Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.

Bryce wasn't sure of the last time he had hopped in the shower this soon after waking up. He was ready. He felt as though he was born for this. He almost lamented the scheduling of his Gym battle at 11:30 am; he was raring to go right now…

...Actually, scratch that last one. He still needed that haircut, he realized, looking into the mirror as he brushed his teeth.

Luckily, the barber shop was indeed open at eight in the morning; he'd never bothered to check since he'd previously always gone in the afternoon. Afraid that he'd spend all morning here and miss his battle with Roxanne, he was a bit more irritable than normal with the barber, and almost blew a fuse when he realized it had been long enough since his last haircut that the barber didn't remember what 'the usual' meant. Normally the forty-five minutes of sitting still in the chair was easy for him, but today it felt like five hours, and he found it incredibly difficult to stay still. Once he'd paid, he practically sprinted out of the shop.

Once back home, he got his Trainer outfit and backpack on, grabbed Ralts and Bagon's Poke Balls, looked in the mirror – yes, that was much better – and was just about ready to head out the front door when –

'Bryce, it's…' Gloria looked at the clock, '...9:07. Why are you heading out so early? ...Did you get a haircut?'

Was it still that early? In his haste, Bryce had completely forgotten that he still had plenty of time. This was rather embarrassing. He wondered why Gloria was so lax about their upcoming Gym battle, but then remembered that she only had one Pokemon, so she couldn't battle Roxanne right now, since the Rustboro Gym consisted of a two-on-two battle – so it wasn't their upcoming battle, it was his.

Bryce spent the next hour and a half much like he did in the barber shop: fidgety and practically incapable of sitting still as he watched the news with his family. Growing up, he'd always been in the loop about pretty much everything that was happening in the world, something he only now realized would not be the case while he was on his journey. Today's morning story was about two groups that called themselves 'Team Aqua' and 'Team Magma' respectively causing trouble around Hoenn. These kinds of 'Teams' always sparked some degree of fear in the public ever since the rise and fall of the villainous Team Rocket over in Kanto, but the reporters assured the audience that nothing was going to come of these two groups.

All this sitting around and doing nothing slowed Bryce's mind down, and he began to think about other things.

If you defeated the Pokemon League Champion in an official Championship match, you became the new Champion, unless you declined the honor. If you declined to become the new Champion, you would instead receive the similarly-esteemed title of Champion in Essence, or C.I.E. for short. This is what Wallace did when he defeated Hoenn League Champion Steven Stone a few weeks ago. Bryce had always thought it would be ridiculous to not want to become a Champion, but now that he was a Trainer he found himself trying to re-evaluate his stance on just about everything Pokemon-related. What if he ended up loving the traveling lifestyle so much that by the time he became Champion he couldn't bear to become essentially a politician? He wasn't sure about any of this, but he supposed he didn't have to be. After all, it wasn't like he was ever going to become a Pokemon League Champion. But still, it was food for thought.

When it was finally time to go, Bryce had lost some of his manic energy, but he was still anxious to get going. He could tell that Gloria was the same way; she had Buneary's Poke Ball on her, even though she couldn't battle. If he hadn't been walking with his family, he would have matched the pace of Olympian racewalkers as he headed towards the Rustboro Gym, but he unfortunately had to instead match the pace of his parents, who were sauntering along as though they had all the time in the world.

'Bryce,' Gloria said as they were walking, 'how about this: if one of us beats a Gym before the other, they're free to go ahead and leave the other one behind. That sound good?'

'Sure,' said Bryce. He wasn't surprised that Gloria would suggest something like this, given her competitive nature.

There was a crowd of Trainers surrounding the Rustboro Gym when the family arrived. After what felt like forever, Bryce reached the registration device next to the front door, which looked somewhat like an ATM, and had two spaces for Poke Balls. He placed Ralts and Bagon's Poke Balls in the slots, and the lights on the device went green, confirming his registration for his Gym battle. He realized now that Hal, the Trainer he saw battle Roxanne yesterday, must have had a second Pokemon after all, even if he didn't use it; there was no getting past this machine if you only had one.

Bryce and his family walked into the front lobby of the Gym. The nice lady at the front desk directed Gloria and their parents to the stairs that led to the seats, just like every other time they'd been here; Bryce almost followed them out of instinct, but he was directed instead to the challenger's waiting room. Turning to his left, he stared for a couple of seconds at the door that he had once looked longingly at as a nine-year-old, before walking through it.

After a surprisingly long hallway, he emerged into the challenger's waiting room. It looked much like a locker room in a high school gym, with benches and lockers everywhere. Bryce couldn't quite figure out why the lockers were there; they seemed quite pointless, but he supposed that if they were here they must have some purpose, right?

There was also a person sitting on one of the benches, with an unreadable expression on his face. He had blue eyes and extremely messy dark brown hair, and he was wearing a lime green Trainer's jacket. When he saw Bryce, he immediately gave a greeting smile.

'Hi! I'm Zeke,' he said, standing up and offering his hand.

'Hi, I'm Bryce,' Bryce said, shaking Zeke's hand. 'This is my first Gym, so I'm kinda nervous.'

'Yeah, I know the feeling. For me, this is my fourth. Have you ever battled a Trainer before at all?'

'...No.'

'Well, then, you'll get a crash course, I'll tell you,' Zeke said with a chuckle, which Bryce noted had absolutely no malice in it. 'In my first battle, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, but it got better after that. So honestly man, if you lose this first battle, it's no biggie. You just need that little bit of experience, and you'll be fine.'

Bryce could only assume that Zeke lost his first battle, but he didn't want to ask, more for his own sake than Zeke's.

'Anyway, I think it's my time,' Zeke spoke again. 'I've got Grovyle, so hopefully this won't be too hard.'

'Alright man, good luck,' said Bryce.

'You too! Take care,' said Zeke. And with that, he left through another door marked 'To Arena', leaving Bryce alone in the waiting room.

Bryce immediately missed Zeke's company, but the Trainer's words did calm him down somewhat. Even if he lost, he could always try again tomorrow, right? That was what Gloria would have to do anyway, so he wasn't too worried about it.

He noticed that there was a video screen in the corner of the room that showed a view of the arena, presumably so that waiting challengers could watch Roxanne battle whoever was facing her at present. In Bryce's case, that was Zeke, whose Grovyle had no trouble dealing with Roxanne's Rock-types. It seemed that, had Bryce been given the choice between the traditional Hoenn starters, Treecko wouldn't have been so bad an option after all.

It was somewhat to Bryce's dismay as well that Zeke had defeated Roxanne so quickly; while he was happy for his fellow Trainer, part of him had also been wishing for his own battle to be delayed as much as possible. Now it was only a few minutes for Roxanne's Pokemon to be healed up, and then it was his turn to battle.

And indeed, a few minutes passed and then he was called to the arena. 'Alright,' he said, half to himself and half to his Pokemon, who were in their Poke Balls, 'let's do this.'

He walked out into the arena as casually as possible, and immediately was almost blinded as the dark hallway led into the bright lights of the Rustboro Gym arena. He had nowhere to hide here, he realized as he looked around at the impressively large crowd in the stands. Standing near the side of the arena stood the referee, and in the middle of the arena stood Roxanne, who gestured for him to come to the middle as well. She really was quite pretty, and only a couple of years older than him, but he found her teacher-like attitude to be a little condescending at times, even though she meant well.

Once he was standing right in front of her, she greeted him, 'Hello! I'm Roxanne. And you are?'

'U-umm… I'm Bryce,' said Bryce, fighting hard to stop himself from stammering.

'Have you ever challenged a Gym Leader before, Bryce?' asked Roxanne. Bryce felt a little embarrassed at the obvious difference in composure between the two of them, and if he didn't know better, he'd think Roxanne was quite enjoying being the less nervous one.

'No. This is my first one,' said Bryce, determined to not let Roxanne act like a calming big sister.

'Well then, you're in for a treat,' Roxanne said with a warm, genuine smile. 'I became a Gym Leader so that I may apply in battle all that I've learned at the Pokemon Trainers' School. If you defeat me in a Pokemon battle, I'll present you with a Gym Badge as proof of your strength as a Trainer. Now let's get started!'

Roxanne turned around and walked to the Trainer's circle on her side of the arena. Bryce, having watched countless Pokemon battles in person and on TV before, knew he was to do the same.

When they were in their respective Trainer's circles, the referee announced, 'This will be a two-on-two Pokemon battle. I am the one who decides when a Pokemon is unable to battle, and my decisions are final. The challenger is allowed to switch out their Pokemon whenever they please, but the Gym Leader may only switch their Pokemon out if they are unable to battle. Whoever is able to render both of their opponent's Pokemon unable to battle first is the winner. Should the challenger be victorious, they will be awarded the Stone Badge. Are we clear on these rules?'

When Bryce and Roxanne both gave an affirmative, the referee continued, 'When I signal the start of the battle, the Gym Leader must wait for the challenger to give a command to their Pokemon before they can give a command of their own. Now, Trainers, send out your first Pokemon!'

Bryce sent out Bagon first, per his strategy. Roxanne sent out Geodude first, as she always did.

'Let the battle begin!' announced the referee.

'Use Leer!' said Bryce. As the referee announced, and as Bryce already knew, he was allowed to have the first move; he had deliberated over whether he should wait a few seconds to use a move, or to move immediately; he had ultimately decided on the latter. Bagon gave Geodude a piercing gaze. Geodude wasn't visibly affected, but Bryce trusted his knowledge of Pokemon moves that the move had lowered its resilience against physical attacks.

'Well then, Geodude, use Defense Curl!' commanded Roxanne. Just like that, the Defense drop that Bagon had put on it was reversed. Considering it could just use Defense Curl every time Bryce used Leer, it seemed like a rather pointless endeavor. He'd wasted his first move opportunity, too.

'All right, Bagon, let's put our plan into action. Use Bite!' commanded Bryce. Bagon charged at Geodude, its intent seemingly obvious.

'Geodude, use Rock Tomb to stop it in its tracks!' yelled Roxanne. Geodude launched large rocks out of its hands directly at the charging Bagon.

'Jump over them, Bagon!' commanded Bryce. This was about the extent of the plan Bryce had come up with. Bagon would charge Geodude for a Bite attack, seemingly set in its course, to bait out a Rock Tomb from Geodude, which it would then immediately jump over, hopefully catching Roxanne off guard. And it worked; Bagon successfully jumped over the stones, and unleashed a Bite attack, which landed.

Unfortunately, the attack didn't seem to do all that much damage. This, Bryce knew, was due to Geodude's impressive Defense, which was why he had tried to use Leer earlier.

'Geodude, use Tackle!' said Roxanne. Unfortunately, Geodude itself was harder to dodge than the rocks it launched; it crashed into Bagon, doing somewhat more damage to Bagon than the Bite attack had done to it.

Bryce realized he was at somewhat of a loss for what to do. If it was Bagon's Bites against Geodude's Tackles, then the rock-type Pokemon would surely outlast his own...but then he realized that he had a means of changing that.

'Bagon, use Ember!' called Bryce. Bagon launched what looked like a tiny fireball at Geodude, hitting it right on the nose. It didn't do much damage at all, but Bryce wasn't expecting it to.

'Rock-types resist Fire-type attacks, you know,' Roxanne called to Bryce from across the arena. 'You can learn all about which types have an advantage over which types in the Trainers' Sch—'

Roxanne stopped as she saw that Geodude appeared to be on fire. It was burned; Bryce's idea had worked beautifully. It had gotten Roxanne to shut up, too, he noted with a degree of amusement. He then realized that while Roxanne was giving him advice, her guard had been completely down; but he decided that it was better that he hadn't tried to take advantage of that and attack, as that would have been quite a scummy thing to do.

But more importantly, Bryce reminded himself, Geodude was burned, meaning that its attack power was impaired significantly. Now, Bagon stood a much better chance in the battle.

'Use Tackle!' said Roxanne, and Bryce ordered a Bite attack at the same time. The attacks collided, and both Pokemon took damage; but now it was Bagon who was better off, and Geodude was taking additional damage from the burn all the while.

'Bagon, use Bite!' Bryce ordered again. Roxanne didn't give a command, which Bryce though odd, but he dismissed that thought as Bagon charged toward Geodude, completely unimpeded. But just as it was about to unleash its attack…

'Rock Tomb!' called Roxanne, and Geodude launched its rocks at Bagon. This time, Bagon was far too close to have any time to dodge, and it took the full force of the attack. Rock Tomb was more damaging than Tackle had been, and had Geodude not been burned, it would have surely knocked Bagon out. Bagon was blasted back, unable to land its Bite attack. Bryce also knew that Rock Tomb had a slowing effect on its target, and that Bagon wouldn't be as fast or agile now.

'Use Bite again!' said Bryce. He had an idea as for how to circumvent this new problem, but he wanted Roxanne to think he didn't.

'Okay, Geodude, use Rock Tomb once it gets close!' said Roxanne. Geodude readied its arms as Bagon drew nearer. But this was part of Bryce's plan.

'Stop and use Ember!' Bryce yelled excitedly. He wanted to see his plan work.

Bagon stopped in its tracks, still some distance from Geodude, who did not attack, as Bagon wasn't close yet. Bagon then unleashed another Ember attack, which hit Geodude on the forehead. Again, it didn't do that much, but any damage Bryce could deal without taking damage in return was to his advantage. Geodude, who was slowly taking damage to the burn, needed to defeat Bagon quickly, whereas Bagon was under no such time pressure.

'Use Rock Tomb now!' called Roxanne, and Bryce immediately yelled, 'Dodge it!'. Bagon, despite its speed impairment, successfully sidestepped the incoming rocks.

'Now use Bite!' ordered Bryce. Geodude could only recharge its attacks so quickly, and it wasn't nearly agile enough to dodge Bagon's attack, even with the Speed drop. The Bite attack hit its mark; Geodude's natural Defense prevented the attack from doing too much damage, but Geodude had already taken plenty up to this point, and it now looked like it was just barely hanging on – but Bagon was in a similar state.

'Use Rock Tomb again!' commanded Roxanne. Bagon had no time to escape or dodge, and the Rock Tomb hit its mark. Bagon collapsed to the ground, defeated.

'Bagon is unable to battle. Geodude wins!' announced the referee. Bryce didn't mind too much; Geodude would likely succumb to its burn in short order, and it would then be Ralts against Roxanne's last Pokemon, which he knew to be Nosepass. Bryce recalled Bagon.

'You did great, Bagon. Geodude's practically out for the count as well. It's up to Ralts now,' Bryce said to the Poke Ball. Then, grabbing the other one, he sent out Ralts.

'Use Disarming Voice!' he ordered. Ralts's attack was the final straw for Geodude, who sank to the ground, eyes looking like swirls.

'Geodude is unable to battle. Ralts wins!' said the referee. Roxanne recalled Geodude.

'Well, you've brought me down to my last Pokemon. Let's see if you can beat me,' said Roxanne as she sent out Nosepass.

'Ralts, use Double Team!' ordered Bryce. Ralts appeared to generate clones of itself, but Bryce knew that it was simply moving so rapidly that it appeared to be in multiple places at once.

'Use Rock Tomb!' said Roxanne. Nosepass didn't appear able to tell which Ralts was the 'real' one, but it launched the attack at the nearest 'copy'. The rocks, of course, passed right through it as Ralts simply avoided going in that area.

'Use Confusion!' called Bryce. Ralts launched the psychic attack and it hit Nosepass who, being more resistant to special attacks than Geodude, didn't take too much damage.

'Use Tackle!' commanded Roxanne, and Nosepass charged at Ralts.

'Use Double Team again!' shouted Bryce. Ralts immediately began doing the same thing it did previously, creating illusory 'copies' of itself by moving at a blindingly fast speed.

'Stop right next to it!' said Roxanne as Nosepass was about to collide with one of the copies. It did so, and Ralts dared to continue moving to that area.

'Now use Tackle!' called Roxanne. Nosepass charged at the copy, and collided with Ralts as it moved there. Ralts collided right with Nosepass's large nose, and being far weaker physically, got the worst of the collision.

'Now use Rock Tomb!' ordered Roxanne. From point-blank range the attack was unavoidable, and it hit Ralts. Nosepass didn't quite have the Attack power that Geodude did, but it also wasn't burned, so the attack did a fair bit of damage, and Bryce knew again that Ralts would now be slower.

'Use Growl!' said Bryce, and Ralts gave a growl that Bryce knew would lower the Nosepass's Attack, even if it didn't look like it was doing anything, similar to Leer. And unlike with Leer, Roxanne couldn't reverse this stat drop.

'Use Rock Tomb!' said Roxanne. Nosepass launched rocks out of its hands, and Ralts was unable to dodge it thanks to having lowered Speed. It didn't do as much damage as before, thanks to the Growl, but Ralts was slowed further by this attack, and Bryce feared it would now be unable to use Double Team properly.

'Use Confusion!' called Bryce. Luckily, Nosepass wasn't very agile either, and it couldn't dodge the attack. As Ralts's Special Attack was unimpaired, it did the same amount of damage as before. Which wasn't much, but Bryce had come to appreciate that this battle was one of attrition.

'Use Rock Tomb again!' Nosepass again launched a Rock Tomb attack, and Ralts again failed to dodge it. But unlike before, it dealt a huge amount of damage – a critical hit, Bryce realized. Just like that, Ralts fell flat on its face, and didn't get up.

'Ralts is unable to battle. Nosepass wins, and the winner is Roxanne!' announced the referee. Bryce recalled Ralts. It took a few seconds for it to sink in that he had in fact lost the battle. As he congratulated Ralts on having done well despite its defeat, Roxanne walked up to him.

'Hey, keep your head up. You did well! It really caught me off guard when you burned Geodude,' said Roxanne. 'Unfortunately, since you lost, you don't get the Stone Badge. You can come back tomorrow, though!'

In any other situation, Bryce would have found Roxanne's words annoying, but they genuinely did cheer him up. 'Thanks,' he said. 'I will.'

As he headed back out to the main lobby, he remembered how Zeke had seared through Roxanne's team like a knife through butter. How did he do it so easily, when for Bryce it was a struggle to gain any headway at all? Geodude and Nosepass were sponging off every attack he threw at them, but they were felled in moments by Zeke. But then he remembered: Zeke had used the Grass-type Grovyle. Bryce knew that Grass-type moves were super effective against Rock-type Pokemon, but was it really that much more damaging than what Bryce had been using?

If only he'd caught that Shroomish, this would have been so much easier…

He remembered that Pokemon can learn moves that aren't the same type as them. Maybe one of his Pokemon could learn a Grass- or Water-type move. That would make it much easier, wouldn't it?

He entered the main lobby and was immediately hugged by his parents, who reassured him that he'd done amazing in there. Gloria stood a couple of feet away as well.

'Nice to know I won't be left behind before I even begin,' she said to Bryce with a chuckle.

As Bryce walked out of the Gym and back into the crowd and the hot summer air, he heard someone call for him. He turned to face Zeke.

'Hey, Bryce!' said Zeke. 'I watched your battle. You did way better than I did my first time!'

'Thanks, man!' said Bryce, and he meant it. 'It's insane to me now to think you beat her so easily, considering how much trouble I had.'

'I mean, thanks!' said Zeke. 'Rock-types are weak to a lot of types. If you have something that's super effective against Rock, you can beat it pretty easily. You didn't, so you had more trouble.'

'So I just have to find a Pokemon that's super effective against Rock?'

'Yeah, basically,' said Zeke. 'Or even teach one of your Pokemon a move that's one of those types. I'm pretty sure Ralts can learn Magical Leaf. That'll work just fine.'

'I'll look into it,' said Bryce. 'Thanks again!'

'No worries, Bryce,' said Zeke. 'I should go. See ya!'

'Bye!' said Bryce. Zeke had made him feel much better yet again. He didn't need to regret his Pokemon choices after all. He could just figure out how to teach Ralts how to use Magical Leaf, and he'd be fine. He turned back to look for his family and saw Gloria...battling?

Gloria was indeed battling, her Buneary launching a Pound attack against a Torchic, who was being commanded by a girl Bryce didn't recognize. The attack hit its mark and Torchic fainted; Bryce assumed that the battle had been going on for some time, and that he had only seen the very end.

Torchic's Trainer recalled her Pokemon, and shook Gloria's hand. 'That was a good battle! Maybe we'll be battling again at the Pokemon League someday.'

'I hope so too – Lola, was it?' Gloria said.

'Yep, that's me!' said Lola. 'And you're Gloria, right?'

'Indeed I am,' said Gloria. 'Hope to see you again sometime!'

Gloria and Lola exchanged their goodbyes, and Lola headed off. Gloria spotted Bryce.

'Oh, hi, Bryce,' she greeted him.

'Hi, Gloria. Who was that?' asked Bryce.

'Lola,' said Gloria. 'She also only has one Pokemon, and she challenged me to a battle. Were you watching that?'

'Only the end,' said Bryce.

'I, on the other hand, was watching the whole thing!' came a rather extravagant-sounding voice that Bryce recognized immediately, but couldn't quite believe who his mind came up with. He turned to the source of the voice, and it was indeed Wallace, Sootopolis Gym Leader and, as of recently, Champion in Essence.

'R-Really?' said Gloria, who couldn't believe it either.

'Indeed I was!' said Wallace. 'You and Buneary don't have the best bond right now, I know, but there's something there! You have so much talent, I can just see it! You'll be challenging the Pokemon League in no time! So why aren't you in some proper Trainer clothes? Aren't you challenging this here Gym?'

That's rich, thought Bryce, coming from a guy who dresses in anything but 'proper Trainer's clothes'.

'No,' said Gloria. 'I came to watch my brother.' She gestured to Bryce, and Wallace looked at him as though he hadn't realized he'd been standing there the whole time. 'I can't right now. I only have Buneary.'

'Oh but I can change that!' said Wallace. 'I've been looking for someone worthy to pass this Feebas on to, and who else but a talented Trainer such as yourself who also happens to not have enough Pokemon to challenge this Gym!' Unlike with Professor Birch, it was virtually impossible to tell if Wallace's words were genuine or simply well-practiced.

'Y-You serious?' said Gloria, who looked like she couldn't decide to be annoyed at him seemingly pitying her, or over the moon at being given a free Pokemon by none other than Wallace himself.

'Yes, I am completely serious!' said Wallace, who produced a Poke Ball and sent out Feebas. 'It isn't much right now, but trade it while it's holding a Prism Scale…'

'...and it evolves into Milotic, right?' Gloria finished Wallace's sentence.

'Precisely!' Wallace said, recalling Feebas and presenting its Poke Ball to Gloria. 'I dare say, the most beautiful Pokemon in the world! So, will you accept my offer?'

'Uh…' said Gloria, not expecting this. 'I mean, sure!'

'That's a smart girl! Here you are!' said Wallace, in his extravagant tone of voice again, handing the Poke Ball to Gloria, who took it.

'Thank y—'

'No need to thank me! Now, I shall be off!' said Wallace, who sent out a Slowpoke. 'Use Teleport!' he said, and he and the Slowpoke vanished. Just at that moment, the twins' parent came running over.

'And I was just about to ask him for an autograph!' exclaimed Bryce's father. 'Did he give you a Pokemon, Gloria?'

'Yeah, he did,' said Gloria, showing him Feebas's Poke Ball.

'Well, that's just amazing!' said Bryce's mother. 'You should cherish that, if it came from the great Wallace himself!'

'Sure, I will,' said Gloria. 'Should we head home?'

'I say yes, we should,' said Bryce's mother, and with that, the family left.

Bryce only remembered a couple of hours later what Zeke had said, about Ralts being able to learn Magical Leaf. He headed out on his own to the Poke Mart, and to his relief, he found the TM for the move on the shelves. He bought it, and headed home to teach it to Ralts.

Bryce had never used a TM before, but it turned out to be remarkably easy. He chose to replace Growl, since Pokemon could only know up to four moves at any given time. He was pretty sure that TMs taught their moves instantly, but he wanted to make sure, so he took his Pokemon out into the family's rather massive backyard to train. To his delight, Ralts was executing Magical Leaf as though it had mastered the move years ago. As they trained, Ralts even learned Draining Kiss of its own accord, in place of Disarming Voice. Bagon got some training in too, and it even learned Dragon Breath. By the end of it, Bryce was feeling much more confident in the strength of his Pokemon, and of his own competence as a Trainer.

So, as it turned out, yesterday wasn't the last night Bryce would spend in his room, because here he was again, after such a long day. Tomorrow he'd be challenging the Gym again, hopefully with better results this time. Gloria would be challenging the Gym as well, now that she had enough Pokemon to register.

It was going to be another big day tomorrow. Hopefully, it would be the start of his journey proper.