Notes: The conclusion to the chapter! Thanks for reading everyone! Thank you to Soupy for editing.

Chapter 10-2

Serenity stood up when she realized that it was her turn. "Wish me luck!" she exclaimed. "Maybe I can get a good luck kiss?" She pursed her lips and kissed the air.

"Maybe if you win," Meri replied with a hug. "Go kick her butt, girl!"

"Just more motivation," slyly grinned Serenity. "See you in a bit." They let each other go. Meri sat back down on the bleachers to watch with the crowd that had built up, while Serenity headed down the steps, many eyes trailing after her.

It was so strange. Meri could remember a short back and forth between the challenger and the Gym Leader, as well as the two sending out their Pokémon, but everything besides some flashes of especially loud cheering, it all seemed to go by in a fantastic blur to her. Everything blended together, and the next thing she knew, Serenity was standing right in front of her holding the badge in between her thumb and index finger. What the hell happened?

"I won! So how about that kiss?" while there were joking tones under her voice, she truly was hoping for her reward.

"Great job out there," Meri said quickly, trying to recompose herself. She planted a kiss on Serenity's cheek for some reason. "I, uh, it's my turn now, isn't it?"

"Yep! You okay?" some of the little joy she had gotten from the brief kiss had disappeared..

Meri nodded. "Yeah, I just need to, you battle, now. Because that's why I'm here," her palms were sweating like crazy and she was shaking, especially her knees. She made her way down the steps without another word, nearly tripping several times on the way down. There were some giggles in the background, she thought; quiet ones, but she was pretty sure they were there. Crap, why was she freaking out so bad? The last time she had been so nervous was when she had done the middle school talent show, where she played guitar in a makeshift band that played Happy Holidays, You Bastard by Blink-182. Meri had been scared shitless like she was now going up to the stage, but it ended up being so worth it. It was a legend that followed her into high school and had even been a viral sensation on the internet for a while. Those were good times. Simpler times. Meri knew how cliché of a statement it was as she thought of it, but no one, especially not her, could have predicted her lasted two weeks or so, and now here she was, standing with a heart about to escape her chest across from the Rustboro City Gym Leader, about to battle for the Stone Badge.

Crap, I can't be doing this right now. I have to get it together if I want to have a chance. She shook her head to clear away the fog and put her hand on Oshawott's Pokéball.

"Are you ready to battle?" Roxanne shouted from the other side of the gym.

"Yeah, let's go," she said with as much determination as she could muster, then tossed out her Pokéball. He came out, clearly braver and more ready for this battle than his own trainer. It took her by surprise how intense he looked and made her feel a little less worried about it.

Roxanne looked intrigued. "An Oshawott, huh?" she looked at the little otter with curiosity. "I've never seen one in person until now. They're even cuter than I expected!"

"They are, aren't they?" Meri asked rhetorically. Roxanne really didn't look like the type, and certainly didn't battle with the type, to care about whether or not something was cute.

"Anyways," the Gym Leader went back to being serious and clutched a Pokéball in her hand. "I'm starting with Geodude." The ball flew out of her hand and onto the field, letting out the rock with arms and eyes. "Rock Polish, Geodude."

"Use Focus Energy," ordered Meri. While Roxanne was using a stat boosting move, she would do something similar. If it was successful, only would hit would be necessary to take out Geodude.

The two Pokémon both had faint glows for a short time, with Geodude looking smoother afterwards and Oshawott somehow looking even more ready than before. "Mud Slap!" shouted Roxanne.

"Water Sport!" countered Meri. The stream of mud collided mid-air with the water, falling to the ground and splashing out for at least ten feet.

"Now use Rock Throw, Geodude!" Roxanne ordered.

"Dodge it, Oshawott, hurry!" Water Sport wouldn't be strong enough to defend against rather large rocks being thrown really hard, and Water Gun might not be enough either, so getting out of the way was the only thing to do. "Keep going, and get closer to it!"

"Use Mud Sport and then Defense Curl," Meri's opponent ordered her Pokémon. The mud began flying in a wide range, all over the battlefield.

Damn, now I have to back off. She called out to Oshawott: "Water Sport it out of the way!"

"Rock Throw, again!" Roxanne said. Although Oshawott was still running, he had slowed down in order to not get the mud in his eyes, and as a result, was an easier target for Rock Throw. Although only one hit it, it landed with a painful thud on Oshawott's shoulder, sending him sprawling across the floor.

"Ossshhhh!" he moaned in pain from the shot.

"Another quick Rock Polish, then follow it up with Tackle," Roxanne said to Geodude. After glowing for a second and coming away even smoother, Geodude headed towards the still-grounded water Pokémon.

He was just upon his opponent when, "Water Gun!" at his trainer's order, Oshawott blasted water directly into the Geodude's face, sending it flying back. It rolled to a stop nearly fifteen feet away. It creekily groaned, but didn't move, so Roxanne returned it.

"Not bad," the leader grinned. "Bating me into getting close to ensure a critical hit. Not bad," she complimented. "But you'll have to have a much better strategy if you want to beat this Pokémon. She's much stronger than Geodude. Go, Nosepass!" The nose-shaped rock with a big red nose planted on the middle of its body came out. Its eyes were closed, so Meri thought it might be sleeping, but then it started marching in place. "It's her first battle of the day, so she's excited to get started."

"Yeah, me too," Meri found herself saying for some reason. The nervousness from before was replaced by an almost calm exhilaration. She had won the first part of the gym battle, and even though the second part would be much harder, that small victory had been enough to help her settle down from her earlier terror. "Oshawott, use Water Sport at Nosepass's feet."

Oshawott did as he was instructed, but then Nosepass got her own instructions, "Use Rock Tomb and then Rock Polish."

"Move now, Oshawott, before you're stuck!" She instructed the little guy. But he was quite quick enough. After being tripped up by one rock, he was surrounded by several others. Now he was trapped in place because of how big the rocks were; it was exactly what Meri hadn't wanted to start the battle with. Another Rock Polish for her opponent later, and Meri knew she was running out of time before this battle was sealed. It wasn't as if Wurmple would be able to take on a Nosepass at full strength. She didn't have many options left. "I'm going to have to take a page from spiky-hair-guy's playbook here." Oshawott was withdrawn and replaced with Wurmple, who was now outside of the boulders.

"Wow, it's not often I see a Wurmple. Usually it's fully evolved," the surprise was genuine. "But let's see what you can do with it."

Meri wasn't entirely sure either, but she had to do something. "Use String Shot Wurmple," she ordered. At the very least, it should counter the effects of Rock Polish. Despite her attempts to sidestep it, Nosepass still wasn't quite quick enough to get out of the way of the string. It coated the nose rock, very clearly weighing it down some. "Good, now use Poison Sting!" With any luck, it would leave the opponent poisoned.

It landed, but it didn't seem to do much. "Sorry, but you'll have to do much more than that if you want to take this girl down," she looked a little smug, but then started to crack up.

Meri couldn't help but be a little annoyed. Sure Wurmple wasn't that well-suited to this battle, but he had landed two moves in a row. "What's so funny, huh?" Roxanne just continued laughing despite her attempts to cover it up and Meri's question. "Whatever. Wurmple, use another poison sting!"

Nothing happened, though, for some reason, much to Meri's confusion. Looking down, she saw that Wurmple was not where she had left him. He was now on the first step of the bleachers for some reason. "Wurmple, what the hell are you doing? We have a battle to finish here!" But the caterpillar either didn't here her, or didn't care, because he kept crawling his way up the bleachers.

"Sorry," Roxanne spoke through giggles. "I haven't seen anything quite like that in a while. Because your Wurmple is outside of the battling area, it is disqualified from battle."

Goddamnit, of course this would happen during my first Gym battle, she took a moment to sigh before snapping herself back to attention. "Okay, I've got to finish this. This is it, little buddy!" Oshawott was back on the field, still very eager to battle.

"Unless you have a new strategy in mind, I have this won," Roxanne said. She was right about it, too.

"Let's skip the talking," Meri suggested, ready to earn her badge. "Oshawott, use Water Gun." I was pretty, simple, but if it hit, it would be pretty effective. However, the majority of the water was dispersed with Rock Throw.

"Thunder Wave, Nosepass," Roxanne ordered.

Thunder Wave? Nosepass can use that?! Shit! Again, there was almost no time for her to get Oshawott out of the way. "Run, Oshawott, don't stop until it does!" The poor otter Pokémon began running around to avoid being paralyzed.

All of a sudden, a shrill scream came from towards the top of the bleachers. "Get it off of meeee!" After having heard that scream several times, Meri was familiar with the who and the why: Wurmple had taken the liberty of crawling onto Serenity again.

Based on the yelling and laughing, Meri assumed it had absorbed the whole attention of every one in the gym, or at least the leader of it, since she was looking towards where her best friend was sitting. Perhaps it was a bit cheap, but Meri wasn't about to miss any chance she could take to win this battle. "Oshawott, use Tackle, from behind!"

"Huh?" Roxanne had been too caught up in the accidental sideshow for one reason or another, and had lost track of what was at-hand. "No, Nosepass, move, now!"

But Oshawott had already flung himself at the rock Pokémon. Not even a second later, it was face down in the mud, with its attacker standing nearby with brown mud splattered against his white fur. "Water Gun her!"

"Get up, Nosepass, come on!" She shouted desperately to her helplessly stuck Pokémon just as it got blasted further into the mud, and probably a couple more inches into the floor itself. Yet somehow, it still tried getting up.

"Damn, you've got a persistent partner, there," Meri said, honestly impressed after her Pokémon had delivered two very hard shots. "But now it's over. One last Water Gun, little buddy!" Not that she predicted the future, or anything, but Meri was totally right. Her opponent's Pokémon stopped moving, indicating that it had fainted.

Oshawott began running toward her, and she to him. When they were close, he jumped into her arms, the two of the squealing in unison delight. After some time to celebrate together, Roxanne walked over to the duo.

"Congratulations," Roxanne started, seemingly holding something back. "That was one of the more…interesting battles I've had in a while. But you won it. Getting my Nosepass stuck in the mud using my own gym design was smart."

Meri grinned in her triumph. "Thanks. But, uh, sorry about that," she laughed nervously. "I got so caught up in the battle, I forgot to return Wurmple."

Roxanne just waved it off. "Don't feel bad. It's nice to laugh every now and then," some of the brightness returned to face. "Speaking of your Wurmple though, you should probably return him. Your friend doesn't look like she's having such a good time. Does it do that often?"

Looking to where the studious woman was pointing, she saw that there was a girl curled up in the fetal position with a large caterpillar carrying a blank stare on top of her while people surrounded her in concern. When people got too close, it sprayed them with its silk. "Yeah," she groaned, "I should probably go help her."

"Please, hurry, my challengers are getting frightened," she said with a touch of sarcasm. "But first, take your Stone Badge and TM 39, Rock Tomb."

"Thank you," Meri said, politely shaking hands before running up the bleachers to save her friend's life from the harrowing might of one of the world's weakest Pokémon. When she got up there and shooed some of the onlookers away, she just stared for a moment.

Serenity slowed turned her head up and squinted as though there were some sort of very far away, very bright light besides the ones in the gym's high ceiling which were blocked out by Meri's head. "Meri…Meri, is that you?" Meri nodded and grunted in confirmation. "It's too late, I don't think I'll make it. Take good care of Combusken and Whismur. Tell them I loved them. Especially Combusken. More than she'll ever know…"

Meri just stared in amusement. "Okay, you've been dramatic enough for one day. Time for you to get up so we can get moving."

"Please Meri...I don't think I'll make it, unless you kiss—" Meri returned Wurmple. All of a sudden, Serenity was standing up with a huge smile plastered across her now bright and no longer pale skin. "Wow, I feel incredible now for some reason! I feel like something is missing though, like there should be something on my lips."

Meri simply rolled her eyes. "Uh huh, guess you'll have to live without it. Now, let's go check out of the Pokémon center. Well, after we make one quick stop."

"You really like it that much?" Serenity asked, not really understanding the fuss over what she thought was kind of a silly dress. The two of them stopped at the big mall they'd gone to on their first day in Rustboro. They discovered the dress that Meri had found that day was still there. It fit perfectly and she bought it while still wearing, and did so until they made it to the Pokémon center.

"I absolutely love it!" She practically squealed. When they got there, she changed in their temporary room before they checked out of it. "I just wish I didn't have to take it off." Once the dress had been put away into the PC, they were off again, into the wilderness of Hoenn.

By the end of the day, they had managed only to make it part-way through Route 116. They had been stopped by a number of trainers. Even though she had won pretty easily, Serenity didn't feel like battling much and ended up losing a couple of battles. Whismur was probably happy to get a chance to show what he could do, even though he was the one to suffer both losses. He was shown some love after every battle.

Meri, however, was riding a new level of high after her hard-fought victory. She absolutely rolled over each opponent that got in her way. Today was totally her day, and nothing would bring her down; that was a fact that she would bet on. When they finally settled down for the night, the sun was still falling beneath the horizon.

"I think Wurmple must be in love with you," Meri suggested.

Serenity looked at her with a look of frozen terror. "No way. Why would you even say such a horrible thing?"

Meri laughed. "When people tried to get close to you in the gym, he used String Shot to protect you! Why else would he do it?"

"Because he finds joy in me being scared for my life, that's why," she accused the poor Pokémon of being some sort of sadist.

"Come on, he's never actually attack you! Just laid on you and made some cute noises," Meri pointed out.

More glares came from the victimized girl with white hair. "Those are the noises of a killer. Just you wait. When I'm dead from multiple Poison Stings to the head, my blood will be on your hands! And you will feel so guilty and depressed that you didn't spend more time in intimate contact with this fantastic body!"

Meri giggled in amusement. "Maybe I will wish…" she trailed off, surprised by where her words were taking her and changed them so that they wouldn't imply anything. "…that I had listened to your warnings! Right. Anyways, that Colin guy, who got Cyndaquil? He's such a dick, what's his deal?"

They chatted until darkness reigned over the sky, or at least what the stars and moons did intrude on. The two girls were far enough away that most of the light pollution was gone, leaving most of the night's beauty for their eyes to gaze upon. Eventually, sleep overtook them.

Again, Meri fell into an unusual dream. She was held within the arms of Serenity, who was on her back, while her hands gently explored her body. They went all over her; sliding down her thin sides, cupping her face, lightly rubbing her small breasts. Two fingers traced their way down from the middle of her collar bone, down her chest, and fell away just below her stomach, making her whimper. She could tell the girl above her was grinning without looking.

Serenity lifted Meri's face up again. They brought their lips together, barely pressing them into each other. Then Meri took control, and moved herself into the kiss while she started grinding against the body below her, finding that after a few seconds it had become quite slick. Serenity ran her fingers on one hand through Meri's hair while the other hand went up and down her back, occasionally lightly dragging her nails or taking a firm grip on her slightly squishy ass. When they broke apart from the kiss, their breaths were heavy and shaky. Serenity leaned up and looked Meri right in the eye. One of her fingers, Meri realized, was inching towards a place in between her legs that could bring so much pleasure...

While it wasn't such a sudden wake-up as last night, as the sun was peaking out with little shoots light into the dawn sky, it was still embarrassing and confusing as hell. Well, at least I won my first gym battle and am getting closer to getting home. That's worth a couple nightmares every now and then, right?