A beam of light from the sun struck Mira's Poke ball as she held it out of her bag on Route 203.

"So," Barry called out to her, "you ready for this battle?"

She looked at him and gave him a smile. "Mira's ready! Are you?"

From the sidelines, Cheryl and Buck were watching the two of them, waiting for the battle to start.

"Oh, just begin already," Cheryl called out to them. "I've got potions for after the battle, and you two clearly both have Pokemon. I just really wanna see how this plays out."

Mira sighed. "Ugh, fine. Go Abra!"

From the red-topped sphere emerged the yellow Psychic-type Pokemon. As it settled itself floating atop the ground, Barry looked over from his designated side to battle from, the faintest look of surprise on his face.

"What? Going all out right now? I guess so then. Go Starly!"

The Starling Pokemon formed in front of Barry.

"Ooh," Cheryl murmured to Buck, "Mira's already fought my Starly with her Abra as you saw a while back, and she won. Unless Barry has some kind of master tactic, I'm not sure how he's going to win-"

Before Cheryl had even a chance to complete her sentence, the blonde boy cried out to his Pokemon. "Starly, use Double Team!"

The tiny bird began to flap its wings vigorously, slowly becoming airborne in the process.

Mira tilted her head slightly as she looked at the battle playing out. She had learned about the move Double Team before - the Pokemon moves extremely fast so that the foe can't tell where they are - but she had never seen the move itself, and this unnerved her slightly.

The slowness of Starly's ascent, as well as Mira's train of thought, were interrupted by the bird suddenly zipping to... somewhere.

Nobody could tell, since all anyone could see was a black-and-white blur speeding around above them.

Mira's confident smile slowly lose substance, until it vanished altogether.

"Abra," Mira called out, "I don't know how we'll defeat this, but I think I have a small idea. Try charging up a flash!"

The yellow Pokemon nodded, and within its hands began charging a small, white light.

Buck and Cheryl instinctively looked away. Both had witnessed the power of Flash when used offensively instead of to simply light a cave through television shows. Cheryl shielded Turtwig as well, even though it was asleep.

"Right, Abra... now see if you can track the Starly with your psychic power, while keeping your Flash energy in your hands."

Barry looked at Mira's Abra, and pointed to it in the process. "Starly, it seems our original plan of confusing the opponent isn't working. Let's just try finish off this with a Wing Attack!"

Bright energy began dotting through the air, presumably from Starly charging up its Wing Attack.

"Abra!" Mira cried out. "When it dips down to attack, release that Flash!"

The white blur in the air suddenly formed back into a recognisable Pokemon above Abra, but only for a fraction of a second as it made its descent back down to Earth with its wings ready to strike.

Mira, like Cheryl and Buck, looked away as she yelled her next command. "Abra, use Flash now to blind the Starly!"

All four kids didn't dare to look back as Abra released a dazzling light into the air.

When it was safe to glance back again, Mira gasped.

While Starly had landed on the path and seemed completely clueless as to where it was, Abra was collapsed on the ground, completely unable to battle.

"It seems," Buck called out," that while Starly was indeed blinded, the speed it had gained from constantly using Double Team meant that it was already too close to Abra to not miss it. Either way, Mira only has two Pokemon left!"

Mira held out Abra's Poke ball, allowing its limp form to return back inside. From within her bag she selected her next Poke ball without hesitation.

After all, she hadn't seen this Pokemon in action yet.

"Mira may be the first to have lost a Pokemon," she called out to Barry, "but that doesn't mean she will lose the battle so quickly! Go Shinx!"

The sky-blue Electric-type materialised in front of her, and cried out with passion in its tone.

Barry's jaw dropped. "How is my Starly going to defeat-"

"Shinx, Spark!" Mira interrupted.

"Uhh," Barry said, "Starly, try and dodge it! Fly away!"

The small bird attempted to leave the ground, but due to being blinded its feet barely brushed against the floor.

"I don't think," Cheryl mentioned, "that Barry's Starly, being a Flying-type, will have a chance against Shinx, an Electric-type. Electric is super-effective against Flying."

And sure as Cheryl predicted, a bright ball of static electricity collided with the Starly, sending it hurling back into Barry's arms.

Buck grinned at the sight of the exciting battle. "Just as Barry got the advantage, it was stolen away from him by the after-affects of Abra's attack and the typing advantage of Mira's Pokemon - its back onto even ground!"

Cheryl turned to him. "Are you now a commentator or something?"

He shrugged in return. "I'm just enjoying the battle. I tend to get a little over-excited when viewing a battle, and I also can't help but mimic the commentators of the battle section in Hoenn's contests. I guess it's just a strange habit of mine."

"I actually quite like it," Cheryl noted. "It makes the battle a little more exciting."

Barry, despite having just lost his advantage, smiled. "I guess this calls for me to introduce my other new Pokemon to you that I caught on route 204! Budew, let's do this!"

For the first time in a while, what faced Mira was a Pokemon she had never seen before.

What looked to be a small, pastel-yellow seed resided in the middle, with the seed appearing to have two vertical, slit-like eyes and a cute smile. Two grass tendrils surrounded the seed, twisting around each other once before meeting. The tendrils emerged from a miniature, leafy body, with two tiny feet emerging from below it.

"How about that?" Barry called out in excitement. "It's obviously a Grass-type. There's also something else about it... but you'll have to find that out for yourself. Only way for a fair battle, right?"

Mira looked into his eyes deeply. "Well, Mira can try something. Mira knows that Electric moves aren't very effective against Grass-types, so... Shinx, use Bite!"

Mira was expecting Barry to command his Budew to move, but the Grass-type didn't even seem to have an instinct to move away from its assailant.

Shinx, on the other hand, was tearing down the path, fangs bared with a dark energy surrounding them as it prepared to attack. As it did so, a mischievous grin formed on its face.

As Shinx reached the seemingly relaxed Budew, its jaw opened, before abruptly shutting again, catching the Grass-type on its fangs.

While the Budew cried out in pain, it immediately began calming itself down again.

Then the two grass tendrils separated from each other, the ends stabbing into Shinx.

The Electric-type, at that moment, appeared to completely forget that it was attacking its foe and scampered back to Mira, yelping in pain.

"Shinx!" Mira shouted out, "are you ok?"

Shinx looked up at Mira, and tried to give a smile to her, but the smile only managed to last for a fraction of a second before it grimaced. Mira spotted a small purple rash on Shinx's cheek.

Cheryl began whispering to Buck. "I think I know what's happening to Shinx right now. From what my mum always used to tell me, it looks like Mira's Shinx is poisoned."

"Were you expecting that?" Barry told her. "That was my surprise. Despite not looking like it, Budew is also a Poison-type. It's ability is Poison Point - meaning that if the opposing Pokemon physically impacts Budew while it's attacking, then Budew gets a chance to poison it. If the day is warm, it will open up its two grass vines surrounding it and stab them into the opposing Pokemon, injecting toxic pollen into them. Now, Budew, let's finish this off with a Mega Drain!"

A flash of fear appeared in Mira's eyes. "Mira doesn't have any antidotes or berries that can cure poison... Mira will just have to try something else. Shinx, attempt another Bite as best as you can, even if you don't make it through this battle!"

Shinx attempted to perform the same move as it did before to the fast-approaching Grass-and-Poison-type. However, every few paces, it would wince and stop dead in its tracks.

It came so to nobody's surprise, then, when Budew was the first to reach its opponent.

The tendrils unfolded again, and clamped onto Shinx.

At first, the Electric-type tried to struggle, and bite back, but slowly it began to loosen up, and fell to the ground.

Buck continued doing his commentator impression. "It appears that Barry's Budew successfully drained Shinx of its energy after poisoning it, causing Shinx to be unable to battle! Barry is back with an advantage!"

Buck turned back to Cheryl. "Hey, are you alright?"

Cheryl had looked away for a moment. She looked at Buck staring at her. "I'm alright. That part of the battle was just a little too harsh for me. I'm... not a big fan of the poison status condition."

"That was a good attempt, Shinx!" Mira told it. "Come on back now! Go Chimchar!"

The gentle movement of the exhausted Shinx on the floor was replaced with the battle-ready determination of the Fire-type - Mira's last Pokemon.

"That last fight was hard," Mira told Barry, "especially since you poisoned Mira's Shinx and regained the lost energy from Bite with a Mega Drain. But you won't be able to it against this! Chimchar, Ember!"

Chimchar didn't move form the spot it had originally landed on, and fired off a bright fireball of energy at the foe. Barry could see the determination in its eyes, almost as though the bright-orange Pokemon was trying its complete hardest to avenge its fallen allies.

"Budew, dodge!" Barry cried out.

Budew attempted to escape the line of fire the Ember was aimed at, but its little legs just weren't enough to escape a flame charging at it at such a high speed. The impact threw the pastel-green-and-yellow Pokemon to the floor.

"You see?" Mira said. "Because Ember doesn't involve the Pokemon directly coming into contact with Budew, it didn't have a chance to use its special ability. To add on to that, Mega Drain is a Grass-type move, which wouldn't affect Chimchar too much and thus not restore much energy to Budew at all. It also seems that Chimchar had an urge to avenge its fellow team member, which made its attack stronger. Couple that to Grass-types being weak to Fire-type moves and quite honestly, Budew didn't have much chance."

"Darn it!" Barry cried out. "Whenever I get the advantage, I lose it. However, I don't think I will have lost it for much longer, if my training went to plan... go! My last Pokemon, Piplup!"

The fluffy water-type glared at Chimchar as it was released, its stare almost piercing Chimchar with how intense it was.

Buck viewed the situation. "It's water against fire... going by statistics alone, I'd say that Piplup is going to win this."

"I wouldn't say that so fast," Cheryl told him. "The last time those two battled, Chimchar won. I'd say that's just the reason why Piplup is glaring at it with so much hatred and determination - it wants to avenge itself and prove its worth."

"Chimchar!" Mira commanded. "Let's try the same as before. Leer!"

Mira felt a sudden sense of deja vu as Chimchar sped right up to Piplup and glared at it in a similar fashion to how Piplup was currently trying to stab Chimchar with its vision.

However, this time, Piplup didn't waver. The Water-type held its stance, to both Cheryl and Mira's surprise.

"This is what I had been training Piplup to do all this time," Barry explained, "to not be scared of Chimchar. It appears the training worked. And not only that, but I'm now in the perfect position to command my finisher move due to Chimchar being so close! Piplup, use Bubble!"

There was no possible way for Chimchar to escape the onslaught of bubbles that popped upon impact. They weren't just light bubbles - they were extremely fast, plentiful and filled with water. Soon the Fire-type became overwhelmed by the endless stream, and fell onto the path.

Mira stared at the event that just occurred in surprise, despite the typing advantage already being clearly against her.

"Chimchar is unable to battle after that Water-typed attack," Buck said. "Barry wins."

Mira recalled her Chimchar. "That... that was a good battle. Mira wasn't expecting so many twists with typings, training and the moves used, and that made it thrilling! Also, didn't Mira tell you that you'd be able to beat her?"

Barry, who had placed Piplup back inside its Poke ball, shrugged. "I wanted to live up to that claim you made! I thought it might make you a little happier, even if you lost."

"Well, isn't that weird?" Mira told him. "I lost, but I feel really happy."

"That's just Barry's happiness being contagious," Cheryl told them as her and Buck walked over to them, Turtwig in Cheryl's arms. "That's just one way happiness can sometimes work. Either way, I think that we might need to go to the Pokemon centre instead of simply use one of my potions for this battle - that poison rash Mira's Shinx earned isn't going to be healed by simple health restoring sprays. Barry, if you want you can go with us."

Barry nodded. "I might as well go with you. I don't have anything I particularly need to do. And either way, we're just on the outskirts of Jubilife City, so it won't take too long to get back."

A couple of hours after the group had returned to the red-roofed building and had their Pokemon's ailments cured, the four of them waved goodbye to Jubilife, and headed out on Route 203.

"I got my Budew mostly out of coincidence," Barry explained to the others as a response to a question Cheryl had asked. "I had gotten lost in the city, and thought that when I was leaving for Route 203 I was heading this way, but I actually ended up on Route 204. After realising my mistake, I tried to go back, but then that Budew got in my way. Since I had wanted a new team member, I thought I might as well try to catch it, and the rest you should be able to work out."

"Well," Cheryl said, "I guess Jubilife City being near-impossible to navigate without being there many times before has its advantages."

Barry made to say something else, but was interrupted by Turtwig suddenly snoring.

"Mira still hasn't gotten over," Mira said, "how adorable that is."

As the sun shone down upon Route 203, Mira and Barry had an extremely tense battle! The battle contained many ups and downs as Mira's Shinx battled for the first time and Barry was revealed to have caught both a Starly and a Budew! The battle reached its climax when Chimchar and Piplup faced each other for a rematch, but Piplup's confidence soared, fighting through the Leer that threatened it losing and resulting in a victory for Barry! As our trio and their friend head towards Oreburgh City, what, or even who, will they meet next? The journey continues!

Hello dear reader! I had a lot of fun writing this part, despite it being mentally challenging. I thought it'd be nice to let Barry win to show that he's definitely a competent trainer, and I gave him a Budew so that he'd evenly match with Mira Pokemon-wise while also having a Pokemon that indeed joins his team later. Overall, I hope you enjoyed it! Next part is gonna feature a new place, a new character and some familiar troublemakers...