When Arden had disengaged Cruelty from the girl's face and returned him to his pokeball, he slumped against a large, sheer-faced rock. The girl walked off toward Pewter City in a huff, her face covered in minor lacerations. Gimpy watched her go, looking visibly saddened.

"It's okay, Gimp," Arden said. "The same thing happened to me when I first met Cruelty in the woods. He's, uh, he's just a little over-enthusiastic."

"Squirt," said the pokemon, still looking a bit upset.

Arden sighed. "Look, I promise I'll try and train him some. That's all he needs—some good training," said the boy to the squirtle as he straightened up. "But, hey, he did beat that pidgey pretty good. He just didn't know when to quit..."

He walked along the path, until they reached a large rock which impeded any further progress. He looked around and spotted a ledge beside him, with a thin trail carved into it. With a shrug, he made his way up the steep trail until he reached a grassy plateau beyond it. He glanced around and saw a young boy standing there and sighed. "Oh, great. Another one..."

Catching his gaze, the boy hurried up to him. "I like shorts," said the boy. "They're comfy. Don't you like shorts? I like shorts."

"I... shorts?" asked Arden. "You want to battle, right?"

The boy nodded.

"Okay. Then why are you telling me how much you love shorts? Wouldn't it make more sense for you to, I don't know, to talk about how much you love your pokemon, or battling, or looking for pokemon or anything at all that is even remotely related to a pokemon battle?"

The boy thought for a moment, before hesitantly offering, "I keep my pokeball in my shorts' pocket?"

"Yes, very good," said Arden. "I... guess..."

They lapsed into a long and awkward silence.

"So," said the boy. "Can we battle now, or...?"

"Oh, right," said Arden. "Uh, sure. Go, Brain Damage!"

"Go, Rattata!"

They threw their pokeballs, letting loose their pokemon for the fight. The rattata growled and bared its teeth, as Brain Damage cooed and looked around stupidly.

"Rattata, tackle!"

The pokemon lunged forward, striking Brain Damage dead on. The pidgey cooed sadly as the force caused it to roll backwards in a heap. Slowly, Brain righted himself.

"Come on, Brain—use sand attack!"

The pidgey cooed and flapped his wings. Arden sighed and smacked himself in the forehead. "Urgh—this is getting us no where. Brain, return!"

He held up the pidgey's pokeball, and the pokemon disappeared into it with a flash of light. He set down Gimpy. "Your turn, Gimp. Use bubble!"

"Squirtle!" shouted Gimpy, hunching over. With a great amount of effort, he forced a stream of bubbles from his mouth, which floated innocently toward the rattata. The foe rattata watched them curiously, until one struck him on the nose, causing him to cringe, first, and then to cry out as the rest struck.

"Rattata, use quick attack!" shouted the boy in the shorts.

The rattata winced but followed its command, striking Gimpy squarely in the stomach and bowling him over. The squirtle grunted as he fell on his back, and tried to right himself with little success.

"Gimp—use bubble! Come on, sit up and use bubble!" shouted Arden, shaking one fist. "Oh, for the love of—roll onto your stomach, it's not that hard!"

With a great deal of grunting and swinging his stubby arms and deformed legs, Gimpy managed to right himself. He fired a stream of slow-moving bubbles at his foe and—though the rattata attempted to evade the attack—most of them struck. The rattata recoiled and growled at Gimpy, but the squirtle attacked again with bubble. The bubbles struck and the rattata went down.

"Yeah!" screamed Arden, picking up the squirtle and hugging him. "Good job, Gimp!"

"Squirtle," said Gimpy, obviously pleased with himself.

"Oh, you did good too, Rattata," said the boy, returning his pokemon to its ball.

"What?" said Arden. "No it didn't. It sucked up the stage. Your pokemon's a failure."

"Hey—no it isn't," said the boy. "I'm proud of Rattata, even if it's not the strongest pokemon in the world."

"In the world? It's not even the strongest pokemon in this pass," said Arden.

The little boy's frustration was beginning to show; tears were forming in his eyes and his face was becoming quite an interesting shade of red. "I don't care," said the boy, balling up his fists. "Rattata is my friend and it means a lot to me, and I don't care whether or not it can beat your stupid squirtle."

"Stupid?" said Arden, holding Gimpy tight to his chest. "Stupid?! Well, he beat your little rodent. If my pokemon's stupid, what does that say about yours?"

"You're a mean, mean guy," said the boy, bursting into tears. He pushed past Arden and ran down the path.

Arden called after him, "Yeah, well, you're a wimp and those shorts make your legs look fat!"