I stood on one side of the field, and Burgh on the other. Standard procedures. Our ref for the battle, who stood in the usual place equally in between the leader and I, was August. "This battle is a three-on-three battle between Cecilia and the gym leader Burgh," August announced. I noticed that one of Burgh's eyebrows raised at the sound of my name, as if it rang a bell. "The trainer who succeeds in knocking out their opponent's three Pokemon is to be deemed the winner."

I tightly clutched Grace's Pokeball in my right hand. I decided to pick her for this battle because she was the most relaxed and focused of my three Pokemon. (Riolu was rather timid, and Delilah was rather...Delilah.) I was nervous, no doubt about that. You'd think that practically being given one badge and successfully winning another would have been a boost to my self-esteem, but it just wasn't enough. I still hadn't convinced myself that I was a decent trainer.

Burgh had his Pokeball firmly grasped in his hand. He was ready to battle. He seemed...enlightened, I suppose; he didn't seem to be overly serious about battling, but he didn't appear to be overly relaxed and careless either.

We both waited for August to officially begin the battle. Burgh stared at me, mostly focusing his attention on my Pokeball and who I'd send out of it. I didn't know if he was trying to figure out who I was going to call to battle for art reasons or for battle reasons, but it somewhat creeped me out.

After much silence, August finally called out, "Let the battle commence!"

With a flamboyant toss of his arm, Burgh sent out his Pokemon: a purple bug-type with a body that was coiled into a ball. I quickly whisked my Pokedex out of my bag and scanned the Pokemon. The contraption said in its usual robotic voice, "Whirlipede: the Curlipede Pokemon. It is usually motionless, but when attacked, it rotates at high speed and then crashes into its opponent."

Gotta be careful with this one, I thought.

I then threw Grace's Pokeball in the air. Out came my usual graceful Gardevoir, poised ever-so elegantly, but ready to battle like never before. It was almost as if the previous gym battle gave her a surge of sureness and strength-something I knew I was lacking at that very moment.

Burgh found her to be extremely intriguing. I could tell that he wanted to pull out his sketch pad and draw her right then and there, but he knew that the battle came first. His voice filled with amazement, he told me, "Ah! A Gardevoir! How rare and interesting! I'm assuming that you're a foreigner, then, Cecilia."

"Yeah," was my response.

"Well, I'll let you make the first move," Burgh offered. "Dazzle me with your Pokemon's stunning attacks!"

I thought long and hard for a moment. What type is Whirlipede again? August mentioned it before, but...agh! It was bug and...bug and...

Out of nowhere, my mouth suddenly blabbered out the following command: "Grace, use Psychic!"

Using the attack, Grace used her impeccable mental capabilities to levitate the curled-up Pokemon in the air. It seemed to be tormenting the poor thing, to the point where it was violently spinning in circles in mid-air in desperate and infuriated attempts to escape. To add to that, the attack was doing its usual damage to the Pokemon.

However, I didn't know what to do next. Giga Impact? I thought. No, too soon in the battle for that. Shock Wave? I don't know; maybe. Calm Mind...well, I don't think she can get any more relaxed and focused at the moment. So...guess Shock Wave it is. "Grace, send a Shock Wave attack through the Psychic field surrounding Whirlipede!"

She mimicked my commands, and the strategy seemed to work...somewhat. The Shock Wave attack wasn't strong enough to bring down Whilipede, not to mention too weak to even do enough damage. Then again, the battle had just begun. Once Grace released her grasp on Whirlipede, sending it into the ground, the opponent's Pokemon braced itself for a ferocious attack. Burgh pulled a graphite pencil out of his pocket and pointed it at Whirlipede. "Be a dear and use Bug Bite!" he commanded in an energetic yet mellow voice.

The Pokemon unraveled itself and pounced at Grace. Once it was on top of her, it began nipping at her arms and cheeks. It was doing an incredible amount of damage for some reason, and I began to panic. August seemed to notice my concern. She yelled out, "Grace is weak to bug-type moves like Bug Bite! Did I forget to mention that?"

"Yes, you forgot!" I answered. "It would've been helpful if you had told me before the battle, though!"

"Sorry!" she apologized.

Once Whirlipede let go of Grace's body, it curled back up into it's little wheel-like form. My Pokemon looked rather frazzled. "Grace, use Calm Mind!" I commanded, hoping that it would helpher relax and regain her focus.

The psychic-type used that moment to keep her head in the game. She meditated in mid-air while Burgh was planning his next move. Sooner than I had hoped, Burgh commanded, pointing his pencil at his Pokemon like before, "Now, Poison Tail!"

"What?" I shrieked. But, I thought, aren't Seviper the only ones who can learn that move?

The attack knocked Grace to the ground. She was weak, and it was no surprise. The attack had poisoned her, and she was in serious pain-pain which I could feel as well, oddly enough.

My blood was coursing through my body rapidly. My heart beat so fast that it felt like it was about to burst out of my chest. At that moment, I knew that I wasn't prepared enough for this battle; there were just too many things that I didn't know-so many things that would make me a much stronger trainer if I was better informed. However, I was still learning and lacking experience-unlike August, who seemed extremely experienced.

Speaking of August, she seemed to notice my state of panic. "Cecilia, remember to relax!" she reminded me.

I took a few deep breaths. In, out, I thought incessantly as I inhaled and exhaled. Happy thoughts. Think happy-

I saw him again. N. He was isolated in the back-right corner of the room, like at the Striaton Gym. He didn't seem happy...but I mulled over the fact that he possibly was supporting me...

...or is he here to distract me? I wondered. I shook my head. No, I tried to convince myself. That's not right. Not in the least. Or...could he? No. No. No. I shook my head in disbelief once more. Try to ignore him, Cecilia. He's becoming too much of a distraction.

August couldn't decipher what was ailing me. "Cecilia?" she called out, "Cecilia! Snap out of it, whatever it is! Focus! You can do it! You can-"

She stopped once Burgh called out, "Now, let's finish this work of art with Pursuit!"

The Curlipede Pokemon spun rapidly in place, ramming into Grace with great force. It knocked her across the battlefield, almost causing her to slide onto my feet. She was close enough to me, however, for me to notice how hurt she was.

A sharp pain jabbed me in the gut and shot streams of agony throughout my entire body. I had no idea what was going on, but I had inferred something about it:

Maybe...maybe we share a deeper psychic connection than we have hoped for.

Grace began to sob, and I mimicked the action-this time by choice. "Cece," my friend asked me telepathically, "are you okay?"

"A better question is," I responded in question form, "are you okay?"

Grace's head lifted for a brief moment, then dropped to the ground. A throbbing headache occurred on the left side of my skull. My entire body began to ache. Before I returned her to her Ultra Ball, I began to question how severe her injuries were.

Once the Gardevoir was in its place, I called to Burgh, "W-wait! Time out!"

He raised an eyebrow. "Well," he said, "if you must."

With a frenzied gesture of my hand, I motioned August to come over to me. "Please," I requested, worried about the safety of both my psychic-type and myself, "please take her to the Pokemon Center. She's never been hurt this bad before."

August nodded her head in understanding and agreed: "I saw that. She was badly poisoned and attacked by a bug-type and a dark-type move. Oftentimes, that means bad news for any psychic-type. I'll take her to the Pokemon Center right-"

The pain in my gut continued, growing increasingly worse as each moment passed. I wrapped my arms around the pain-stricken area and collapsed to my knees. "Hurry," I urged in a weak voice.

Everything after that went black.