So, uh, hi guys. It's been a while. I did the thing I didn't want to do and made y'all wait a full month before updating again.

Wally confused the Unovan to an extreme he hadn't felt in a while. The short boy thrived in the mock battles they had, his enthusiasm never wavering. His green eyes were pale and almost unreflective most of the time, but they lit up and sparkled like morning dew on a grassy field when he battled.

He'd augmented his team with an undersized Skitty that moved like it was possessed by the Storm and a Roselia that didn't care for battling but did so anyway because it knew that it made Wally happy. Those two in addition to the shiny, azure haired Ralts they'd saved outside of Petalburg. All things considered, his pokemon were incredibly strong for only going for his first badge.

Of course, Luke reasoned as Franz darted around the powder clouds the Roselia was trying to fill the battlefield with, they were still far from his own team's strength. Only Amelia might not be able to beat Wally's team by herself, but that was more due to her lack of speed against two incredibly fast pokemon and another one that could teleport.

"Let's call it a day Wally," he said as Franz shoulder-checked the Roselia back to its trainer's feet, "your team is tired, more than ready for your match with Wattson, and I am hungry. Salad shop?"

It had become routine for Luke to take the boy to get a meal after their daily practice sessions in the week he'd been in Mauville. However, Wally being a vegetarian limited the kinds of restaurants he could take the younger trainer to and eliminated his own favorites. So they went to the Salad Shack together and after saying farewell for the rest of the day, Luke would make his way to consume something noticeably less healthy.

"I'm not really hungry right now." The green haired boy said as he waved a hand to the Unovan, "See you at my match tomorrow!"

Luke waved back as the boy arrived at his uncle's side and the pair walked away. After his arm dropped, the Unovan stopped fighting to keep the corners of his mouth up, allowing the frown to return to his face. Wally was a handful and reminded him far too much of a few people he used to know. Besides, the rookies had been avoiding him for the past week other than running into Julia when he first came to the gym. And if they hadn't been avoiding him, they were doing a passable job of making it seem like they were.

The teen pulled up the groupchat on his 'nav.

LW: Anyone game for food? My dinner date just canceled on me

Knowing them, his choice of words would solicit a response in no time. He managed to get halfway back to the 'center housing before the responses came.

MB: Date?

MB: I didn't say you could do that

BC: Just finished training, am hungry, where?

MB: That isn't the important thing here

JC: Let it go, and yeah, food is good

MB: Who gave you permissions L?

LW: Not that kind of date

LW: Also, who decided I had to ask permission?

MB: I DID

BC: Where food?

JC: ^

JC: What he said

LW: Just passed a burger joint that smelled pretty good, let's go there

BC: *Liked the message: Just passed a burger joint that smelled pretty good, let's go there

He sent his location to the rookies as he got a table for four. Unsurprisingly, fifteen minutes later they arrived together, quickly finding their seats at the booth as Luke stood to keep his outside seat. Julia took the one beside him, Brendan across, and May on the diagonal.

The Unovan was positive the rookies could see through the plastic smile he wore, but he didn't care too much for the moment. Let them know he was upset.

"Long time no see you guys," he said after the waitress took their drink orders, "less for me of course since I was unconscious, but that is both on and beside the point. How's it been?"

He hadn't decided ahead of time how he would broach the topic to the rookies, so he just did whatever came to him first. Which happened to be incredibly passive aggressive. He should have thought out an actual plan for this.

The rookies' reactions varied. Julia looked down at the sitrus juice the waitress slid on the table in front of her, apparently intensely interested in the yellow-green drink. May was making it a point to look everywhere but him, occasionally letting her eyes rest on Brendan or Julia for a moment before searching for something else to not look at him with. Brendan shrugged and leaned back as he sipped his lemonade.

"We didn't want to leave you behind," the younger man said as he put down his glass, "but we also didn't want to stay in Slateport for however long it took you to wake up. The doctor told us it could be a couple weeks."

"Really now?" Luke asked as his burger was placed in front of him, but he didn't touch it yet, "And tell me, what strict schedule are you following that required me to be left in Slateport? What time crunch are you under? The closest thing to a deadline you have is, what, twenty months away with the league tournament?" The Unovan took a moment to breathe and collect himself. "I just don't understand why you were in such a rush to get out of Slateport and away from me."

"We started a couple months after the season began," Brendan said with a frown, leaning onto the table, "which means right now we only have about sixteen, sixteen and a half months until our tournament cycle comes up. And we'd have to wait a full year before getting another shot. And for the record, before you bring up you needing to be around to keep us safe for our mom, we're plenty capable of protecting ourselves. We made it between Slateport and Mauville with no problems, and don't forget that we had to save you from those junkies at that house."

"Brendan, Luke, this really isn't worth fighting over, is it?" Julia asked as Brendan glared and Luke fixed a cold stare on the other, "We're all back together, and none of us are hurt. Why don't we just talk about something else? Like the food, or how you know Wally?"

"Actually," Brendan said as he stood up, "let's not. Why doesn't he prove how useful he is as a bodyguard, or safety blanket, whatever he wants to call himself? It isn't like his pokemon are that much stronger than mine, we can settle this in a battle right now at the park."

If only he know just how wrong that statement was. "I'm not opposed to a battle, Brendan," the blue-eyed boy said as he picked up his sandwich, "but I am incredibly hungry, and would like to eat the burger I paid for. And the fries that came with it."

Luke and Brendan stood on opposite sides of the field, rolling pokeballs in hand. Just knowing the types they had, Brendan should have an advantage since Luke didn't have an easy answer to the other boy's Grovyle. But that was hardly ground to assume who would win.

"How many do you want to use Brendan?" Luke's voice cut through her musings, reminding her that the battle wasn't theoretical, wasn't just two people saying they could beat the other.

"Three sounds good. Now c'mon, I've got mine ready."

Luke heaved a sigh as he took three balls from his belt. A nest ball, lure ball, and pokeball. Rebecca, Dart, and Franz. Brendan was holding two pokeballs and an ultra ball. Probably Salazar and Usopp, with Raph the Torkoal in the ultra ball. Luke was going for power that Brendan couldn't overcome, with Brendan trying to play into type coverage.

The older trainer didn't wait for a signal for both trainers to release their first pokemon. He just tossed the lure ball into the field for Dart to erupt from. Brendan frowned as the serpent coiled on the ground, taking up nearly a third of the field.

Julia frowned too as Brendan sent his Wingull out to fight the much larger water-type. She doubted he had, but it seemed like the Gyarados had grown even larger since she'd last seen it on Slateport's beach. It was likely just the size difference between the serpent and seagull making Dart seem larger than he actually was.

When they started fighting, the difference between the two would have been immediately obvious even if she was watching strangers. Luke adjusting side to side to get a better perspective on the fight without saying a word to either his pokemon or his opponent. Brendan's mouth moving, issuing a chain of commands as his feet remained rooted.

That being said, Dart's comparatively overwhelming power was almost completely negated by his inability to hit the seagull pokemon, only augmented by the other dual-type's use of supersonic that had Luke covering his ears for a moment.

"Dragon rage."

A purple ball of flames burst from Dart's mouth, swallowing the little bird inside. May turned and walked away from the battle when she heard the bird's shrieking from within.

Luke raised a fist and Dart stopped the attack. She was appalled by the damage he'd done to the bird. Blood leaked freely from its wings and beak, and many of its feathers were either burnt or torn away. The red return beam assuaged her fears some. Luke hadn't killed Brendan's pokemon.

Then her brother sent out his new Torkoal, which Luke frowned at. To Julia's dismay, he didn't recall his leviathan or ask Brendan if he wanted to call off the rest of the match.

So she watched the serpent coil around the turtle and unleash more of those purple flames where his opponent couldn't evade even if it was fast enough. When the flames blessedly stopped, she was glad that the turtle didn't look nearly as bad as the seagull had when Brendan recalled it. Probably just the fire-type being an all-around bulkier pokemon?

To her surprise, a recall beam absorbed Luke's Gyarados as well before he sent out Rebecca to face Salazar, who emerged from Brendan's pokeball just a moment after she came out.

The bipedal lizards were insanely fast, to the point where Julia was once again amazed that her brother could fire off commands fast enough to keep up with the battle. Although as soon as one of the Grovyle's claws started glowing green in what she thought she assumed was a fury cutter, Luke's arm shot up, nest ball in hand, and returned his gecko, allowing Salazar to stop and catch his breath.

Cuts littered Brendan's pokemon's body as it stood panting, crouched low to the ground so it could move quickly if threatened. Trails of blood traced their way down Salazar's arms to drip to the ground as Luke's eyebrows drew together in what looked like concern. By contrast, Brendan's face was stone as he stared at Luke with a question behind his eyes.

Instead of answering the unspoken question, Luke let Franz out of his ball. The Mightyena's hackles emerged with hackles raised, only to let them drop and his tail wag when he saw it was Brendan and Salazar.

Brendan didn't waste the opposing pokemon's moment of hesitation, shooting off commands as Salazar shot forward, claws pulled back. To Julia's surprise, Franz nearly managed a dodge on reaction, the claws barely scratching his snout. The dark-type howled in defiance before stalking around his injured opponent, looking every bit the predator his species was in the wild.

Seeing it made Julia's stomach twist. Chocolate would have been a Mightyena by now, just as large and intimidating as what Franz had become. She could taste the acidic bile at the back of her mouth, the tears trying to force themselves from her eyes, but she wouldn't let them fall, not yet. Not where they could see.

Franz had had enough of the waiting game he was playing with his reptilian opponent. The canine dashed forward and brought both pokemon to the ground where they thrashed and wrestled until Franz got his jaws around Salazar's upper leg.

The resulting crushing sound nearly made her lose her stomach and made Brendan's eyes go wide in fear as he returned his starter pokemon immediately. Luke snapped his fingers twice to call Franz back to his side where he scratched and pet the pokemon for a moment before returning him.

Brendan said nothing as he ran past her towards the pokemon center to get his pokemon treated. Luke watched him go with a sigh as he sent out the three pokemon that had battled for him to give them potions and congratulatory pets and scratches.

None of them really looked that much worse for wear. Dart looked exhausted but uninjured, and Franz and Rebecca both had light scratches that didn't look like they really needed medical attention. As Julia approached him, Dart slithered slightly closer to her so she could rest her hand on his crown. A happy rumble came from deep in the sea serpent's throat. If she didn't know better, she might have said he was purring.

"Why'd you call them back?" she asked as she pet the docile Gyarados, "Dart and Rebecca I mean. You pulled them back while they could still battle."

The Unovan heaved a sigh as he stroked his Grovyle's head leaf. "Dart hasn't fully adjusted to the amount of energy it takes him to use dragon rage, and using it so often with so little time between them leaves him tuckered out. He wouldn't have been able to hit Salazar no matter how bad he wanted it." He paused for a moment as Franz bumped his leg to demand pets, to which he complied, "And I pulled Rebecca back because she was losing her cool with fury cutter, and I didn't want her to kill Salazar. Brendan is being an ass, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let one of his pokemon get killed even if I would have won the battle faster and easier if I didn't have to send in Franz."

Keith was feeling good about the big tourney coming up at the battle tent. He and Rebecca had been competing in the smaller daily events leading up to it, and he had been rolling people. His tank of a Munchlax hadn't been knocked out in any of the events, except when he decided it was time to look for a snack and DQ'd himself by going out of bounds. Skittles and Mimi had done well cleaning up the messes that Boss left though, so it was all good.

Even better, winning the events had given him a full wallet and restocked supplies for when he inevitably set out again. Thinking about it made his stomach uncomfortable. He was going to set out again at some point, no matter how happy he was with Rebecca. Something was going to pull him away and he'd go with the current. Like always.

So he didn't think about it. Instead he just kept battling and enjoying his time, pointedly not thinking about how she'd be going back to Slateport soon and he didn't really have a way or excuse to stay with her. He didn't have the money to stop adventuring and didn't really have a way to make that money in Slateport. Not thinking about it.

After he won the single trainer double-battle event of the day, they went to the best bar in Verdanturf: the Pi Bar, where the desserts were irrationally good. He smiled and nodded through the conversation as he dealt with Boss constantly reaching from his lap to try and get his grubby hands on his trainer's pie. As though Keith would let him. He'd already bought the little glutton two mini pies to share with Mimi, but the bugger wanted his pie.

Once they were back in the hotel room, Keith stared at the ceiling with Rebecca curled into his side. He made a choice back in the museum in Slateport and affected the people around him and himself. It felt like he was going to have to make a choice again soon, and he didn't like it.

When his 'nav buzzed, Keith ignored it. When it buzzed again, Keith realized he was being a dummy for no reason. Traveling and Rebecca weren't mutually exclusive. He would be able to maintain contact with her no matter where he was in the region through the magic of the telephone. Videophone when he was at a center.

Sure, he'd miss being able to be physically close to her like they were now, but it also meant he didn't need to be afraid of being pulled away by circumstance.

Luke didn't know what he was talking about and had no reason to be upset with him. They were adults and Luke had no actual control over them.

And more than those, he didn't need the constant condescension that the older trainer always brought with him. The Unovan didn't always need to voice his criticisms for Brendan to feel them either. Just the constant air of superiority and his belief that whatever way he did things was the objectively correct way.

Why is Brendan's battling style poor according to the other trainer? Because it wasn't Luke's style. Training style? Not Luke's. The way he packed his bag? Daily routine and schedule? By the mount and waves, his diet? Bad because they were different from the way Luke did things. The couple weeks the group had spent away from the Unovan were the freest he'd felt since Petalburg Woods.

Despite that, Brendan couldn't try and say Luke was a bad trainer. He had incredible skill in raising and preparing pokemon for his team, and always played to each of his individual pokemon's strengths. Physically the older trainer was faster and stronger than him too, dedicated and hard-working to advance toward his goal.

The battle they'd had earlier that day confirmed those thoughts. Dart probably could have soloed all three of Brendan's pokemon on his own, Rebecca would have won against Salazar if he hadn't pulled her back for some reason, and even Franz had overwhelmed and beaten his own strongest pokemon.

Luke was trying to reinforce that Brendan, May, and Julia needed to stay with him so he could protect them. It only reinforced that the older man was far stronger than he'd let on, and there was a reason he thought so highly of himself. He wasn't just some trainer from Unova who happened to come to Hoenn. He'd been granted a challenge against the Elite 4, possibly even the champion.

Granted, he got sad whenever it was brought up so some if not all of his team probably got killed in the challenge. But he'd trained a team strong enough to beat the gyms and done well enough in the tournament to challenge the 4 on his first run. He wasn't just another trainer he was a prodigy.

But that was all Luke. Brendan had his own dream and he couldn't do that if Luke was holding him down and back. He'd learned all that he could from the older trainer. It was time to apply aspects of Luke's to training methods that better fit him and his team.

May had come up to him when he was waiting for his team to be finished healing and voiced concern about the battle between them. He'd explained his plan, and she agreed, although slower than he would have liked. "What about Julia?" she had asked him, and he didn't really know how he was supposed to respond to that.

He never had really considered that Julia would opt to stay with the Unovan over coming with her brother. Which was his fault, she'd done everything short of admit to May and Brendan that she liked Luke, he should have seen it coming. Even tonight, she'd stayed behind with the other trainer for nearly an hour before coming back to the suite. When he mentioned his idea to her, she brushed it off and insisted that she was tired instead of giving him an actual answer. Which was all the answer he needed.

His gym battle was only a couple days away. Two before Julia's, and at least a week before Luke's. Probably closer to a week and a half. Plenty of time to get some distance between himself and the older trainers.

Brendan didn't actually have anything against the older trainer. Well, anything other than being fed up with his attitude. But he needed to find his strength and grow at a greater pace than what Luke was teaching at if he wanted to best the other trainer the next time they battled.

And to do that, he needed to leave him behind.

The next day, Luke went to the gym for his and Wally's training session. He was surprised to see Wally's uncle and Julia there in addition to the petite boy. Oh boy.

Wally was the first to move, dashing towards Luke but stopping just short of running into and embracing the older boy. "Can we skip training today? My uncle was going to take me and Julia to see the Battle Tent tournament in Verdanturf today!"

"Verdanturf is a couple days hike away right? How are you going to get there and back?" Luke asked with a frown. He wasn't against the idea per se, but he wasn't sure how they'd get there and back in one day. "Your battle with Wattson is only a couple days off Wally."

"Oh, you don't need to worry about that," his uncle said, stepping toward Luke and waving an arm in the general direction of behind the gym, "I have aerial transport pokemon to take us back and forth, it shouldn't be longer than an hour flight each way."

Luke saw Julia tense when the man mentioned they were going by air. The memory of her anxiety over falling in a dream came to mind, and her vocal dislike of heights. So she didn't know about the flying until now either.

Instead of bringing up the rookie's near deathly fear of heights, the Unovan smiled. "Well, is there room for a fourth?"

As it happened, there was room for a fourth, two humans on each pokemon. The one Wally and his uncle rode on was familiar enough to Luke that it scared him at first. Rather, its smell scared him. The light stench of carrion wafting from the dark-flying pokemon's feathers and the rough throaty squaks before he even saw it. Why did Wally's uncle have a Mandibuzz as a transport pokemon?

Seeing one again gave Luke's stomach a reason to try and empty its contents, but Luke held it in and asked to ride the bird with cotton ball wings and blue scales instead. The older man agreed, stating that the Altaria was a gentler flier and the less experienced riders should ride on her. The Unovan opted not to say just how many times he'd flown to make sure he wouldn't have to ride the Mandibuzz.

Julia decided to ride in front of him for the first few minutes before they had to bring what was apparently a dragon-type to land so she could eject the contents of her stomach on the ground.

"I can't stand the wind blasting my face. And it's so cold up there, maybe we should just call it off and walk back to Mauville?"

"We can if you really want too," he said, patting the Altaria's head, "do you want to try riding with me in front? And for the cold you can wear my jacket, it's in my bag. You'd be warmer, the wind wouldn't be in your face, and you'd be able to close your eyes without worrying about guiding this one along."

Julia's face had been unsure, but she accepted, pulling his jacket on over her vest and climbing on the pokemon behind him as he slid his sunglasses on and had the dual-type start to climb into the air. His friend's grip around his waist grew tighter the higher they went and slid up until her arms were just beneath his ribs. The death grip made it marginally harder to breathe, but she definitely had it worse.

He could feel her breathes on his left shoulder blade, her head pressed tight against his back, which meant her back was scrunched to make sure she could maintain her death grip and use his torso as a shield from the wind. Luke couldn't say for sure, but her was pretty sure her eyes were screwed shut.

Once they landed in Verdanturf and Julia finally released her grip on him, Luke realized how tightly she'd squeezed him. His lungs were begging for the first full breath he'd been able to take in an hour, and his ribs were aching from the pressure they'd been under. It reminded him of the first few times he'd flown fast with Syd, except the Unovan girl hadn't squeezed quite as hard. Come to think of it, she probably hadn't been physically able too grip that hard, Julia seemed athletic before she started his abridged exercise schedule and Syd wasn't exactly a paragon of physical might.

As Wally's uncle paid for their admission to the event and Wally pulled Julia by the hand towards the stands, the image of a musclebound Sydney crossed his mind, and he couldn't stop himself from a snort of laughter.

When he made his way to their seats, he sat down next to Julia. "And now, in the first battle of round two, we have a clash of titans!" the announcer shouted into his microphone. Luke understood the role the man was playing, hyping up the match and everything was important, but he didn't really care for it. It was a battle, not a theatre production.

"In the red corner, the last winner of the no-commands tourney, Jacob Ashter!" The announcement received cheers from around the tent, but not as many as the Unovan would expect for the reigning champion. "And in the blue corner, a man who came out of nowhere to surprise us all! He hasn't lost an event yet, give it up for the newest Tent Tyrant of Verdanturf, Keith Anzetun!"

As always, thanks for reading! If you like the story, be sure to favorite, follow, PM me, or review! Especially reviews, they're most appreciated.

I hope everyone is staying safe as we move back toward reopening everything from COVID. Stay safe, don't get sick.

As a different side note, especially since Keith has now been introduced. Keith is based on one of my friends here in the real world. A tall, bulky black man that, because of the system having been poisoned against him from the beginning. Small as my platform may be, I think it would be remiss of me to not mention the widespread police brutality against people of color in the country I live in, the USA. It's bad. The number of times I've been stopped while walking late at night by myself, as is my habit? Zero. The number of times it's happened while I've been walking with him? Four. And that is not OK. We need actual police reform and actual change in the way we view each other.

Peace, stay safe, DragonSaurus12.