter. She's definitely made the transition to living here at the Oak ranch easier for me.

"It's been nice. It's the most stable place I've lived at in a long time." I reply truthfully. It had been a good two weeks. I've have a chance to develop my relationships with everyone in the house more. Greg is definitely the person I'm closest to here given our shared pasts, followed by Schuyler. Even though he is quiet in group settings, he's a really good person to chat with one on one, and our moral differences make for some enjoyable debates. I have gotten to know Meriah more as time has gone on, but we don't share a whole lot in common. We get along amicably though. Evan and I is... interesting. His sarcasm has died down after some more encounters with Vikki. She has been sort of protective of me around him, not letting him run off his mouth for too long with out a good snap at his ankles. I think he acts the way he does because he's the youngest person here, and he wants our respect. So I've been trying to talk to him like an equal, and it has made a bit of a difference. But there is still a sharp edge to his tongue, and he and Greg still go at it like a couple of bulls. And I've definitely grown to trust Delia more as well. She talks with me all the time about Ash and Gary, training, her past, my past. I still haven't gotten all the way to opening up about the bad stuff in my past, but I've opened up a lot to her- more than any adult figure in my life in the past decade at least. It makes me think about my mom sometimes, and I miss her. But I push the thoughts out of my head like always.

"I told you you'd like it here." Evan says. "I was a little weirded out when I got here about how normal everything was. It's nice to have a little regularity in your life after living the way we have."

"Definitely. And it's also nice to have some people my own age to talk to." I add.

"Your welcome." Evan says smugly. Schuyler rolls his eyes but smiles. This is the kind of person to person interaction I've not had in a long time.

"Anyway," I say, "who do you guys think looks good for the D-2 championships?"

We talk for another half hour before we get called down for dinner. After we all sit down and start to eat, the Professor stands up.

"I have an announcement guys. We have gotten a challenge."

Immediately everyone starts cheering and talking excitedly.

"Settle down for a second." the professor says, laughing. "Anyway, the battle is set for two days from now at the Pewter Arena. We're facing Team Guardian, which you guys know is another division 3 team. We are way ahead of them in the rankings, so losing to them will not be good for us. You all know that the D-3 tournament is a couple months from now, and it is imperative that we position ourselves well for that."

"Don't worry professor, we've beaten them before, we can beat them again." Greg says.

"It'll be good to do some butt-whipping." Evan says.

"Indeed." the professor says. "So, I want all of you at the projection room for a strategy session at nine tonight. Let's get back to eating shall we?"

As we start to eat again, I sit back and think. This is going to be my first time back at an official battle since I was fired. It should be interesting. Even though I won't be competing, just being at the battles is an experience in itself. I'll have to make sure someone fills me in on the strategy that they make up tonight. I turn to Schuyler.

"Hey Schuyler, you'll fill me in on the strategy you guys come up with tonight right?" I ask.

"I think the professor just said everyone at the table should be there. That includes you." he replies.

"Why would he want me there?" I ask in surprise.

"Why not? You have battling experience; it wouldn't hurt to have you there. Ask him if he wants you there."

"I'll ask him later." I say. I can't believe someone on a team as established as this one would want my opinion. I only fought in divisions lower than this. What good will my opinion be? I join back in the conversation when the rankings comes up.

"We're 39th right now, so how much do you think we'll move up if we win?" Evan asks.

"Probably not much since Team Guardian isn't even the top 64." Meriah replies. "But they will be fighting hard to get into the top 64 by the time the tournament rolls around. We need to be focused."

"Definitely." Greg agrees. "We could drop a lot if we lose. We're already lower than I would like, so we have to win."

"Calm down, would you? We're gonna clean the floor with them." Evan says confidently. "You worry too much."

"Well someone has to worry, Evan. Not everyone prances around without a care in the world like you do." Greg says.

"I don't prance!" Evan says in a fake upset voice. "Clearly some of us are just more confident in our abilities as a trainer than others."

"And what does that mean exactly?" Greg asks with narrowed eyes.

"I'm just saying that when you are an elite trainer such as me, the idea of losing to someone seems laughable." Evan says with a smirk. "Therefore, I don't have to worry. I would assume that if you worry about losing, it's because you don't feel like you can win every time."

"You're a cocky little ba- ,er, something aren't you?" Greg says looking at Gary and Ash when he changed his word choice. "Whatever, the day you fall off that high horse of yours, I'm going to be sitting there laughing and taking pictures of your disappointment."

The rest of the dinner goes on pretty much like that. When the professor gets up and leaves, I quickly get up and follow him out.

"Professor!" I call out to him. He stops and turns around.

"What's up Kasey?" he asks.

"I was wondering if you were saying earlier that everyone should be at the meeting that that means I should come too? I didn't think it did."

"Of course you should be there. You're a part of the team, and everyone gets a say in what we should do. You've got a whole new view point to bring to the table. I personally can't wait to hear what you have to say about our strategies." he said kindly.

"Oh, okay, then I'll be there at nine." I say. He nods and then heads off to his office. Wow, so they do want my opinion. A smile comes to my face. I finally feel like I'm starting to belong to this team.

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I head to the strategy session with Greg. He t ells me about what usually goes on.

"Well we start off going over what happened the last time we went against the team, if we have gone against them. Then we talk about who is on the team and what pokemon are available for them to use. Then we try to figure out which of our trainers and pokemon will give us the best chance to win. Pretty straightforward, but usually there is a lot of debate over who we all think is the trainer that gives us the best chance at victory. Usually we each think that we are the one that will lead us to victory, so it's on from there." he says with a smile. This should be an interesting night.

We walk into the projection room and see that the professor and Meriah are already talking. The projection room is pretty basic- a large table with a 3-D projector in it that will light up on the table. There are several nice chairs around the table. The walls are covered with pictures of the Horizon team in action in battle. I recognize Meriah, Greg, and Evan in some of them. I guess Schuyler hasn't had a chance to get a good shot yet.

After waiting for a couple of minutes, the rest of the crew shows up. The professor gets right to business.

"Alright, so like I said earlier, we are going against Team Guardian. We last went against them a couple of years ago when we were both in D-2 together. We beat them handily. It was Meriah and Vince in that battle- it was two three on three matches, and two one on ones, and our two went undefeated. The team moved up to D-3 last year after they accumulated a large enough team and enough wins to cross the point threshold. So that's one thing in our favor, is that they did not actually win the D-2 championship to get into D-3 like this team did. However, they are much different than before." he cautions, as he turns on the projector. It begins to show images of Team Guardian in battle. "As you can see, they rely heavily on normal, rock, ground, and steel types. I don't know what it is with those teams from near Pewter City, but they just can't get enough of those types of pokemon over there. The trick they pull out is each trainer has an electric type, and they also rotate some fire types as well. They don't want someone coming in there and cleaning them up with water and grass types. I'm not worried about the fire since none of you are really weak to them, but the electric can hurt. So we'll have to factor that in when we choose our lineup. From what I was told in the battle report, it's going to be battle mode alpha 4133, so we need to pick the two of you going in the three on three's and the one of you each to do the one on one and the four on four."

The discussion, like Greg predicted, goes on for awhile. They debate about who is a stronger battler in each situation, who has the clear advantage over each type that Team Guardian has, who should be worried about the weakness that their specialty has, which type that each trainer should focus on of their specialty, and everything else that they could come up with that had two opposing viewpoints. I didn't add that much to the discussion, since I'm not that familiar with the pokemon that each trainer works best with. My opinion was asked at times to help break up a stalemate, and I gave my honest opinion. Evan is of course excited since his ghost types are strong against normal types, and thinks he should get the bulk of the work, adding that his ground types will take care of the electric wildcard. I agree with them that Greg will be safest going into a three on three since his water types will do well, but he can put in an electric type for safety against a normal or another electric type. Schuyler we agree is in trouble since his flying types would not do well, so he would have to rely on dark types- he was probably best for the one on one. Meriah's fire and psychic types will probably suit her best in the four on four since she can switch in fire for the normal and steel types, and put psychic in for the rock and ground types. This leaves Evan doing the other three on three. I stay completely out of the "which pokemon to use" discussion since I haven't seen each person and their pokemon actually in action.

Finally after a good two hours, the team is settled on the strategy for the battle. It looks good in my opinion, and I look forward to seeing it implemented in two days. The team agrees that they should get in some good practice tomorrow to warm up for the battles, since they haven't battled in a while. I offer to help in whatever way I can. I guess I'll find out tomorrow what is needed of me.

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A/N- Sorry again for the delay. I'll try and hammer out a lot more of this over Thanksgiving break, since I know I ain't gonna be doing much work over finals week. Anyways, leave a review!