"Bianca, are you sure your Pokemon aren't shy to show themselves to us?" Iris said with a glum look. "Because if they are, we can at least see them at another time." After our confrontation with Team Plasma and the sage Ghetsis talking about the legend of Unova, all seven of us were waiting to see Bianca's Pokemon. But apparently the three PokeBalls she launched up didn't open, which is highly concerning.

"My Pokemon are not that shy!" Bianca protest to Iris. "I assure you that my Pokemon are kind and playful as ever, and they love to see new friendly people." She looked at her PokeBalls on the ground. "I just don't understand why they won't come out!"

"There might be a few reasons why they're not coming out." I spoke, holding onto my encased egg. "My best bet is that Team Plasma might've weakened them, or knocked them out with their Pokemon in the process of hiding here."

"Or..." Joaquin was next to speak. "Those goons brainwashed them into not responding to their Trainer's commands." He shrugged at the suggestion.

N placed an index finger bent on his chin. "I don't hear any voices of struggle or any hint of pain in there." N said. "I'm probably thinking they are asleep from a move Team Plasma used on them."

Cheren growled. "Speaking to a creep who thinks he can hear the Pokemon's inner voice..." He walked over and knelt to the nearest PokeBall. He picked one up and pressed the button to opened it. "Or the fact that these PokeBalls are fake!" His face harden.

"What!?" All off us yelled.

Cheren stood up and showed all of us the inside of the PokeBall, all hallow and nothing else. "These things are used in rundown gift shops for little kids to brag to their parents in getting one just so they can pretend to be Trainers. I have a hunch those grunts switched Bianca's PokeBalls with these cheap novelty items. WORTHLESS!" He threw the fake PokeBall to their ground, making it shattered to several pieces. "Those damn pieces of lowlife garbage, they should die for all I care!" Cheren growled underneath his breath.

Joaquin placed a hand on Cheren's shoulder. "Easy there, bud. Don't need to get so worked up about it." He then looked at the petrified Bianca.

"So..." Bianca's voice shakened up. "My...Pokemon..." Tears poured down her face as she fell to her knees. She stared at the ground blankly before breaking into a sob.

It just hurts inside of me to see Bianca so torn about her Pokemon still in the hands of Team Plasma, but makes me pissed that they tricked all of us. I walked to Bianca and knelt down, placing my right hand on her shoulder while my other arm holds my egg. "Bianca," I spoke, grabbing Bianca's attention. "we were all fooled by Team Plasma's little charade. But this time, we won't let another one happened again!"

"That's right!" Iris knelt down too. "They will pay for tricking us like that! We will find your Pokemon, even if it takes all year to do that! And I will still be your bodyguard, Bianca." She stood up, looking at everyone else. "Who else will help find Bianca's Pokemon and those dumb idiots that took them!"

Cheren nodded. "Hmph, I doubt Team Plasma will back off on us and keep trying to take our Pokemon away. But I will keep a vigilant eye on anybody, or grunts, who has as hold of your Pokemon, Bianca."

Joaquin groaned, crossing his arms. "As much as I rather say I would leave it up to everyone else, but like Poindexter said, I do have a soft spot for Pokemon like a kid with his teddy bear." For the very first time, we see a friendly smile formed on his face. "So count me in...but we are still rivals by the way!"

We all laughed after Joaquin's comment. I stood up, keeping a tight hold of my egg, and eyed N. "What about you, N? Would you like to help us out finding Bianca's Pokemon?"

N stare at me in silence. "Well..." He shift his gaze to the side where the building is. "I guess I don't have a choice. Besides," He eyed me with a crooked smile formed on his face. "it'll get me a chance to experience more places that I have never been to before, as long as I am still with you, Crymson."

A smile suddenly formed on my face, and feeling my cheeks burn from N's clear blue eyes gazing at me. A giggle escaped from me. "That'll be great, N!" I turned to Bianca. "Don't worry, Bianca. We will find your Pokemon, just you wait!" I held a hand up to her.

Bianca grabbed my hand as I pulled her up to her feet. "Th-Thank you, everyone!" She sniffed, wiping the tears away from her cheeks. "But how am I going to get my next Gym Badge without any Pokemon?"

"I know!" Iris yelled. "I can lend you one of my Pokemon!" She held up one of her Pokemon. "I must tell you, I specialize in Dragon-type Pokemon and Dragon-type Pokemon only." Iris held the PokeBall to Bianca.

Bianca took the PokeBall, and instantly held her up in the air with a tight hug. "Ooooooooh, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" After hearing Iris's suffocation noise, Bianca gently put her down and broke the hold. "Sorry, Iris."

"Wait a second!" Joaquin spoke up. "If you said you specialized in Dragon-type Pokemon and that type alone, aren't you a Gym Leader!? Because if you are, why aren't you back at your Gym?"

Iris glare glumly at Joaquin with her arms crossed. "With someone who has half a brain couldn't tell that I am just a plain Trainer like everyone else here." She reached into her pink backpack and grabbed a badge case. "If you must know" she opened it up to Joaquin. "I have only two badges so far. And I am just over here to enjoy a little bit of sightseeing." She closed it, putting it back in her backpack. "But Iris here will a still be Bianca's bodyguard through and through!"

"Eh, whatever..." Joaquin placed his hands in his pants pockets. "So," he eyed Cheren. "how's about that one-on-one battle we promised! Me and Rex are going to show you how strong we are since we've met!"

Cheren glared back at at Joaquin. "My only suggestion, healing our Pokemon. It would be really redundant to bring our Pokemon out with only what minimal strength they still have left after our Double Battle against Team Plasma a moment ago." He begin walking past us. "We will meet at the middle dock in five minutes. Be ready."

Joaquin ran past him with Rex on his back. "We'll see about that, Poindexter!" He disappeared out of sight, his boisterous laughter echoing.

"We'll see about that, Poindexter!" Cheren mimicked sarcastically. "Just you wait, Mr. Ego!" Cheren rushed over to the Pokemon Center.

Iris hopped in front of Bianca. "Come on, Bianca. Let's go get our next Gym Badge! The faster we get it, the more time we have in finding your Pokemon!" She twirled Bianca forward.

"W-W-Whoa!" Bianca stammered. "WAAAAAAIIIIIT!" Her voice echoed as Iris pushed her through the Gym doors.

"Smells like a Double Battle waiting to happen in my Gym." Burgh said, eyeing me. "Better meet up with them." Burgh said. "Looking forward in battling you, Crymson!" He turned around and made his way into his Gym.

I huffed out a deep sigh, shrugging my shoulders. I see N's arms gingerly wrapped around my neck. "Such strange turn of events we are having here." I said, hugging my arms around my egg. "Though, I still feel really bad about Bianca. I do understand how it felt to have your Pokemon being taken away." Then something came up in my mind. "By the way, N. Why did you hesitate for a moment when I asked you if you can help me find Bianca's Pokemon?"

"Well..." N's soft voice rung in my ears. "You know me, Crymson. I am not the one to confine any Pokemon into those PokeBalls you and your friends use." His arms tightened, his head resting on my head. "And I don't know what or who Team Plasma looks like since I don't cross paths with them. But how are we going to find your friends Pokemon in this huge region here?"

"We just have to keep a watchful eye out for them." I answered. "Might take us days, or weeks, but we won't stop until we find whoever took Bianca's Pokemon. And we are highly sure Team Plasma has their grubby little hands on them." I smiled, staying silent for a second. "We should meet up at the middle dock to see Cheren and Joaquin go at it!"

N unwrapped his arms and stood back as I turned to him. "Are you sure you're not going to leave without" he held my hast up by the visor. "this? We don't everyone to see your good looks." He teased, chuckling while placing my hat on my head.

An embarrassing blush appeared on my face. "N! I don't have any good looks! I am just an ordinary Trainer just going on an ordinary journey to get badges for the Unova League..." I have no clue why N would say that out of the blue, I am not that good looking! "L-Let's just get going..." I walked passed N, making my way to meet at the middle dock with Cheren and Joaquin. I see the Pokemon Center just some blocks away from me when I see Joaquin and Rex darting through the sliding glass doors.

"Come on, Poindexter!" Joaquin's loud voice echoed, stopped and facing the Pokemon Center. "Are you going to battle or admit defeat!? 'Cause me and Rex here are raring for a good fight at the dock!" Joaquin turned to walk to the center dock. "I hope you are going to bring your a-game, Rex!"

"Sage, Simi!" Rex replied, thrusting one of its furry green arm in the air. He continued walking with his Trainer to the dock.

Me and N are just feet from the Pokemon Center when Cheren appeared out of the door with his hands in his pants pockets. "Hey, Cheren." I greeted, even though its been about two minutes since he left to heal his Pokemon. "I bet you are going to beat Joaquin in his own battle, huh? But no worries, win or lose you still have a good battle!" I beamed a smile at him.

Cheren sternly looked at me. "I rather win battles and make my Pokemon the strongest team in the region. So strong that they can take down the Champion with ease and no flaws. And you, Crymson, know how it felt to face a Champion and lose after that, I will test you to see if you are still that strong as what you said." He walked forward to meet up with Joaquin.

I breathed out through my nose, eyeing Cheren's back. Cheren being Cheren as usual... I thought to myself. I have faced the Champion back in the Sinnoh Region and lost, but that doesn't mean I am strong with the Pokemon I currently I have on me. "Come on, N. We better make sure those two don't cause any trouble. Or worse, get into a fist fight that could bring in mass attention."

N nodded. "I couldn't agree more. Though, you know I am not going to like seeing a Pokemon battle, but I'll try to contain myself as much as I can." He and I continued walking over to the center dock as both Joaquin and Cheren prepare themselves for their first battle.

"Okay..." Cheren said as me and N sat down on a bench on the dock. Cheren already has his Servine out and ready on standby. "We shall make this a 3-on-3 battle to determined who can knock out all three of a Trainers Pokemon. Sounds reasonable?"

Joaquin smirked. "I agree. It's a good thing I got three Pokemon on me for this." He jabbed an index finger at Cheren. "Lets hope you got a good strategy on your shoulders, me and my Pokemon are bring their a-game here!" He turned to his Simisage. "You're up, buddy!"

"Simi!" Rex nodded, walking his way to his spot in front of his Trainer.

Cheren remained unmoved, pushing his glasses up. "Servine, let's show our opponent how strongest you've become. And don't make any mistakes."

"Vine.." His Pokemon spoke and walked to his respective spot, facing his opponent several feet from him.

"Oh, thank goodness we arrived on time!" All of us turned to see Bianca and Iris running towards me and N in the sidelines. "Whew! That was some battle me and Iris pulled off! We finally got our third Gym Badge!" Bianca showed us her new badge in her Badge Case resembling a light green wing. "Iris and I battled Burgh in a Double Battle."

"That is awesome!" I said, excitedly. "Congrats on the both of you! I bet Burgh there didn't pull off much of a challenge when he faced the both of you." I giggled, letting N hold onto my encased egg in case I get hurt by Cheren or Joaquin's Pokemon.

Iris smile and nod. "Yep! Those Bug-type Pokemon aren't matched for my Dragon-type Pokemon!" She turned to Cheren and Joaquin with their Pokemon on standby. "Oh, I hope we are not interrupting your battle guys."

"Nah!" Joaquin said. "Me and Poindexter there were just about to begin. But, the more witnesses to see me beat him, the more they will know I am better than you!"

Cheren clenched his teeth tightly and growled. "I'll show you! I'll make you eat those words when you see how my Pokemon's capabilities excel over your Pokemon! Then next time you will respect me a little bit more!" The two rivals glared at each other as their battle is about to get underway.

((Alright, everyone, place your bets! Who do you think will win the battle between Cheren and Joaquin!? Tune in to the next chapter! -CS))