Sorry, probably should've mentioned this earlier, but any character that bears any resemblance to anyone, living or dead, is completely coincidental. Now, on with the show!

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.

The four of us started to head towards to the so-called "mind gym." Once we got there, it made more sense. Turns out the place back in the day was a gym, but got renovated into a library after people stopped coming to the gym. We walked inside. I was impressed. Now, some libraries might have a few collection here and there, but this place was like Spencer's house times ten.

We didn't get a lot of time to look around, though. A woman was walking up to us. She was medium height, long black hair, and dressed for efficiency.

"Hello. You must be new, I don't remember seeing you here before. My name's Katherine and I run this library. Anything I can help you with today?"

"Um, yeah," I said. Before I went on, though, I noticed something on her left pointer finger. It was a ring, pink in color, and had the design of an eye on it.

I looked back at her and held up my right hand, showing her my ring. She looked a little stunned for a second, then nodded.

"Very well. Come this way, please."

She led us towards a back room. Once we got inside, my jaw dropped. It looked like it took up maybe half the space we had seen outside. In the center of it was a fighting ring.

Katherine led us towards the ring. Once we got to it, she turned back to us. "As you probably had figured out already, I am the protector of the Psychic Ring. In order for you to earn the ring, your challenges are twofold. First, a quiz of three questions. Answer any of them wrong, and you're done. After the quiz will be the fighting. Now, a special rule for the fight. From now on, any fight with a protector you are in, you must transform into the type that you have received immediately before, in your case, the Fighting Ring. This is meant as an extra challenge to test the worth of any challengers. Are you ready?"

I nodded. "Good," she said. "The quiz. Now, you should know, all of the questions will be pokemon related. Just some facts about the species in general. Got it?"

I nodded again. "All right," she said. "First question: What was the only Water/Steel type there was?"

Starting out easy. Hm. "Empoleon. Final evolutionary form of Piplup, Water starter of the Sinnoh region."

She nodded. "Kudos on the extras. Next question: What was the Fairy type weak against?"

"Steel and Poison," I answered without hesitation.

She nodded again. "Figured that would be easy to you. Last question: What is the biggest city for each region, in order?"

I gave her a look. Too easy. "Celadon for Kanto, Goldenrod for Johto, Lilycove for Hoenn, Jublife for Sinnoh, Castelia for Unova, and Lumiose for Kalos. Was that supposed to be challenging?"

She smirked. "Nah, considering the quiz isn't even part of the challenge. I just like asking trivia questions."

My eyes got wide. She, the protector of the Psychic Ring, was messing with me? What the hell?

I was pissed. "Let's just get to the fight so I can kick your ass."

She smirked again. "Good luck. You're at the disadvantage, remember?"

She pressed the Psychic Ring, I the Fighting. We transformed, me into the fighting ensemble I had seen Lorenzo wear, her into a pink suit with a mask. Eoniai, Tardon, and Alyssa got ringside seats. Katherine and I got into our corners, and some bell somewhere was rung. I rushed towards her, figuring I could weaken her early.

So imagine my shock when I just stop. No reason at all, just stop in the middle of the ring. Katherine was chuckling, which worried me.

"Wow," she said. "I just…wow. How do you not see this coming? Psychic Ring, librarian, obviously I'm very in tune with the ring! So I know all of its secrets. Which means you have no chance of winning."

She picked me up and slammed me onto the mat, hard. I backed up, but she just did it again. And again. And again, over and over until I could barely stand. She had hardly moved, yet I was almost done. I had to think of something, and fast.

Then it hit me. Fight special with special! I shouted, "Focus Blast!" and an orb of orange light appeared between my hands. Katherine didn't seem nervous, though.

"Ha! You really think that ball's going to hurt me? You're more of a fool than I thought! I'll be nice and counter it visibly. Psybeam!"

A pink ray shot from her, and I shot my Focus Blast. They collided, exploded, and the arena filled with smoke. When it settled, I noticed we were both still standing, Katherine looking a little uneasy.

"How…how did you survive that?" she asked. "That's impossible!"

I knew she was going to recover soon, so I rushed her and thought of the move I thought best. "Close Combat!" My hands and feet glowed orange, and I started whaling on her. After about fifteen, twenty hits, I stopped. She looked about as weak as me. I figured one more move would end it. I looked at her and shouted, "Sky Uppercut!" My right fist glowed bright orange, ad started going up. It made contact with her, and true to the name, she went sky-high. Now, even though I didn't quite expect that, I knew to get out of the way. She came back down and hit the mat, unconscious. I jumped out of the ring and ran over to the others. Before we could celebrate in full swing, though, Katherine got up. She looked at me and smiled weakly.

"Well done, White Fury. I didn't see that coming. You shall use this ring well."

And with that, the ring came to me and settled itself on my left pointer finger. I looked at her and nodded. All of a sudden, the Normal Band started to glow. It showed a map of a region and then went dark.

I looked at the others. Eoniai said, "That was Johto. You think the next ring's there?"

"It's a good bet," I said. "Anyone know how to get there?"

"Yeah, I do," chipped in Alyssa. "Here in Saffron, there's something called the Magnet Train that runs from here to Goldenrod in Johto."

I nodded. "Yeah, that'll work. When does it leave?"

She thought for a moment. "Well, they come and go pretty often. We can stay here overnight if you want to." After today, that sounded like a damn good idea. We said good-bye to Katherine, then went to the inn and got rooms. We all met in my room for a staff meeting that night.

I started it off. "So, what problems are on the agenda tonight?"

Alyssa spoke up. "I want to come with you."

All three of us at the same time said, "No."

I frowned. "For the same reasons we didn't want you joining us for the attack on the city. Too dangerous."

She pouted. "I can handle myself. Do I need to prove that again?"

We all instinctively backed up. "No!"

I tried to reason with her. "Look, we all know you can take care of yourself, Tardon especially. We…I just don't want you to get hurt."

She looked touched. "Still, this is the most exciting thing that's happened here in a long time. Please? If I get in the way, you can send me straight back here."

The guys and I looked at each other, then back at her. "Okay, on those conditions, you can come."

"Yay!" she squealed. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

I sighed. "You're welcome. Anything else from anyone?"

Silence. "Meeting adjourned, then."

The guys left, but Alyssa stayed back.

I was a little nervous. "Um, anything I can help you with, Alyssa?"

She came over to me, smiling all the way. I noticed how close we were to each other. Then she kissed me on the cheek. "Night, Red. Sweet dreams."

She left. I got into bed and fell asleep, cheek still buzzing from the kiss.

I got up, having had a very good night's sleep. The guys saw me and asked what was up. I said, "What are you talking about?"

Eoniai looked at me. "You're acting all giddy."

"Guys, we have a train to catch. Do we have to worry about this now?"

"Well, no."

"Good. Let's get going, then."

We packed our stuff and left for the station. Alyssa was waiting for us, dressed for travel. Shorts, a t-shirt, and sneakers, obviously preparing for warm weather.

We all got onto the train and left for Goldenrod. What we would find in Johto was anyone's guess. But with these crazies by my side, I thought my odds looked damn good.

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