"…Man…" Leaf stared at the piles of fainted Pokémon on the ground that her Lucario had defeated. Maybe Lucario didn't really need much extensive training after all... It seemed to her that Lucario could actually fare well against her other Pokémon if they took it easy on him.

"That Counter of yours is actually pretty effective," Leaf said to Lucario as he walked over in her direction. She had finally figured out his last attack when he had used it against a wild Starly. And of course, now she could understand why he couldn't demonstrate it for her earlier when there were no other Pokémon around.

"I've been thinking…" Leaf began, "what would you say to a little bit of sparring with my other Pokémon? I think you're ready now to tackle tougher opponents."

Lucario looked eager to try that idea.

"Cool!" Leaf grinned. She let out all of her Pokémon except for Azelf. She figured it wasn't particularly safe to let him out yet. She was still a little nervous about Team Galactic.

"Hey everyone," Leaf smiled as she greeted her Pokémon. Popuri immediately flew up to her to dust her off. Then she attempted to move on to Lucario. However, Lucario wasn't accustomed to this ritual, and he swatted the annoying bird away whenever Swablu got too close.

"Whoa, take it easy," Leaf noticed that this could become a conflict.

"Swablu is only trying to dust you off," Leaf explained to Lucario, "She does it to everybody. Just relax and let her do her thing."

Lucario allowed Popuri to dust him off. He closed his eyes and braced himself like he was about to be struck by a brutal attack. But it was over quickly, and Swablu moved on to the next Pokémon. When she finished, she headed over to a little brook to clean off her wings.

"Okay, how about we do a little bit of training?" Leaf asked her Pokémon.

"Boooo!" Blathers called out.

Leaf rolled her eyes, "Fine; Blathers can sit out while everyone else trains."

"No, please don't leave me…" Blathers sobbed dramatically as though he had been left behind to die.

"Whatever! I was only saying that because I figured the rest of you could break off into two groups and train together…" Leaf was annoyed.

"But fine, Vegeta; would you mind sitting out for this one?" Leaf asked.

Vegeta looked to be rather adamantly opposed to the idea. He loved training almost as much as battling.

"Okay… Blaze?" Leaf tried. Blaze leapt over to Leaf and nuzzled against her, "Aw, thanks; I'm glad you're agreeable at least," Leaf smiled as she stroked her Flareon.

"As for the rest of you, I think it'll work out smoothly if you split off into two groups to spar with each other…. Lucario, I think it'll be best if you pair with-" Leaf was cut off by frantic begging from Vegeta.

"What! You've gotta be kiddin' me!" Leaf exclaimed. That was just insane! Vegeta had been battling opponents for years; Lucario just started this morning! What kind of horrible match-up was that?

But Lucario seemed to like the idea. The two of them glared at each other with intensity.

"Uh… okay…" Leaf scratched her head, "Fine. Just try not to kill each other. Blathers and Swablu will have to spar with each other then…"

"This town ain't big enough fer the two of us," Blathers strutted over to Popuri. Popuri chirped threateningly. And yes, I suppose that really is possible…

"Aw, man, what the heck?" Leaf smacked her hand to her face, "I wanted my Pokémon to train together, not beat each other to a pulp…" Blaze just sat back and enjoyed the show.

"I don't understand it; I've done this sort of training before, and it seemed to work out just fine back then…" Leaf looked defeated.

Leaf then just decided to give up for now and watched Lucario and Vegeta stare each other down. That got boring pretty quickly, so she focused her attention on the two birds. Popuri was aiming her Dragon Pulse at Blathers who dodged every attack and laughed at her failure to hit him. Popuri looked pretty miffed and started using Steel Wing. Blathers began to Chatter mindlessly at her.

"Good work," Leaf acknowledged. Then she looked over at Vegeta and Lucario. Vegeta had Lucario's entire arm in his mouth, and Lucario was frantically slicing at his face with his free arm using Metal Claw.

"Stop!" Leaf cried. Vegeta and Lucario looked up from their fight at Leaf.

"What is the matter with you, Blastoise! You're not supposed to EAT Lucario! You know better than to do that to one of your comrades!" Leaf glared at her Pokémon, "What if you two needed to fight together in a double battle? Are you going to embarrass me like that by pointlessly fighting each other all the time? You two need to resolve your differences now! I won't stand for it!"

Vegeta opened his mouth to let Lucario go, and Lucario jumped to the ground nearby with a defiant look on his face. He refused to look at Vegeta.

"Apologize to each other," Leaf ordered. Lucario immediately protested to the idea.

Leaf didn't even want to hear about it, "Quit acting like a baby and just do it."

Lucario and Vegeta glared at each other before they finally apologized.

"There, that's a bit better, I hope…" Leaf said thoughtfully, "But I suppose it was my fault for not letting you guys have a chance to become friends before I had you spar each other…"

"That's enough training for now," Leaf called out to Blathers and Swablu as well, "I think it'd be better for you guys to just get used to each other while I make some lunch. Just try to tolerate each other at the very least," Leaf sighed as she left to pull together some lunch.

Blathers flew up to Vegeta and landed on his water cannon, "Ready… aim… FIRE!" Blathers shrieked and then began to laugh manically.

"Just calm down, Blathers," Popuri sighed as she landed on the other cannon.

"I need back-up!" Blathers cried out to her. Popuri just folded her wings and tried to relax.

"Hey, look, Lucario, I didn't mean to bite your arm. I held back so that you could still keep it," Vegeta smirked.

Lucario growled at him, "If you want to keep yours, you'll shut it."

"Hey, knock it off," Blaze spoke up, "Leaf doesn't want you to fight."

"Hey, he's the one getting all bent out of shape," Vegeta retorted.

"Just stop it!" Blaze growled.

"Vegeta's just upset because he thinks Leaf likes Lucario better," Popuri flew over to Lucario and landed on his head.

"Objection!" Blathers shrieked.

Everyone waited.

"Well… what's your objection?" Blaze asked finally.

"IRON DEFENSE! IRON DEFENSE! IRON DEFENSE! IROOON DEFEEEEENSE!"

Swablu shot Dragon Pulse at him, but he dodged the attack and flew off crying to Leaf.

"Get off of me," Lucario ordered. Popuri's eyes filled with tears, and she flew off to Leaf.

"Just forget it… We'll never be friends…" Blaze lowered her head.

"We got along well enough until he showed up!" Vegeta pointed out.

"So now you're going to blame it all on me!" Lucario growled.

"What's going on?" Leaf exclaimed when she came over to see what all the fuss was about, "Do you really hate each other that much? Like, you can't even get along for FIVE MINUTES?"

The Pokémon adverted their eyes from her gaze.

"Please, guys, I really need for you to all get along…" Leaf sighed, "It's really important to me that you guys work as a team. I know we all got started off on the wrong foot, but let's just put it all behind us for now. The fact is: Team Galactic is after Azelf. It's up to us to make sure that he stays safe. If we can't even get along, then we might as well give up now."

All of the Pokémon looked guilty from her words. Yes, even Blathers.

"It's going to take a lot of strength and cooperation from all of you to make sure Team Galactic doesn't get their way with us. I can't do it alone… I need all of your help. I hate to be cheesy but…"

Leaf smiled, "We can do much more when we work together as a team."

The Pokémon all seemed to agree with that, and the tension was, thankfully, relieved for now.

"Great; now how about we eat now? My stomach's all guu," Leaf grinned.

While they ate, the Pokémon didn't bug each other as much, and tensions were eased. It's hard to stay angry with others when you're all eating great food together.

After lunch, Popuri seemed to ask Leaf whether they should continue training.

"No, I think we've done enough training for today. It's important to rest too," Leaf decided.

Leaf got up and walked over to her bag to find her music player. Once she did, she found a shady spot to lie down and listen to her music. Vegeta laid down on his stomach and hid in his shell. Popuri and Blathers landed on top of Vegeta's shell to chat. Well, Popuri was doing most of the talking while Blathers would randomly interject with strange quotes. Blaze chased the butterflies around.

Lucario wasn't certain what he should do. He was used to traveling around everywhere with Leaf. Standing still like this felt strange to him. He watched Blaze chase around butterflies, but he didn't feel like joining in. He had followed butterflies before, but he knew now that if he caught them, he'd have a good possibility of hurting them. They were too fragile to touch.

Lucario walked over to Vegeta. He wasn't afraid of him even though he knew that the Blastoise could easily best him in battle. But, he knew it wouldn't be long before he'd see him as his biggest rival. Lucario ducked to the ground to peer into Vegeta's shell to see for himself what he was actually doing in there. Lucario was vaguely surprised when Vegeta opened his eyes.

"Whaddya want? I'm trying to take a nap…" Vegeta said wearily.

"Never mind. I'm sorry to disturb you."

Vegeta looked a bit perplexed by this sudden politeness, but then he shrugged it off and fell back asleep.

Popuri peered down curiously at Lucario, "What are you doing?"

"Nothing…"

"Savor your last moments!" Blathers cried dramatically.

Lucario blinked.

"Because I am going to DESTROY you!" Blathers shrieked.

"Oh no!" Popuri cried and flew down to dust off Lucario.

"Quit that," Lucario ordered.

"I can't!" Popuri insisted.

"Lucario! Use Close Combat!" Blathers ordered.

"No," Lucario scowled.

"Try not to take him so seriously," Popuri said to Lucario as she dusted Blathers.

Lucario walked back over to Leaf. He didn't really feel like he connected with the other Pokémon as well as he did with her. Maybe they would eventually grow on him, but for now, he was tired of trying to deal with them. The five of them certainly made quite the team…

Note: This chapter felt pretty boring to write, but I think it's somewhat necessary to see how the Pokémon get along.

The next chapter should be more interesting… Please stay tuned.