And now that I finally finished with all the things I needed to get done, here's the newest chapter! Enjoy!

Training the next day went the same as it did yesterday. Avis was the first to volunteer and he was persist in battling. So, in order for all the Pokémon to get a chance to fight, Sora and Mia just had all the Pokémon battle him. Avis was more than gladly to accept those terms. Though Sora and Mia still didn't have a full grasp as to Avis's recent craving of battling. Sora suspected it had to do with this so called rival he mentioned the night before but decided to leave him alone about it for now.

During the training Avis managed to learn Agility. Soon he started to get the hang of the attack and was soaring through the skies dodging all kinds of attacks. But that wasn't the only interesting thing that happened during training. Sometime during a practice battle between Neptune, Bellona, and Abi, Avis started glowing. The attacks soon stopped as everyone watched in awe.

"He's evolving!" Mia gasped.

But sometime was wrong. Unless Sora was imagining things, Avis was…fighting against evolving. He had a look of pain and concentration and he could have sworn he heard Avis say something like, "Not yet."

This continued for a few more minutes until finally, the glowing finally ceased. Leaving behind only an exhausted Avis who soon fell unconscious. Sora rushed forward then rushed him inside to see Nurse Joy. Everyone else followed right behind.

By the time they came in an Audino was already wheeling Avis away on a cart and Sora was explaining things to Nurse Joy. She nodded then calmly assured him that Avis would be fine.

Soon Nurse Joy left to attend to another Trainer who came in with a sick Pokémon.

"I wonder why Avis resisted his evolution," Mia said, as the three sat in one of the rooms of the Pokémon Center with Avis resting on a pillow and cart. Sora's shoulders slumped at the question.

"Dunno. Guess he just didn't want to."

"Seems odd since he wants to gets stronger," Mia frowned. "Maybe he just wants to get stronger without having to relay on evolving in order to do it."

"Are there Pokémon like that?"

"Oh sure. There's plenty of Pokémon out there who like to prove their strength without having to evolve."

"Either way," Greiger said, "if he's ready to evolve then you can bet it's going to happen again. And I don't think he can keep resisting. It's not healthy for Pokémon to do that. I suggest giving him an Everstone."

Sora frowned. "An Everstone?"

"It's this stone that prevents a Pokémon from evolving. Plus in a way where it doesn't cause any problems to the Pokémon in doing so. We can ask Nurse Joy if she has one. As far as I know almost every Pokémon Center of stones like that handy in case passing Trainers are in need of some. Anyway, I think we should try and get one for now. At least until we can find out why Avis doesn't want to evolve. That way we don't have to worry about Avis getting sick from resisting evolution in the long run."

"Right." Mia got up. "I'll got ask Nurse Joy if she's got one here. If not then at least where we can get one. I don't remember if that store that sold stones like that is still open."

Mia then left the room.

"I think there's another reason Avis resisted evolving," Sora said, looking at his sleeping partner.

"Really now?" Greiger raised an eyebrow.

"Kind of. We got to talking yesterday before we retired for the night. He mentioned a rival that he wanted to beat. That can be a reason for it."

"Hmm, you might be right. We'll never know until he wakes up."

Greiger then got up and left. Sora watched him leave, sighed, then leaned back into his chair.

Around five, after Avis was awake and once again eager to fight, Sora and them left to go find the local Gym. However, they never got the chance. Because the flock Spearow showed up right after the whole fiasco with the Shiny Purrlion went down.

That all started when the trio were walking down Lumos Lane. They had just recently grabbed some ice cream and were walking when all of a sudden, something plowed right into Sora, causing him to fall forward.

"That hurt," Sora groaned, getting up. "What hit me?"

Instead of getting an answer, something soon attempted to hide in his jacket, causing him to take it off. Whatever had plowed into him, soon wrapped the thrown jacket over itself, like it was trying to hide from something.

Sora looked at the others with a baffled expression. They just shrugged. Sora then turned back to his jacket and lifted it to try and see just what was attempting to hide under it. What he saw was a cat-like Pokémon that had a large bow tied around it's neck. The Pokémon glanced around, as if looking for something or, possibly, someone.

What's got it so scared? Sora thought.

Sora got his answer when he heard someone calling. Mia looked to see someone running towards them. The person looked to be a butler and stopped at the trio.

"Pardon me," he panted. "Have you seen a Purrlion? One that is colored differently than normal ones?"

Mia didn't say anything at first. Then she said, "Well, I did see a blackish blue blur head that way."

Mia pointed to the park that was to their right.

"Not sure if that's what you were looking for but that's what I saw."

The butler thanked her then ran off in that direction. Once he was gone she looked under Sora's jacket and smiled, "It's okay now. He's gone. You can come out now."

Slowly, the Pokémon came out from under Sora's jacket, and glanced in the direction that the butler went.

"Purrlion—the Devious Pokémon. Purrlion fools people into letting their guard down so it can steal their possessions. When it is angered, it will began to fight back with their claws."

Sora pocketed his Pokédex. True enough, the Purrlion was colored differently than the one on the Pokédex. This Purrlion's fur was blackish blue instead of purple and dark violet markings instead of regular violet. The bow tied around it's neck was a white bow that the Purrlion was trying to claw off. Sora instead untied the bow for the Purrlion, which caused it to be greatly relieved.

"You still don't like your owner that much do you?" Greiger said, getting down. The Purrlion let out a hiss and flicked it's tail.

"Yeah I can imagine," Mia said, getting down as well. She pet the Purrlion on the head and gave a small smile. "I don't blame you for running away all the time. Shame you always end up in her arms one way or another."

The Purrlion made a lot of protesting noises and waved it's arms around as it did.

"Seriously?" Sora frowned. "Doesn't sound like a good owner if that's how she treats you. No wonder you hate her. She treats you like an object and not a person, er, I mean Pokémon."

Avis popped out of his Poké Ball and spoke to the Purrlion. Sora and Mia face palmed at the things he said. That's why they didn't blame the Purrlion from using a Sand-Attack right in his face. Avis, clearly outraged, then began to demand a battle with the Purrlion. Claiming he was "too tough of a Pokémon to be treated in such a way." Sora wasn't entirely sure about that, but he wasn't entirely up for a fight.

Sora just petted the Purrlion on the head, apologized for what Avis said, and even offered to buy it a new ribbon. The Purrlion smiled at that.

After Sora bought the Purrlion a new silver ribbon and tied it around the Purrlion's neck, the three set said goodbye to the Purrlion and wished it luck. Right after they did that, they continued to head towards the Gym. Course unfortunately, they never got there.

By the time they started walking again the flock of Spearow showed up, being lead by a Fearow. The Spearow perched on the rooftops while the Fearow perched on the branch of a large tree.

"Fearow," it said. "Fearow fear."

Avis, who was perched on Sora's shoulder, let out a growl. He also tightened his claws on his shoulders causing Sora to hiss in pain.

"Spearow! Spearow spear!" Avis protested.

Sora, momentarily ignoring the pain in his shoulder, looked at Avis. What did he mean by that? That he was going to beat that Fearow this time? Unless…

Sora looked to the Fearow. Could it be that that Fearow was the Pokémon Avis was talking about the other night? The one he wanted to prove himself to. Avis's rival.

"You wanna take it on Avis?" Sora asked him.

Avis nodded.

"You leave the rest of the Spearow to us," Mia said, bringing out a Poké Ball.

"You two handle that Fearow," Greiger added, pulling one out as well. "We've got this."

Sora smiled at them then grinned at Avis.

"Ready for a fight?"

Avis appeared to grin right back.

"Then let's get on to it."

Sora charged forward while Avis charged at the Fearow, who left it's branch to charge forward to meet him.

The battle instantly went into the Fearow's favor. Avis charged at it with a Peck attack all charged up, but the Fearow just let out an orange beam from it's beak that struck Avis dead on. The attack sent Avis to the ground where he stayed for a few moments as he struggled to get up. The second he was up, Sora told him to use the newest move they learned—Assurance. The attack seemed to do quite a bit of damage, Sora found it a bit strange the Fearow didn't even make an attempt to dodge, but the Fearow easily shook it off.

That was the attack pattern they kept to. Using Assurance again and again while dodging the Fearow's Fury Attack and Pluck attacks. Sora didn't want to admit it but unless Avis could learn to hold on, he probably wasn't going to win this battle. They just weren't trained enough yet. And just by watching the Fearow move through the air he could tell it had been through serious training. Probably for years.

The Fearow struck Avis one last time using a Pluck attack that sent him flying. Sora instinctively ran forward and caught him before he fell to the ground. Just looking at him Sora could tell he was seriously hurt. No doubt he'd need to spend another night resting in the Pokémon Center.

"Fearow fear," the Fearow chuckled, perching on the same branch as before.

"Hey, you leave him alone!" Mia shouted at the Fearow. "Is that anyway to treat someone who's fought his hardest? Some leader you are."

"Fearow fearow!" the Fearow protested.

"Ha? Now there's a good lie," Greiger scoffed. "Now why don't you go and fly away with the horribly beaten flock of Spearow? I'm sure once you get back to your nest they can start licking their wounds."

The Fearow growled then called out the Spearow. As best they could, they got up and flew away with the Fearow leading them.

Avis noticed this and called out to the Fearow, shouting that their battle wasn't over. Sora struggled to hold him back, not wanting him to get hurt anymore than he was now (he was probably going to have to spend another night in the Pokémon Center recovering from the injuries), telling him that he could finish their battle another day. Avis wouldn't really have it though.

When Avis finally worked his way out of Sora's grip he could only watch as the flock of Spearow were nothing more than specks in the sky. He growled then let out an angry cry.

"Another day Avis," Greiger told him. "Rest now and fight when you're even stronger."

Avis just shouted at Greiger, most of which weren't very pleasant things to say. Greiger tried not to take very much offense but Sora knew that was a bit of a hard thing to do.

"Greiger is right Avis," Sora told him. "If you really want to beat that Fearow so bad, you need to take the time to get stronger. Look, I may not know the history you got with that Fearow, but you need to admit that you're not strong enough to beat him yet."

"Spearow, spearow spearow spearow!"

"Avis..."

Avis then turned away and looked in the direction that the Fearow gone.

"That explains why he doesn't want to evolve," Mia said.

Sora nodded. "Not until he's proven himself to that Fearow that he's not a disgrace to being a Spearow." Sora then smiled then walked over and began to pet Avis on the head, causing the Flying-type to look up at him. "Don't worry buddy. You'll get stronger. And one day, you're going to beat that Spearow with no problem. Cause I'm going to help. That's a promise."

Now it was Avis who was looking at Sora, unable to think of what to say. Mia walked over and smiled at him as well.

"Don't forget about me. I'll help too."

Greiger smirked then flicked Avis on the beak. "We're all in mate."

Tears started to form in Avis's eyes. However, he just turned away from them, trying to look all dignified, as he tried to hold them back.

"S—Spearow spear," he told them.

Sora chuckled. "Yeah, I'm sure the sand is making your eyes sting. Maybe next time you'll remember to dodge that Sand Attack."

"Yeah and I'm sure that that Purrlion just got a lucky shot." Greiger turned to the others with a teasing grin. "Right?"

Sora mirrored the grin. "Yeah I'm sure it was."

Sometime later, the three returned to the Pokémon Center and waited while Avis received care for his injuries. During their wait, Nurse Joy finally gave them an Everstone for Avis, having to call in a favor from an old friend in order to get it. Sora and the others thanked her for it then decided to give it to Avis after he was fully recovered. Though Sora wondered how Avis was going to carry it but Mia managed to come up with an idea. She took the stone from Sora then left ("Just give me some time to work my magic!" she winked before leaving). Sora looked to Greiger who just shrugged then went back to his book.

By the time dinner rolled around, Mia finally returned. And in her hands was a tribal necklace with the Everstone carved and made into a pendant.

"Ta-da!" Mia grinned, presenting the necklace to an awestruck Sora and Greiger.

"Whoa, that's some seriously craftsmanship," Sora smiled, examining the necklace."

"Why thank you. I used some Spearow feathers that I found back where we fought them off—as a way to motivate Avis and because Spearow feathers are supposed to represent determination—some old Sharpedo teeth from a merchant—to represent being true to one's self in terms of power, as some civilizations used to believe—and some regular old leather cording. Took some time to carve the Everstone but I think it came out nicely."

"Guess all those years making childish jewelry for your father's Pokémon paid off," Greiger smirked.

"It appears so," Mia smiled, looking mighty pleased with herself. "Think it's manly enough for Avis?"

Sora laughed. "I think he can get over it."

"Well I would hope so," Mia said with a pout. "Seeing as how I put so much work into it."

"Well let's go find out," Greiger suggested. "I'm sure Avis is awake by now. After all, he's a stubborn bird as we all know."

Mia snickered as the three went to the room where Avis was resting in. Sure enough they found him awake and looking mighty annoyed that he was confined to the bed he was resting on.

"Hey buddy, look what Mia made for you," Sora grinned, showing him the necklace. "She used an Everstone so that you won't have to worry about evolving anytime soon. After all, we gotta spend our time training right?"

Avis nodded as Sora placed the necklaces around his neck.

"So, why don't we go eat then we can get started," Sora smiled.

Avis nodded.

There you go, the twenty-first chapter over and done. Sorry again for the long wait but I had a seriously lot going on (family came down, prom, graduation, that kind of stuff). Anyway, see you next time on whatever I make. Ta-ta!

Fearow can learn Hyper Beam and Pluck via TM