Renny: There'll be a few events skipped, namely getting the Surf HM, but other than that you'll be treated to what will hopefully be a double chapter of Steel type Gym battles!

Green: It'll become one, trust me. Considering how easy the battle was in-game, how're you gonna get difficulty out of that?

Renny: Well, I did kind of overlevel most of the team . . . they're almost in their 40s now. Which . . . is kinda silly now that I think about it. What's the seventh Gym leader's highest again?

Red: I just checked, and it turns out that you're definitely overlevelled. His best is on level 34.

Renny: HOLY MILTANK really? Wow.

Red: Yeah, why'd you overlevel anyway?

Renny: Steel types, you never know what might happen. The Steelix was a lot easier to beat than I thought, really. It kept using Screech.

Green: Spoilers!

Renny: No spoilers, it's the in-game battle. The story battle is gonna be completely different because who wants to see a battle that hardly lasted three minutes?

Red: She has a point.

Green: Ugh, fine.

Renny: Anyway, Red, disclaimer!

Red: Renny doesn't own pokemon!

Renny: On with the show!

OOOOOO

In all honesty, Green had been perfectly fine with just using Twin to get back to Olivine. Or Tick, since he was big enough to carry Green now.

But he didn't mind Ice going out of his way to call Oak, have some strange conversation that included sign language and paper, and get Green's old HM. He now had a pokemon who could use Surf. A powerful Water attack, useful in battle, and still Green didn't understand how the heck a Rhydon and Kangaskhan could learn the move.

"Neither do I." Ice admitted once they'd gotten to the pokemon centre in Olivine city.

A few people had waved to Green and a few others had stared at him in awe, which kind of reminded him of his adventure through Kanto- or at least some of it. But at least they weren't glaring, so he didn't have to hide away and get around the city like he was stealing something.

But anyway.

"How does a Rock/Ground type even use that move." Green muttered flatly, looking at his pokedex. "Seriously, it violates every law of nature there is."

"Why are you so hung up on this?" Ice asked.

"Because it's interesting." Green shrugged. "Look, I don't criticise you for reading boring books about pokemon stats and stuff, do I?"

"Someone's grumpy. Have you been up all night trying to figure it out?"

"That's only half the reason." Green told him. "Eon seems to have gotten a habit of staying up late at night and looking for more movies. It's unsettling."

"And there happens to be a laptop in the room we're in now, so . . ."

"Yep. You lot have mute buttons on your balls, and Twin and Tick are such deep sleepers I would have mistaken them for being dead if they weren't breathing." Green replied.

"Well, try kicking Eon out then."

"And have the Nurse get mad at me for Eon going on the video-phones all night again? No thank you. That woman can be scary when she needs to be."

oooo

My Lord . . . it has been overdue already. The humans are growing out of control.

DO NOT FRET. I SHALL ENDEAVOUR TO CREATE THE DAY SOON. HAVE PATIENCE MY SERVANT.

My Lord, the creatures grow restless! The balance has been upset too often! I do not care for this supposedly 'worthy' human who will take the powers they forced upon themselves!

HAVE . . . PATIENCE. YOU WILL CREATE EVEN MORE RESTLESSNESS IF YOU CONTINUE LIKE THIS, GIRATINA.

Please, we must destroy them now!

NOT YET. WE SHALL WAIT UNTIL MY CHOSEN HAS FOUND THE HUMANS WHO ARE DESTORYING THE BALANCE . . .

. . .

I HAVE MADE MY DECISION. JUDGEMENT DAY SHALL COME IN THE FORM OF MY CHOSEN.

. . . My Lord?

MY CHOSEN, THE MOST POWERFUL BEING, MORE SO THAN HUMAN OR CREATURE, IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD, PERHAPS EVEN THE UNIVERSE. PERHAPS EVEN MORE POWERFUL THAN MYSELF. MY CHOSEN WILL ENFORCE JUDGEMENT UPON THOSE HUMANS THAT UPSET THE BALANCE, AND IF THAT DOES NOT SETTLE THE UPSET, MY CHOSEN WILL DESTORY THE WORLD. AND THEN MY CHOSEN WILL PERISH.

But . . . would that not destroy the creatures as well, my Lord?

NO. MY CHOSEN WILL DESTORY ONLY THE WORLD OF HUMANS, AND LEAVE THE CREATURES ALONE. IF MY CHOSEN REFUSES, I SHALL CONTROL MY CHOSEN.

Was it not you who allowed Azelf, Uxie and Mesprit to give the humans their free will, ability to think, and their emotions?

MY CHOSEN IS DIFFERENT. MY CHOSEN WAS NOT TOUCHED BY AZELF, UXIE AND MESPRIT- MY CHOSEN IS ONLY HUMAN IN APPEARANCE.

I do not understand, my Lord.

MY CHOSEN IS A CREATURE, THOUGH MY CHOSEN TAKES THE FORM OF A HUMAN, AND MY CHOSEN WILL BRING JUDGEMENT TO THE HUMANS.

oooo

"No, no! Please, you can't leave me, I . . . No!"

Silence. A drop in his hearing. Someone said something that he didn't hear.

"I DON'T CARE, JUST BRING HIM BACK! IF YOU DON'T, I'LL GO INTO THE HALL MYSELF AND KILL ANYTHING THAT GETS IN MY WAY! . . . You know I will . . ."

More silence, this time not a drop in his hearing, but an actual pause in which he could feel the tension and hatred pouring from . . .

Himself?

"I'm sorry . . . I'm sorry, I never hated you, I just . . ."

And then the suffocating fear and death.

Green yelled and sat bolt upright in bed. The room was dark, which didn't help at all, and no one was in the room.

He shouldn't have asked for a separate room for his team.

He'd asked because he thought it would be better to not subject them to his constant thrashing. But this time the nightmare was different- he could actually remember it. Most of the ones he had he just remembered fear. This one he could actually recount without an issue, just like the one in Azalea.

Green sighed out loud. The dark wasn't helping either, although he'd mostly gotten over his fear of ghosts (which also sort of included the dark because, you know, ghosts basically lived in the dark), and he could have sworn he saw the occasional shadow move when it wasn't meant to.

Perfect. Now he was paranoid. Just add that to the list of 'stuff that's wrong with me'. There was probably a hundred things on there.

The door burst open and he yelped. Ice and the rest of the team poured into the room, looking alert and ready to attack anything.

"What's going on!?" Eon cried, fire crawling from his jaw as he jumped onto Green's bed. Tick gently flew next to Green and perched there, looking less likely to attack a moving shadow that didn't actually move.

"N-nothing . . ." Green mumbled. "Just a nightmare . . ."

"Kid, that's not nothing." Ice said. He kneeled by the bed, because obviously he was too big to actually get onto it, and folded his arms across it.

Ziba, Amethyst and Twin crowded around, and Green felt a heck of a lot better and safer now that they were all there. He did kind of feel silly that they'd woken up to protect him and came in to find that all the fuss was over a dumb nightmare.

"It's not dumb, Mom." Tick whispered, putting a wing around him. Green had never admired his son's maturity so much.

He'd grown.

Tick smiled and cooed lightly. The others waited patiently, and Green knew they wanted to know what had happened in his nightmare. Generally he told them the truth- he couldn't remember- but this time he could easily lie. It'd be picked up by Tick however, and Green didn't really think he'd lied to the team as of yet.

He sighed and tried to describe the nightmare. Tick filled in a few blanks when words eluded him, and despite the slight invasion of privacy, Green was perfectly fine with that.

It was difficult, since he'd only heard voices, but he managed to recount in a messed-up way what had been said.

"That's weird." Amethyst frowned. "Why would you dream but only hear voices?"

"And how come you can remember this one?" Ice asked.

"I . . . I don't know. But I think this one's different, you know? The others, even if I can't remember them, have all had images and fears and everything, but this one only has the feeling of death, sadness, fear, and anger. And the voices, but . . ." Green trailed off. He hated it when he couldn't describe things.

Tick ruffled his hair with his other wing. Green rolled his eyes.

"Don't worry." Ziba said, holding out a scythe gently. "We shall protect you, Trainer Green."

"Green." He told her. "You . . . I don't like being called a Trainer, not anymore."

"Then Green it is." Ziba nodded.

He nodded back.

This time, when he went to sleep, they all surrounded him. Ice had grabbed beam bags from somewhere, and he, Amethyst, Twin and Ziba settled down on them while Eon and Tick stayed on Green's bed.

"Hey, Green?" Eon asked.

"Yeah?"

"What type Gym is it, again?"

"Steel. Means you're gonna fight, and Amethyst if she wants to." Green yawned.

"Sweet . . . I can test out my awesome knowledge of friendship in battle . . ." Eon started snoring softly after that.

oooo

"So where is the Gym, exactly?"

"I . . . forgot. That's why I sent Twin up."

"Hey Mom, what's that guy doing over there?"

" . . . Skinning fish. I'm gonna avoid him. He looks too happy doing that."

"Green, what is the current punishment for doing such things in front of you?"

"Ziba, no."

"Why can't we find the stupid place? We found it last time!"

"Eon, stop complaining!"

Green muttered to himself. He remembered the general area where the Gym had been last time, but he and the pokemon didn't seem to remember where that area was. Of course, it was a big city, but still.

Eon and Ice continued to argue back and forth. The argument had somehow become about pies after some time, which was just completely weird, so Green tuned them out completely and tried to remember how he'd gotten to the Gym the last time.

You'd think that, since he'd been here two or three days ago, he'd know. But Green was like a Goldeen with memory loss, he forgot everything.

Maybe it was that nightmare?

The sound of wings gently flying down distracted him. Green looked up, and Twin landed in front of him with her awe-inspiring gracefulness that only a Pidgeot could have. She looked at Eon and Ice, and then rose what Green thought may have been an eyebrow if she'd been human.

"I am not asking." She said flatly.

"Wise choice." Ziba replied. Green glanced at her briefly before turning back to Twin.

"Did you find the Gym?" He asked.

"I did. Probably. Is it a large building with grey features?"

"Yep."

"Then I have found it. Shall we leave these two and go ahead?" Twin asked.

"That'd be cruel." Tick laughed. "Hold on."

He floated above Eon and Ice, and then crossed his wings swiftly. Two Grass Knots formed right in front of the two, and then they promptly tripped over.

"Hey!" Eon snapped, looking up. "I was winning there!"

"No you weren't." Ice replied.

"Was too!"

"Was not."

"Was. Too!"

"Was not."

"Was too!"

"Was not."

"Was too!"

"Was too."

"Was not! . . . Wait."

Ice got up, chuckling. "And that, kid, is how you win an argument."

"I'll keep it in mind for the next time I argue about pies, which I don't even like." Green said, smirking.

Ice just rolled his eyes.

A few minutes later, at the guidance of Twin, they found the Gym. The Trainer guy from before was there again, and he looked terrified (Green still couldn't figure out why) when Green and his team walked up.

"Is the Gym leader back yet?" Green asked.

"Uh, yeah, s-she got in an hour ago . . ." The Trainer swallowed. "Um, g-go right in!"

The inside of the Gym was actually kind of dull, by Green's opinion. Compared to the one's he'd been in before, the steel walls were sort of plain, but it had some kind of uniqueness that he couldn't place. Maybe the steel?

He figured it out when he got to the arena.

The whole place was basically a raised platform, with stairs leading to the top. He counted at least ten stairs, and walked up to see the battlefield.

There were two boxes, one for the challenger and one for the Gym leader, made from steel. Green wondered if the steel stuff was because a lot of people would use Fighting types against Steel, and there were some sort of dividers that were big enough so that Green could rest his arms on them but still see over. Same with the other side.

There were a few rocks placed around the field, and a bunch of sand pools scattered around. Green guessed the sand pools were for when someone used Dig or something, since the steel would be too hard to Dig through in the first place.

He watched his team make their way to the benches. On the way, they'd decided on Eon and Amethyst for the Gym, but had also decided to keep it a secret. Though the choice would be kind of obvious to the Gym leader, Green wanted to call them from the benches so they could at least get a rest before and after the battle without him throwing them out in a pokeball.

He heard small clangs as if someone were walking on steel, and then looked over at the Gym leader's box. A young woman was just walking into it as he glanced, and she smiled at him.

"Hello there." She said. "I'm Jasmine, the Gym leader. Um . . . You're Green, yes?"

"Um, yeah . . ." He nodded.

"Good. I've been expecting you!" Jasmine giggled. "Would you like to start, or shall I?"

"You, if you'd like." Green offered quietly. Her nice demeanour had thrown him off. By now, Green had actually expected Gym leaders to have some sort of toughness, but he couldn't see any of that in Jasmine.

Maybe her pokemon did the tough part for her? You know, since they were Steel types?

"Alright then. Magnemite, let's go!"

Well, that proved that theory. Green wondered what her ace was, and then shouted for Amethyst.

The Graveler grinned before pushing herself off the benches easily. She then literally rolled up the battlefield and came to a skidding stop in front of Green, and uncurled herself into a battle stance- two arms extended outwards on the floor as she crouched, the other two gripping onto a few stray rocks she'd picked up outside for her new version of Rock Blast.

They'd worked out that constantly producing rocks from her own body didn't always work. Ice had said it was something to do with the fact that Amethyst wasn't able to produce as many rocks that were needed for the attack, and then had launched into some explanation that only Ice understood- and maybe Tick- and then it was decided that Amethyst would use a mixture of natural rocks and her own.

Basically, when she ran out of natural ammo, she'd use her own.

Simple.

"Use Supersonic!" Jasmine called.

Magnemite beeped highly before emitting a visible sound wave. Amethyst curled into a ball again and rolled away from the sound waves, but any that did hit her bounced off her rocky skin- for some reason, it acted as a barrier of sorts, and Supersonic could only affect her if it hit her face.

"Earthquake!" Green ordered.

Jasmine looked comically terrified.

Amethyst rolled until she came up to a rock that looked vaguely like a ramp of some kind. The Magnemite continued to try and penetrate the rocky skin, and Amethyst completely ignored it in favour of rolling rapidly up the rock, and then shooting off the edge into the air.

She ricocheted off the roof, which turned out to be made from steel as well since it didn't dent or break, and smashed into Magnemite. The two crashed into one of the rocks, which broke and created a massive dust cloud.

" . . . I'm not sure if that's legal." Jasmine commented.

"Me neither. But in my defence, I can hardly read to begin with, so I won't be seeing the rulebooks anytime soon. And there are only three pokemon in my team who can read properly." Green shrugged.

Jasmine stared at him.

By the time the dust cleared, Green was getting a bit bored of waiting. Amethyst stumbled out of the cloud and then looked up at Green, grinning, and the Magnemite sort of stumbled through the air to Jasmine, then promptly collapsed into her arms.

"Well, he's out." Jasmine sighed. "I suppose it won't do much good to use my second Magnemite, would it?"

"Probably not." Amethyst laughed, turning back. "But you could anyway! I haven't battled in a while."

"She says she wants to anyway." Green told Jasmine, who nodded.

The battle went pretty much the same as the first, but the Magnemite was smart enough to stop Supersonic and try a Thunderwave instead. Didn't do much against Amethyst, but at least it tried.

Jasmine returned the Steel/Electric type, and then held up another pokeball. She seemed to be considering something.

" . . . May I ask for a time out?" Jasmine requested.

"Um, I guess? It's your Gym." Green told her.

While she was gone, Green and Amethyst went back over to the remainder of the team on the benches.

"Ok, Eon, you're up now." Green said.

"YESSSSS!"

"Eon, calm down." Ice muttered. "Sheesh, ever since he's discovered the internet he's been crazy, and it's driving me crazy. Anyone know a way to make him unsee everything he's seen on there?"

Tick almost held up a wing, but then put it down. Green didn't ask.

Jasmine came back within a few more minutes, and Green stepped back up to the box he'd been in before.

Without him even saying anything, Eon let out a screech (something about friendship, seriously what has he been watching?) and engulfed himself in the flames from his Ember attack, and then jumped onto the battlefield. He spun on his front paws a couple of times before stopping, and the flames on his body burned away into his fur.

" . . . Is he always that dramatic?" Jasmine asked.

"Dunno, I haven't used him in a Gym battle before now." Green said.

"Let's hope it's not a regular thing." Ice called.

"Ice, be silent." Twin whacked him over the head with her wing.

"Time in." Jasmine said. She held out another pokeball.

It looked more worn than the last one, with a few nicks and scratches. Green wasn't sure yet, but he guessed this was her ace. Maybe she'd changed it after seeing Amethyst in action?

"Alright, let's go Aggron!"

OOOOOO

Renny: I spend too much time doing nothing.

Green: You were watching NCIS the entire holiday, and you had to go back to school several times. I don't call that nothing.

Renny: Uh-huh. Read and review, people!