"Statements"

'Thoughts'

Side Notes

"Wha-what?!" Chloe stammered.

"I think it's a great idea. If watching a battle could get you so excited, just imagine how being a part of your own could treat you," Serena eagerly stated.

The maroon haired girl stared tentatively at her skittish friend. "I'm not sure..."

After a bit more harassment/encouragement from Serena, a concise answer was finally pulled from her. "I guess we could have a battle."

"Great!" It only took a few minutes to reach the now vacant battlefield. Chloe took one side while Serena took the other. Eevee joyously ran to the field, excited to participate in its first official battle.

From the moment she proposed their battle, Serena had a clear idea of just who she'd be using against Chloe and her Eevee. "Sylveon, I choose you!"

Chloe took her time to observe the sight of the Fairy type mammalian. "Sylveon...Isn't that Eevee's evolved form?"

Chloe pulled the Pokedex from her pocket and took a scan.

"Sylveon, a Fairy type and the evolved form of Eevee. By releasing enmity-erasing waves from its from its ribbonlike feelers, Sylveon stops any conflict."

"I first caught mine as an Eevee back in Kalos and it evolved at a point where I really needed it. It's one of the memories I cherish the most." Sylveon affectionately wrapped its ribbons around Serena's hand.

Chloe heart warmed up a bit and wondered if her and Eevee could ever have that close of a bond. She felt a little more excited for the battle to come. "Hey Serena, any day now."

"Right, sorry for the delay. Sylveon, let's get started with Swift!"

Chloe shouted a brisk, "Copycat!" in retaliation. Eevee's glowed like a bright sun and produced its own stars.

Ash did his best to steel himself as he anxiously stood right outside the hospital's entrance. "You think they'll tear me apart or hug me to death?"

Pikachu wanted to ease its trainer, but all it could muster was a soft, "Pika..."

Ash sighed. "Alright, let's just go."

He made his way to the door outside Goh's ER hallway. He took one final moment to indurate his backbone, hoping to recover his usual boldness. When that failed, he simply exhaled disappointingly and opened the door.

"Ash!"

"Phox!"

Ash felt himself wrapped around in bearhugs from the teary-eyed pair. He began to turn purple, but paid no mind to it. The emotions came reeling in with the tears that formed in his own eyes. Delphox and Professor Cerise stepped back to return his ability to breathe.

"Um, Professor?" The brief smile on Ash's face dropped back.

"Yes?"

"There was this tournament that a friend told me about, its for the World Coronation Series...and, well, there was a battle gathering right before it, too," Ash hesitantly uttered each word. "I was wondering if I'd be allowed to take part even with Goh like this...?"

Ash started to worry when the Professor kept quiet. The boy initially believed the worst he could say was "no," but began to worry that the older man would start yelling at him for being so inconsiderate to just leave his friend like that and prioritize a battle.

"Ash." Ash gulped in anticipation. "Of course. Serena told us all about it. I was already planning on taking the initiative of letting his parents know, anyways, so I'll just fill them in on that. You're all set, kiddo."

A childish smile spread across his face when he heard that. Ash kept his cool and flashed a confident grin to Pikachu. "Hear that, buddy?"

Pikachu nuzzled up to its trainer as Ash wrapped it in a tight embrace. Professor Cerise smiled at his research fellow, reminiscing of the good old days when Ash and Goh just stuck to their usual endeavors of catching, researching, and battling all around the world.

"Hey Ash?"

The boy turned away from Pikachu. "Huh? What is it, Professor?"

"Make sure you give Tobias a run for his money."

The mood in the room reversed once more. Ash sighed and nodded. "You can count on it, Tobias won't see me coming!"

Delphox came back over with a box of warm malasadas, hoping it could sideline the topic. When his eyes caught them, Ash would want nothing more than to jump at the swell delicacies. Professor Cerise looked solemnly at Ash, glad of his radiant character, but dreadful of the certain confrontation to come.

'Ash...' He thought. 'Please win.'

After consuming his 3rd consecutive malasada, it finally dawned on Ash of his female friends' absences. "Where's Serena? And Chloe, she came with you to Sinnoh, right?"

"They went for a walk around Jubilife. We'll save some food for them, but for now, feel free to dig in."

And with that, Ash indulged in the sweet, sweet malasadas. These were his last few moments to enjoy his time as nothing more than a kindhearted and energetic boy. Before noon tomorrow, he'll be challenging the Battle Gathering. Thoughts drifted towards the Pikachu on his shoulder and the five Pokemon in his back pocket.

Eevee's disadvantage was exemplified by the lack of a struggle shown on Sylveon's end. The Fairy type had launched a multitude of attacks while Eevee's sole counter remained to be an inferior version produced by Copycat. All the copied versions could do was weaken the original attacks for when they made contact with Eevee, and this remained to be the primary reason Eevee was still standing. Chloe was going off the hope that she'd run up some super impressive beginner's luck strategy that could turn things around, but unfortunately, she was at a block.

"Alright, um, Tackle!"

Eevee felt the wind brush against its fur while making a daring leap for Sylveon. The ribbons it felt wrap around its stomach unsurprisingly intercepted and tossed it to the side. Bringing itself up was an especially difficult task for the smaller Pokemon. Sylveon genuinely wanted to give the smaller Pokemon a fighting chance, but its lack of experience made that far too difficult to accomplish; It had no other choice. After softly shutting its eyes, Sylveon contorted its face into a deriding grin.

Sylveon's expression crumpled like a flower. It instantly bashed its head to the side of Eevee's gut. Before the smaller Pokemon could land, Sylveon tightly swirled its ribbons around Eevee's stomach and began to harshly tighten around it.

"Vee!" It yelped out in pain.

"Eevee, no!" Chloe cried.

Serena was perplexed by her Pokemon's actions. "Sylveon! What are you doing?!"

She was ignored by the relentless Fairy type. A few more brutal seconds and Eevee's motionless body dropped to the floor.

"Serena! What's wrong with your Sylveon?!"

"I-I don't know..." Serena truthfully responded. "Sylveon's never acted out like this before."

Sylveon turned her head at Serena, but this time without half the belligerence in its eyes as before.

Serena took a moment to understand. She assumed a faint grin before giving Chloe the second shock of the hour. "What's the matter? If your Eevee's so weak that it can't even defend itself against my Sylveon, then this battle's just pointless."

"What are you talking about? What's the matter with you?" Chloe argued.

"There's nothing wrong, I'm just letting you know how flawed you are as a trainer. Your Eevee couldn't even beat a bug catcher in its dreams, much less its own evolved form." Sylveon and Eevee's battle was doing nothing to disprove that claim.

A drop of sweat fell from Chloe's face and marked the pavement with its cold, wet surface. She felt a slight pang of betrayal at the pair's sudden shift in character. Nothing she could think of had a plausible chance of defeating Serena. Eevee only had two moves, Copycat and Tackle, both of which produced inferior results against Sylveon. Eevee rushed over to its trainer and smacked her with its tail. "Eevee!"

Chloe rubbed her head and stumbled at the action that surprised even Serena and her Sylveon. "Hey!"

Eevee called out once again, but not without its trainer's attention following afterwards. The stunning blow seemed to have given Chloe the perception needed to read her Pokemon's thoughts. Their eyes connected, lighting up a fire between the two that neither were ready to snuff out.

"Mhm." She nodded. "Don't worry, I'm not giving up just yet. Hit em with your best shot!"

'Good work, Chloe. Keep it up!' Serena thought. She narrowly caught her expression from slipping up and revealing their ruse. "So you've got a little fight in ya, we-well let's see how far that'll take you!"

Eevee's fur glowed once more, but now with an intensity that far surpassed a mere Tackle in raw power. Its spirit bore untapped strength. Eevee's determination brought it to the heights it needed to reach the next level. It was ready for a Take Down; the move wasn't just fast, it was tough. Sylveon's body felt a lash of pain from the steam engine called Eevee. By a mere miracle, it landed on its feet, but nowhere near as graceful as intended. Eevee's head rung back and forth. A subconscious tremor on its temple held it back from finishing the job against Sylveon. The two opposing trainer immediately realized the cause. 'Recoil.'

The open opportunity didn't fall through the Kalos pair's cracks. Eevee left itself vulnerable for a head on, "Fairy Wind!" which blew it off the field and onto the steel fencing behind it. The result was apparent, Eevee was down and it wasn't getting up.

Chloe picked Eevee up and comforted it like a gentle mother. "It's okay Eevee." Under a much softer breath, she muttered, "Thank you."

Eevee whimpered with a weak smile. Chloe's arms felt lighter upon returning her damaged Pokemon. She felt shame in being unable to prove Serena's claims wrong. She was so close to winning, but lost due to inexperience; inexperience that she could've so easily fixed by training more. All that could shake her from her doubts was the quick grasp of her rival's hand on her shoulder.

"Don't push yourself too hard, that was a pretty good showing for your first official battle," Serena praised.

Chloe didn't know what to make of the second shift in character. "You're not gonna ridicule me for the loss? But you kept saying I was this and that with all those insults."

"Hehe well," Serena laughed nervously. "I was just following Sylveon's lead. It has the ability to sense emotions when its ribbons make contact, so when Eevee first brushed against them, Sylveon must've realized it was playing around too much. I guess it thought the best way to push you guys was by giving you an opponent you'd desperately want to beat, and it sort of worked. Eevee managed to learn Take Down."

Sylveon gently cheered, now dropping its earlier facade. It wrapped a ribbon around Chloe's arm and shared its warm compassion with the girl.

Chloe smiled, happy her friend was just looking out for her, but the glaring flaw didn't cease from her mind. "But Take Down's too risky, we'll never manage to win a battle with it."

"Don't keep beating yourself up over it, there's still a long way to go so I wouldn't try rushing. I think we can do with just meeting up with Ash again, for now."

"Yeah, you're right. but can promise me this, can we have another battle someday without any of those shenanigans going on?"

"Yeah, I promise."

Chloe gave one last proud look at her Eevee's Poke ball before running off the chase the sprinting Serena and her little fairy friend.

Chloe noticed the quick strides led them to arrive at the hospital in only a few minutes, although she sacrificed her stamina in the process.

Relentless panting caught Chloe; her adrenaline was burnt out in the battle. In contrast, Serena didn't seem fazed one bit, same case for her Sylveon.

"I took my Pokemon out for jogs regularly back in Hoenn and Kalos, it was a way to keep fit," Serena addressed the much more exhausted Chloe's thoughts. "I guess we'll be heading in."

Chloe waved her hand. "I'll stay back for now, my legs are killing me."

"Sure, just be careful!" Serena excitedly dashed off from the front entrance to the building's interior. Chloe watched keenly as her friend disappeared before perching at the front steps. From her pocket, she pulled out her phone and began to dial a few select digits.

riiiiiinnngg

riiiiiinnngg

riiiiiinnngg

click. "Hello?"

"Finally decided to pick up, slowpoke?" Chloe mocked.

"Sheesh, I can't even eat lunch in peace, so what's up?" she heard from the other end.

"I have a friend here and she's pretty psyched to meet you. We're in Jubilife right now so I figured you wouldn't mind coming over for a bit. I heard Ash was gonna be part of this really important tournament thing, so we'll definitely keep you entertained."

She anticipated her friend's answer, hoping they'd meet her expectations."Of course, anything for a fan! Besides, I hadn't met up with you guys in weeks! Why didn't you call sooner?"

Chloe hesitated. Her primary reason for coming to Sinnoh was Goh's injury, dropping this bombshell on Dawn would devastate her. From the pits of her mind, the best excuse she could come up with was, "It's a long story, I'll tell you when you get here."

"Sounds great!"

The brief pop sound told Chloe their call was over. She wasn't expecting this huge weight dropped on her shoulders, but she didn't know how else to tell Dawn the current circumstances. She looked to the inside of the hospital through its clear glass doors, chased after the figurative trail Serena left after herself.

Still on the ground floor, Serena impatiently tapped her foot while waiting for an elevator. It took a few more seconds for the elevator to arrive, and another few for all the people inside to fizzle out and give her the the full space to herself. She pressed the buttons leading to where Delphox, the Professor, Goh, and Ash should've been.

Serena observed the elevator light flick to the next number, then the one after that, then the following one. Before she knew it, she reached her floor. She prepared herself to start sprinting through the hallways once the doors opened. That's why, when she did, she unexpectedly bumped into Ash, knocking off the trays of food in his hands that Pikachu thankfully caught.

Ash was getting ready to give this person a piece of his mind when he caught wind of her voice. "Oh Ash, I'm so sorry!"

"Serena? Hey, there you are! I was just heading down to hand these malasadas to you and...Chloe?"

"Chloe was a bit tired, so she stayed back by the entrance," the girl spoke. A crowd had already formed inside the elevator, leaving Ash with only the stairs to reach Chloe. The staircase produced a sound of rapidly progressing footsteps just beyond the door. Before Ash could even twist the knob open, Chloe came charging through and tackled him straight to the floor. Ash felt the leftover malasadas slip from his grasp and hopelessly crumble beneath the weight of his arm.

"Ash!"

"CHLOEEEE!"

You'll never see a Pokemon as scary as Ash is when food is wasted. After a tiring and rather awkward lecture from Ash about how good food shouldn't be wasted, he calmed down and gave Chloe his trademark smile. "It's good to see you."

"Same here." She smiled back. Stories were exchanged between the three of the events over the past hour. Ash shared less than the girls, mainly cause they already got a good glimpse of his rematch with Paul.

"So you saw me lose, then?" Ash rubbed the back of his hand. "That's kinda embarrassing."

"Why? You had a good battle. It really got me hooked," Chloe admitted.

Ash lit up at the sound of those words. "Really? So you and Eevee are gonna start battling now?"

Ash's enthusiasm was a little too much for Chloe. She could practically that stars in his eyes as Serena chuckled in the background. "I don't know, we got off to a rough start. We could barely take on Serena's Sylveon, so we have a long way to go on the totem pole."

"Wait, what was that last part?" Ash asked.

"Totem pole?"

"No no, before that."

"Oh...OH! Yeah, that's right! Serena gave me a battle with her Sylveon. It was fun, Eevee learned Take Down, Serena acted suspicious." Said girl received a bit of a side-eye glare from Chloe. "We lost in the end, but it was a really wonderful experience. Sinnoh never fails to keep my at the edge of my seat, even in ways I really wish it didn't."

Her head turned to Goh's room. The three of them walked in and sent somber glances at the boy. Serena popped out Cinderace's Poke ball and allowed it to hold its trainers unimpaired hand. Despite his injuries, the comfortable look on Goh's face meant they certainly didn't bother him in his slumber. They shared a brief silence, all secretly hoping he'd be better soon so they could be on their way out to kick Tobias's butt then celebrate by nightfall, but they didn't suffer fools gladly. The two girls looked to Ash, who in turn took multiple Poke Balls out from his pocket and opened them to five separate flashes.

"Don't sweat it, Goh. When you wake up, me, Dracovish, Dragonite, Gengar, Lucario, Sirfetch'd, and Pikachu are gonna beat Tobias and make him apologize to you up front," Ash's eyes began to water. The best he could do to comfort the group was to coat the misery with optimism, but that only lead to him opening emotional wounds for himself. "S-so wake up soon, okay?"

Lucario laid its hand on Cinderace's shoulder. Its friend's presence was heartening. Ash's other Pokemon looked grievingly at Goh, Dragonite even began to cry. It was touching for Ash to see how much his team cared for his friend. It was clear for them how close Goh was with every Pokemon in the lab. After a few more cries, Ash returned his Pokemon while Serena let Cinderace back in its own.

'You're gonna pull through this. I'm here, Ash is here, Serena, my dad, your parents, and all of our Pokemon aren't leaving you, so please don't leave us.' Chloe laid her hand on Goh's for a few seconds. Memories of their first meeting back in Cerise Labs came to fruition, but she didn't want to hold the others up. She gave him a kiss on the forehead, and then they left. Serena shut the door on their way out. Professor Cerise and Delphox remained sound asleep in their individuals seats, so they collectively decided to just leave them be and head out for one last time that day.

"So Ash, what do you plan on doing about that Battle Gathering? Its your last roadblock before the Ultra Class Tournament," asked Chloe.

"I thought about it, and I figured there was no better time than tomorrow. My team's ready and so am I. You're both gonna watch my battle, right?"

"Of course! I'm sure its gonna be a fun one. Maybe after you win, we could take a trip to Twinleaf town and meet Dawn," Serena added in.

"Sounds like a plan! What do you think, Chloe?"

"I like the sound of it, I wouldn't mind seeing Dawn again." Her lip curled slyly. Little did they know, she had a surprise waiting for them. "Do you mind if we head to the Pokemon Center? I was actually thinking of bringing some of Goh's Pokemon over here, you know, since they'd probably want to see their trainer when he wakes up."

Ash agreed. "Yeah, I was feeling hungry anyway and I left some snacks in our room there."

Serena chuckled while Chloe facepalmed. And with that, they met the conclusion of their day, now with tomorrow to look forward to. At least, for them.

In Jubilife, under the blackened skies, another trainer traversed his way through the city, unbothered by all the sounds he heard in the background, instead choosing to focus on an empty arena, surely a prestigious one despite its recent creation. He entered the building and found a check in station. From his pocket, he pulled out a ticket and showed it to the attendant.

"You're actually almost a week early, the tournament doesn't start for another few days, but I could register you right now. I just need your trainer card with the battle ticket."

"Very well." The boy took out the necessary documents and submitted them. After a bit of tapping on the keyboard, the attendant handed him back his card and read to confirm the details on her screen.

"There you go, you're all set! We wish you the best of luck in the tournament, Mr...Oh wow!" She stopped midway after getting a good view of his profile. "A gym leader from Galar, quite a big name. We hope you find success, Mr. Bede."

"I travelled a long way from Galar, and I truly do hope Sinnonian trainers are on par with those from Galar. I wouldn't really bet on it, but one could dream."

He made the mistake of proclaiming that out loud, right within hearing range of another who had the same idea of registering on this very night.

"What was that, HUH?!" The other boy shouted. The first detail Bede noticed of this other boy was his messy blonde hair, quite fitting for his unconventional yellow-based clothing style.

"Yellow's a messy color, I suggest you'd much rather use pink, it's far more eloquent and soothing to the eye."

"Wha-colors?! Those don't matter! I should fine you for getting off topic, and I'll have you know that Sinnoh's got some of the best trainers around the world, this is coming from one of their very own Frontier Brains," the boy praised.

"Your point? I'm a gym leader from Galar," Bede retorted.

"Oh so you think you're some hotshot just cause you're bringing up a title from your region?"

"But hadn't you just brought up-"

"I'm not done talking!" The boy yelled out, startling the attendant, whose sign of presence shifted his attention. Before continuing the conversation, the boy quickly ripped out his trainer card plus his battle ticket then handed them off to her.

"Alright, you're registered. And would you look at that? We've got another big name. This time one of our very own Frontier Brains. Do us proud, Mr. Barry!" She cheered on.

Barry proudly smirked. "Anyway where was I...Oh right, I was just getting mad!"

"You!" He pointed at Bede. "For saying Sinnoh trainers are weak and cutting me off earlier, I'm fining you 100,000 Pokedollars, in full!"

"Fine, just don't get the police involved." Bede pulled out 100 grand in Pokedollars and handed them off to Barry, causing the blond to stutter and stand motionless with the money in hand.

Bede grew concerned at the seemingly lifeless Barry. 'Did...Did he die?'

Barry gripped the 100,000 in his hand. In his confused daze, all he could think to do was stuff the money in his wallet. Barry cleared his throat and continued to talk. "You're facing some tough competition here, pal. I'm not the only one Sinnonian in the Ultra Class that you'll meet at the tournament. Even if you get past me, there's no way you'll beat Paul."

"Funny you should mention him, he's the one I'm really looking forward to battling. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure you Frontier Brains are powerful, but you're simply not on the level of an Elite 4 member like him."

"Then we'll just have to see. 6 days from now, you'll be seeing yours truly in the Ultra Class Tournament, but you won't be getting any wins over me!" Barry extended a hand along with his challenge.

Bede looked down, contemplating how he chose to react. He settled on shaking his hand and accepting the Frontier Brain's challenge. "Whether it's the main event or even the opening round, a battle between a Gym Leader and a Frontier Brain would surely draw eyes on an already grand event, but that just makes it sadder when they all see me defeat you."

And with that, they parted ways.

Wow, I've been on a publishing hiatus for over a month so it honestly felt kinda awkward going back. Sorry for being inactive for so long, the combination of a busy schedule + general laziness got to me. Don't worry, though, I haven't been completely off the story during this break. I've set up a few notes for future chapters so it wasn't all for naught.

Yes, Ash is actually gonna be in the Battle Gathering next chapter after having passed multiple chapters since I introduced the concept. I don't wanna give out too many spoilers of his opponent but I figure the next title would be enough to let you know.

As for Bede, since he's my first game-only character(not counting side animes like Twilight Wings, which is still really good), I'm feeling a bit conflicted with the addition. I'm hoping I can mold him into a good character for the plot and this new rivalry with Barry(who I wrote into the Frontier Brain position) is what I'm using to start him off.

I'll confess that I've never actually played Sword and Shield so I'm hoping his Bulbapedia description is accurate enough. The events of Darkest Day have already occurred in the anime, so while I will be acknowledging his connection to Rose(and maybe even add in a few moments between them), his tutelage under Opal is already preset for the story.