Gaius dismounted Quenelle on the beach, while Arden stripped down to his boxers and ran into the ocean, leaving his clothes behind in a messy heap. With a sigh, Gaius strolled over to his little brother's clothes, his tauros following him. He picked them up and started to fold them. "Messy, messy, messy baby brother," he murmured, shaking his head.

"I'm not going to take time to fold them," Arden said, wading farther into the sea. "You got pee residue in my hair!"

Gaius shrugged and held up Arden's belt, looking at the pokeballs attached. "What's this girly one here? With the sticker?" he asked. "I mean, jeez, Arden, I didn't know you were so limp-wristed."

"I got it in a trade," Arden said, scowling. "It's a nidoran."

"So, which one of these needs training?" asked Gaius, holding up one of the pokeballs to Quenelle, who sniffed it. "What d'you got for me, baby brother? An unruly charizard? A aerodactyl that is too high-leveled to obey you? A fierce electabuzz? A reckless and vicious rapidash? Whatever it is, I can break it."

"It's a, uh, pikachu," Arden said quietly, before dunking his head underwater.

Gaius raised on eyebrow. "Did he say… pikachu?" the young man asked his tauros.

"Taur," said Quenelle, nodding slightly.

Arden remerged from the water. Gaius called out to him, "Now, did you say it was a pikachu that you need trained? Like, the little yellow rodent pokemon?"

"Hey," said Arden, climbing back onto the beach. "It's not just a pikachu, it's a rash and blood-thirsty beast of a pikachu!"

Gaius laughed as Quenelle snorted and tossed his head. Arden bit his lip and furrowed his brow. "No, seriously, you guys!" he said. "He—he killed another pokemon!"

Gaius stopped laughing. "For real?" Arden nodded. "Hm… That's troubling. A pokemon that kills…" He bit his bottom lip and leaned against Quenelle.

"So, you don't think you'll be able to train him?" Arden asked, somewhat crestfallen.

"Now, I didn't say that," pointed out Gaius, wagging one finger at his little brother. "I can train any pokemon, and don't you forget that. All I said was it was troubling. And I mean it the same way that, say, seeing someone with their intestines on the outside of their body might be troubling. It's disturbing and unnatural, I mean—not completely unfixable."

"So, you think you can train him?"

"Just what do I keep telling you, baby brother? Of course I can." He held up Arden's belt. "Which pokeball's your pikachu in."

Arden pulled one of the balls from the belt. "This is him. His name is Cruelty," he said, holding it out to Gaius. "C-careful, though."

Gaius took it. "I honestly don't think I'm in much danger," he said, patting Quenelle. The tauros stomped his hooves and cracked his tails. "Go, Cruelty!"

With a howl of, "Kaaachuu!", the pokemon was released from its spherical prison. Cruelty hunched over on the sand, the blood still matted in his fur, his eyes darting about and coming to rest on Quenelle. He bared his teeth at the tauros, who only looked back at him mildly. The pikachu lunged at the tauros.

"Quen—stomp!" said Gaius.

Quenelle reared up and brought his hooves down hard on the charging pikachu's back, pinning him to the ground. Struggle as he might, Cruelty could neither free himself nor attack the tauros. Gaius knelt down beside Cruelty. "You going to behave, now, pal?" he asked.

"Ka. Chu," growled Cruelty, his cheeks sparking. Gaius back handed him swiftly.

"That's not the sort of thing we like to hear," he said.

The pikachu narrowed his eyes at Gaius. "Piiika!" he snarled, his cheeks sparking again. As he prepared for an electric attack, Quenelle dug his hooves in harder. Cruelty's attack broke off as he winced with pain. "Ka!"

From an overhang on a high ledge, Dixie watched the brothers with Bruno at his side. Normally, nothing could have convinced him to ever step foot in Fuchsia again. However, after his job in Lavender fell apart—the result of an old man and a young trainer—he thought perhaps he had been cold to Arden when they parted. Wanting to apologize, he'd tried to go after him to Celadon City, but had met Bruno on his way there, whom had conveyed to him that Arden was gone and headed to Fuchsia. So it was that Dixie ended up in the city he hated most, watching Arden and his brother on the beach, and feeling vaguely upset, and vaguely jealous.

"Shrew?" Bruno asked him quietly.

Dixie rubbed the pokemon's head. "You did good, Bruno," he said. "Looks like everything's fine here. Why don't we go somewhere else and I'll introduce you to your new ground-type buddy?"

"Shrew!" exclaimed Bruno happily.

Smiling tightly, Dixie glanced back down at the brothers one more time, before leaving down the other side of the ledge with his sandshrew. Down below, Arden said to Gaius, "Don't hurt him!"

"He's fine," said Gaius, waving off his little brother concerns. "Sometimes you just have to be tough with a pokemon like this."

"Cha!" growled Cruelty.

"He doesn't seem too receptive of your technique," noted Arden.

Gaius stood up. "Yeah, he's going to be a tough one," he said, holding up the pikachu's ball. With a flash of light, Cruelty withdrew inside it. "Tell ya what, this is going to be more difficult than I thought. How about I take this pikachu for a little while, and then give him back to you when he's learned some discipline?"

"What?" said Arden. "No way! That's my strongest pokemon!"

"Chill, baby brother," Gaius said. "I mean, if you want him trained…"

Arden crossed his arms. "Well… you'll have to lend me one of your pokemon in return."

Gaius laughed. "Won't do you much good," he said. "I mean, of course I will, but it's not like you'll actually be able to use one my pokemon."

"Why not?"

"Well, they're too high-leveled, of course!" Gaius said, opening his jacket. He motioned to his badges. "Unless you've got eight badges, half my pokemon wouldn't listen to you. The other half won't listen to anyone with, say, less than six."

"W-what about Quenelle?" asked Arden, motioning to the tauros. Quenelle tilted his head to the side. "I've known him since I was little, and he's a really good pokemon—wouldn't he listen to me?"

"He might, but trading you Quen is completely out of the question," Gaius said. "Quen and I are like brothers!"

"I'm your brother!"

"Well, can you blame me for liking Quen better?"

Arden scowled. "Well, what about Daryle?"

Gaius laughed. "Oh, no way—you couldn't even begin to handle Daryle."

"No, I mean last time we spoke," Arden said. "You said that Daryle had an egg. Did that hatch?"

"Yeah, it did."

"So, can I have that pokemon?" asked Arden.

Gaius rubbed the back of his head. "Well, actually," he said slowly. "I already gave that one to Felicia."

Arden's mouth dropped open. "What—Felicia?! But why?"

"Well, she called me up asking about it, and I couldn't get a hold of you," Gaius said, shrugging. "Besides, she's a nice girl and a good trainer. I figured he'd be in good hands."

"He would've been in good hands with me!" objected Arden.

"Sorry, baby brother," said Gaius. "You were all the way over here in Kanto."

"Well, you're here now—obviously it wouldn't have been too much a problem for you to just come here!"

"Yeah, but I didn't want to," Gaius said. "Actually, I'm only here now delivering a message."

"A message? To who?"

"To you."

Arden raised his eye brows. "What sort of message?"

"Well, I came here to tell you," Gaius said. "That dad died. I'm here to bring you home for the funeral."