Disclaimer: Pokémon isn't mine. I'm getting tired of doing this.

"Speech"

'Thought'

'Electronic Speech'

Early afternoon in Lavaridge town seemed nonchalant, barely anybody would be awake at this hour. Unless somebody had a job to do, like being a gym leader. And if a battle nut like Brendan Kobushi was around, they would also be awake.

Which he was.

"Yosh, now its time to take on the gym!" Proclaimed the hot-blooded protagonist proudly as he marched over to the gym.

"Are you sure you don't want to do any more training?" Asked Erica as she trailed behind him.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure we can handle this just fine."

The blond veteran trainer looked off to the side and contemplated on what she should do while the nut would be battling. Training for her next encounter with the teams seemed to be like the best thing.

"Well, while you are in the gym. I'm going to go train." Stated Erica as she turned around and started to head to the outskirts of town. "Good luck."

Brendan waved off to his companion as she left, he then turned around and practically sprinted towards the building. The interior much resembled the hot springs from yesterday, to which the boy twitched in pleasure and fear.

There didn't appear to be any sort of direct path to the gym leader and the only option present was a wooden panel. So Brendan positioned himself on it before the panel gave way and he fell straight through.

"NANI!?"

Luckily his landing was soft, but unlikely for him he would have to solve a puzzle of going up and down and fighting against various trainers.

'This isn't going to be easy.' Regretted the challenger.

In Littleroot Town, Caroline Kobushi was preparing a bento lunch for her husband. And right on time as he came down ready for his job at the gym.

"Here you go honey, good luck today." She handed him the bento and kissed him on the cheek.

"Thanks, I appreciate it."

As the gym leader was about to exit, he saw a news report on the television about some large scale battle at Mt. Chimney yesterday. His wife caught sight of this and turned her attention to the screen.

'And it was here that less than twenty-four hours ago a war between two unknown groups had erupted. The events that took place still baffle authorities.' Images started to pop up from yesterday's battle.

Norman and Caroline flinched when they saw a glimpse of Brendan in the picture. At first they were worried, but the man settled his fears when he saw Erica there as well.

"Oh dear...our child." She was starting to faint, but Norman caught her.

"Don't worry, he'll be just fine. The girl that he is with is incredibly strong. And he is getting stronger too."

Now instead of just being worried about her son being in danger, Caroline was surprised that he was traveling with a girl.

With the majority of the geysers and trap doors explored, Brendan finally emerged in the same vicinity as the gym leader. The gym leader, who was a girl, sat under a red-leafed tree.

Her outfit was noticeable, to say the least as she wore a black midriff top and blue jeans. Her hair was long and a passionate red. And of course, her chest was beyond noticeable. When she saw Brendan approach her, the girl instantly jumped up. He blushed at the sight of her busty figure.

'Wow, she's a knock out.'

"You must be a challenger!" Proclaimed the girl loudly. "Don't think you can take me lightly because-I mean, This will be a three-on-three battle with-hold on, I might be new but I'm not about to-wait, I'm Flannery and I'm about to destroy with the skills I inherited from my family."

She then took a fighting stance and yelled loudly.

"Very well, I Brendan Kobushi of Littleroot Town challenge you." Despite his enthusiasm, the challenger was suspicious this girl's nervousness.

The first pokemon sent out by Flannery was a Slugma. Brendan decided that he wanted to win quickly, so he sent out Aqua. In response to see a water type pokemon present on the battlefield, the redhead panicked a little.

"Aqua, use water gun-"

"Slugma, use light screen!" The water shot out from Aqua and impacted the fire slug, but the presence of light screen lessened the damage considerably. "Alirght, Slugma use sunny day."

Then, as if it was by a miracle, the lighting in the gym suddenly became brighter. Now water gun was effectively useless in front light screen and under sunny day. But this wouldn't be good enough to stop the block head.

"Don't give up Aqua, use mud bomb." By sheer will, the Marshtomp formed a giant ball of mud in between his flippers and launched it at Slugma.

Staying true to the name, mud bomb let off a somewhat large explosion. And a knocked out fire slug was left in the wake.

"Yosh, one down!" Cheered the challenger.

Flannery's face grew a little flustered as she exchanged her fallen pokemon for a different fire type. This time, the pokemon much more resembled a camel with its tan fur and semi-long neck. The numb pokemon, Numel.

'I'm betting on it being a ground-fire type.' Thought Brendan in his head. 'Alright, this is gonna be a snap!'

The gym leader saw the brimming confidence on her opponents face and panicked, again.

"Q-quick Numel, use amnesia!" Her pokemon waddled around to look at her with an expression that displayed misunderstanding. "You know, amnesia?"

With haste, the challenger gave the command for and attack. "Aqua, use water gun!"

The ever so confident water starter released his power stream of water, however the camel pokemon kept its dumbfounded expression. The attack was a direct hit, perfect hit actually, but the Numel still stood despite the clear type advantage.

"But how, that should've been a super-effective attack." Haste now went to Flannery as she started laughing heartedly.

"Hahaha. Baka, Numel's amnesia raised special defenses by forgetting about things. That in combination with sunny day and light screen makes your water gun puny!"

However, Brendan didn't buy into that and still assumed that she just got lucky.

"Alright then, we'll resort to brute force. Aqua use mud slap!" Commanded the challenger.

"Numel, use earth power!"

Right as the Marshtomp was trying to get some mud, the ground from which he was cultivating from, suddenly exploded in his face like a miniature volcano.

"Alright Aqua, you take a break." Pulling out the pokeball, Brendan withdrew his pokemon and pondered what to do for this situation.

'If sunny day and light screen make it harder to damage by long range attacking, then we should get up close.' With that thought in mind, he released Rin.

"Numel, use earth power again!" Confidence blinded Flannery as she decided to spam, thus the challenger smirked at his chance.

"Quick Rin, dodge out of the way!" Being nimble on her feet allowed the dark type to escape being caught up in the attack. "Now use bite attack!"

Continuing on her nimble movements, Rin quickly closed the distance between her and Numel and bit down on his hump. But despite the fact that it was being attacked in a brutal way, Numel still didn't care too much.

"Numel, use lava plume!" And once again, her pokemon turned around with a numb expression. "You know, that thing you do?"

Suddenly the dim-witted pokemon erupted out of its back and straight into Rin, sending her sprawling back in the process. The challenger was now surprised that such a pokemon as numb as Numel had such a powerful move.

'Gonna have to think this through.' Now his brain was starting to go numb, until he realized that the battlefield wasn't so bright anymore.

"Ok Rin, use snarl!" The Mightyena nodded and emitted her destructive snarl onto the ground-fire type.

Flannery, who was still somewhat confident in her numb partner, was baffled when the attack was able to deal damage and defeat Numel.

"But..how?" Brendan smirked and rubbed his nose.

"Baka, I noticed that the sunny day had worn off and I guessed that light screen would wear off soon enough as well." Mocked the challenger.

The fiery gym leader retrieved her pokemon and sighed a little. Pulling out her final pokeball, her face grew in intensity. Her final pokemon was somewhat resembling of a Tortoise, it was red skinned and had a puff of smoke coming out of its back. The coal pokemon, Torkoal.

"You did well Rin, take a rest." He retrieved his partner, who was a little reluctant to do so. Pulling out his pokemon for the final bout, which was surprisingly Natsumi.

"Torkoal, use sunny day!" It was obvious that Flannery was aiming to increase the attack on her side and wasn't worried about her opponent.

"Natsumi, charge in with a headbutt!" The fire fox followed through with her command and rammed straight into her opponent.

But after she landed the hit, Natsumi was now too close to her opponent. And because of that, she was left open to attack.

"Torkoal, use body slam!"

"Quick Natsumi, dodge!" Quick footing didn't help out the Vulpix here as all six of her tails were now caught under Torkoal's weight. She scurried to get out from under the tortoise's weight.

"Baka, you can defeat us with the type that I specialize in." Mocked the gym leader, to which Brendan stuck his tongue out at her.

"Yeah, well we'll see about that."

He looked down to his pokemon to see if she was ready and was met with patient eyes. The boy nodded and prepared for the next attack.

"Natsumi, use your confuse ray!" And eerie light floated from the fire fox and implanted on the fire tortoise, who couldn't dodge thanks to low speed.

"Oh no, Torkoal, snap out of it! Use body slam!" The confused fire type stumbled around a bit before slamming its head into the ground.

Flannery felt nervous looking at this scene while Brendan was trying his best to suppress laughter, but he pulled himself together for an attack.

"Now use hex!" Natsumi silently cursed her opponent and dealt double damage due to the fact that Torkoal had a status condition.

"Come on Torkoal, please use body slam!" Begged the red head, and as if on command her pokemon snapped out of its confusion and launched itself onto the Vulpix.

After being pressed into the rock ground, Natsumi fervently scurried out from her heavy opponent. Both fire type pocket monsters were now low on health points, one more hit from either side would produce a victory.

Brendan sweated a little nervously, but he wasn't about to give up yet. Flannery too, wasn't going to give in to her doubt now.

"Torkoal, use overheat!"

"Natsumi, use fire spin!"

Immediately after hearing their commands, both fire pokemon erupted flames around their opponent. As a result twin pillars of fire erupted in the arena, it was almost as if they were metaphors to the trainers' wills.

When the fires dissipated, two pokemon were left in the wake, and both looked like they had been through a tough battle. But ultimately, Torkoal collapsed.

"Yatta, we won!" Cheered Brendan as his pokemon ran over to him.

Flannery sighed and retrieved her partner before walking over and handing Brendan his badge.

"I still have no idea how your pokemon pulled off that last move." Stated the gym leader.

"Well, I think Natsumi's ability allowed her to take in the fire and increase her power. It was either that or she shares my will to not give up." Answered the victor as he rubbed his pokemon's head.

Flannery sighed happily, relieved that the pressuring battle was over.

"Well, I'll make sure to take what I learned from this battle and get even better." Admitted the novice gym leader.

Brendan bowed, thanking her for the match before exiting with his pokemon. Now by herself, Flannery was about to heal her pokemon with nearby medicine before she had an epiphany.

'Wait a minute, Kobushi...that means he's...'

Almost immediately upon exiting the gym, Brendan ran into May Birch.

"May!"

"Brendan, what a surprise." She looked at him and his exhausted form for a second before deducing what was going on. "Let me guess, you beat the gym?"

He happily nodded and displayed his fourth badge. May clapped happily for her friend and she handed him a pair of go-goggles.

"I figured that you and Erica might want these. They'll help you get by the desert."

"Wow, thanks May." The brunette girl then walked over to the entrance of the gym with a confident pose.

"I'm going to take on the gym, wish me luck. Tell Erica I said hi."

"Do you want us to wait for you?" He got a shaking head as a response.

"Nah, I know how much you want to challenge the Petalburg gym." She walked into the building while her friend contemplated how predictable he was for a second. But he shrugged off that thought before sprinting off to find Erica.

The outskirts of Lavaridge town was covered with several steep hills, which made training harder for Erica as she had to be careful of falling down.

"Tetsa, use rock slide...now!" The iron pokemon generated many rocks that fell down toe Hanatoro and Amber. "Alright you two, dodge now!"

The two tiny pokemon scurried around to dodge the oncoming threat. Needless to say, they were exhausted as a result. Their trainer saw this and decided that a break would be good for them.

"Ok, lets take a break."

Her pokemon were exhausted from this kind of rigorous training on each other, though they knew exactly why they needed the push. It was obvious that Team Aqua and Team Magma were a real threat, and they needed to be dealt with.

While sitting down and watching over her pokemon, Erica thought deeply about what these teams were doing.

'Just what is it that those teams are up to? Are they so passionate that they'd go to extreme means like Lysandre?' Pondered the girl.

Brendan's excitement had gone to a level of thirteen on a scale of ten, he had finally beaten four gyms and was ready to take on his father for a match. With extreme confidence brimming, he went to tell Erica the news.

The sight of his teacher appeared on the outskirts of the town, but he was so happy that he didn't notice her deep in thought.

'But to get an extreme result they would need an extremely powerful source. Does that mean-'

"ERICA I DID IT!"

On impulse, the blond jumped up and punched her friend in the gut and launched him again. Her face quickly changed to surprise as he stumbled backwards before falling on his butt.

"Ah gomen. Are you alright?" Apologized the girl as she helped him up.

"Y-yeah I fine. I didn't expect you to have such a powerful right hook." Wheezed the boy.

Once he was on his feet, and could stay on his feet, Brendan pulled out his final badge before placing it in the badge case. A jubilant smile spread across his face.

"That's good to know Brendan, I'm so proud of you." He instantly gave her an incredulous look at that comment. "As a teacher, I mean."

He took some time to explain how the battle went and how he was able to strategize when he needed to the most. And of course, he couldn't leave out the fact that Flannery was smokin' hot (pun intended).

"Oh, I see." Said Erica as she chewed her lip.

"What? Is something wrong?" Asked Brendan.

"Nothing's wrong, absolutely nothing." She turned away from him while still chewing her lip.

Her upset behavior left Brendan baffled, but instinct (and probably experience) told him that it would be best to complement her.

"But...she wasn't nearly as good as you are...when it comes to pokemon battles." His complement was rushed, and he didn't have the confidence to tell her that she was pretty.

A few seconds a silence passed with Erica still facing back from him before she sighed.

"Sorry about that, I was being rude." Apologized the blond as she turned around.

"It's no problem, so do you think that I'm ready to go face the Petalburg gym?" Asked the confident protagonist.

Erica cupped her chin for a second to think, and the seconds that passed were very tense for the boy. However he was relieved when his teacher gave him a reassuring face.

"I guess that you are ready now." Answered the blond.

Without words to express his glee, Brendan pumped his fists in extreme glee before embracing his teacher in a hug. Erica hugged him back as she could feel his happiness radiating.

"And I think that these will help us get there quicker." Proclaimed Brendan as he pulled out a pair of goggles. Instantly, Erica became curious about them.

"Where did you get those from?"

"May gave them to me. She said to tell you hi." Answered the boy.

So after healing their pokemon, the two disembarked from Lavaridge town. Having the go-goggles were very helpful as they were now able to cross the desert with relative ease, minus the wild pokemon and trainer battles.

By the time they had reached Mallville, sorry, Mauville city, it was noon and time for lunch. A nearby food court seemed like a good place to stop.

While their pokemon ate, Brendan scarfed down as much ramen as his stomach could handle. Erica had to chuckle a little at his behavior.

"What's so funny?" Asked the oblivious boy.

"Nothing, you just looking a little funny." Answered the girl as she calmly ate a croquette.

Brendan dismissed her behavior and went back to eating, as all guys like to do. While he was stuffing his face, the boy wondered a little bit about his upcoming match with his father.

"Hey Erica, what do you think I should do after my next gym battle?" Asked the boy curiously.

"If you want my honest opinion, you should do what you want to do." Answered the girl in between croquettes.

"Not exactly the answer I was looking for. I've always wanted to beat my father so badly, maybe afterwards I should go explore a different region." Proposed Brendan, to which Erica strangely choked a little.

She couldn't quite explain it, but the blond didn't like the idea of being separated from Brendan.

'No, I can go anywhere I want to on my own now.' Her attempt to reassure herself was hasty, but she regained her composure

"If that's what you want to do, you should pursue it."

This time the answer was helpful, but Brendan was now a little worried about her due to her choking. He was going to pursue that instead, but her now stable appearance warded him off from doing so.

The trek back to Petalburg city was anything except for short. Since they still couldn't cross the sea, the two trainers had to go back through Rustboro city and then through Petalburg woods.

By the time they had arrived at their destination, it was getting late and the gym was already closed. Brendan sighed disappointingly at this sight, to which Erica tried to console him.

"Don't worry about it, you should be able to challenge him tomorrow. Besides, a good night's rest will help you out." Proposed the foreign trainer.

Instead of directly objecting, the brunette just gave an agreeing nod.

"You're right. But I think that I want to train just a little bit harder." Suggested the boy.

His teacher wasn't too keen on the idea of him training harder like this. After all, it would be hard for him to win tomorrow if he didn't have the energy to do so. But she relented as she knew that his passion was one that was hard to quell.

"Fine, just don't take too long. I'll check us in at the Pokémon Center." Stated the girl as she walked away.

With his teacher now gone, Brendan was left to himself. The solitude didn't stay for long as he released all of his pokemon.

"Ok everyone, I know that this is late, but follow me into the woods for a little bit more training."

None of the pocket monsters were hesitant to the idea and followed him towards Petalburg woods.

Erica sat down on her bed and used her holo-caster to read the local news. Nothing seemed to stand out to her so she pulled out her special gem that she had found in Shalour Bay last year.

Looking at the red, blue, and yellow clashing together always seemed nostalgic to the blond. However, her mind was know focused on Brendan and what would happen after tomorrow.

'I know that I want to keep traveling with him but...no, if he wants to go then I should let him.'

Her resolve was strong enough to put doubt out of her mind, for now.

The normally dark and calm atmosphere of Petalburg Woods was disturbed by echoes of nearby battles. Brendan's pokemon were sparring hard against each other with Aqua versus Apato and Rin versus Natsumi.

Brendan himself was busy training his body as hard as he could. Without his hat on, he repeatedly did hand stand push ups with determination spread across his face. That same determination fired up even more when he saw his pokemon sparring.

Rin jumped up and tried to chomp down on Natsumi, who dodged the attack and retaliated with a headbutt. Aqua tried to strike Apato hard on the head with a rock smash but missed and was left open to a mach punch.

'I...I can do...even better.'

A strong push launched him off of the ground onto his feet. Brendan then began to sprint through the woods, dodging the darkened trees that were in his path.

'Get better.'

He jumped up over a wide stream of water.

'Get better.'

He grabbed hold of a tree branch and launched himself back in the direction he came from...

"GET BETTER!"

And he slammed his fist into a nearby tree with all his might. The force was powerful enough to startle many of the pokemon in the tree and cause fruit to fall down from it. A red streak of blood streamed down from Brendan's fist onto the tree.

He retracted his arm and looked at his bloody fist. The same look of pure determination had not wavered at all. His gaze shifted to all of his pokemon, who shared his determination.

'I...no...we will win.'

Thank you for reading this chapter, I hoped you liked it. If there is anything that you have to say about the story, please leave a review. In the next chapter is Brendan's long awaited battle against Norman, a battle that will be tougher than anything he has ever gone through. But even beyond that will lie a conflict that he will not be ready for.