Author's Note: Things are rolling along nicely now...Lunar Sphinx, Daypaw, and Raza, thank you for your reviews and I'll try harder to make my stories better for you...NEW NOTE! This chapter was edited for aesthetic reasons...The deleted part will be showing up again soon.

NAME: Aaron

AGE: 14

HOME: New Bark Town

HAIR: Short spikey Teal

EYES: black

CLOTHES: black and yellow shorts, loose red and white shirt, and a black and yellow hat

FUN FACT: He and his sister are both taking their Pokemon League challenge together

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Krysta was preparing her bedroll for the night out in the field, though she doubted she would be using it much. Routes 30 and 31 were teeming with wild pokemon, especially at night.

Krysta pulled out her pokedex and started fiddling with it.

"Um...lets see now...Moves sounds like it would be interesting..."

She pressed the select button on her pokedex and got a command prompt.

"PLEASE SCAN POKEMON TO DETERMINE LEVEL AND MOVES KNOWN."

Krysta thought for a moment and pulled her Phanpy out and opened its pokeball.

"PHANPY: LEVEL 2; TACKLE...GROWL"

Krysta was pleased with her pokedex and decided to try the translator.

"Hey little Phanpy...how are you doing?"

The Phanpy looked at her uncertainly and started cooing in its tiny voice.

"Phaaan...py py py.... Anpy...Phan..."

The pokedex chimed and a voice translated. "Hungry...where mommy? Are you my new mommy?"

Krysta started to feel bad about taking Phanpy away from its mother, but hen decided that if it realy wanted to go, it could have broken out of its pokeball and left. She dug in her bag and retrieved some PokePellets and fed Phanpy. Storm and Echo burst out of their pokeballs and started begging for food as well. Krysta laughed and fed them too.

A light rustling behind her made her turn and look. Zell was going through his daily ritual of feeding his pokemon and grooming them. Krysta was surprised at how much Zell cared for his pokemon, but then again, she mused, he IS trying to become the best and you only become the best through love.

Zell's team was quite impressive. He had a Charmeleon, a Wartortle, an Ivysaur, a Kadabra, an Ampharos, and an Eevee. Krysta was envious of his well-balanced team, but she was nonetheless proud of her Merry Band of Misfits. She recited the types she had in her mind: Ground, Nromal/Flying, and Poison/Flying. Two out of three fit her plans for the Gym she wanted, but it didn't matter that Phanpy was a Ground type.

What did matter, how ever, was Falkner. He had a level nine Pidgeotto that had a type advantage over one of her pokemon and an experience advantage over the other two...The only answer was to catch more pokemon and level them up some more.

She decided to get to work on that right away. Standing and stretching, she started to walk towards a clump of grass. With three pokeballs left, she tried to prioritize the pokemon she was after. A Poliwag would compliment Phanpy very well, and a Hoothoot would offer some psychic moves to the party...but an electric pokemon...now that would be the prize wouldn't it?

Unfortunately, there were no indigenous electric types on Route 30 or 31.

Despite the lack of the perfect type to use against Falkner, they went into the grass and and raised chaos among the nocturnal pokemon.

Their first conquest was a Hoothoot. Under Krysta's directions, Echo stunned the pokemon with his supersonic and then used Leech Life until it was almost fainted. Krysta caught it with no problems.

Krysta used Storm on the next pokemon, a Spinarak. Unfortunately, Storm's tackles K.O.ed the bug pokemon, but Storm leveled up and learned Sand Attack.

Echo assisted in the capture of a female Poliwag, now named Aqua, and a female Spinarak called Dorcy. . Krysta was exhausted by the time she came back to the campsite. She found Zell sprawled across his sleeping bag and half of hers. She grumbled good naturedly about 'idiot boys' as she shoved him off her side. Something grey and square fell out of his pocket and, being unable to resist, she picked it up. Opening it proved to be his badge collection. He had collected for of the nescesary eight badges to enter Victory Road. Krysta was amazed. Putting on his pack, she climbed into bed for a good night's sleep.

An annoying Ledyba's call woke her up. She rubbed her eyes and yawned so hard her jaw popped. Looking around, she noticed that Zell was gone.

She got up and cracked her back, trying to ease the tension of sleeping on the ground. Packing her things up, she sighed and realized how long this journey was going to be. To become a Gym Leader, she had to defeat all the Gym Leaders in the region she wanted to become a leader in (she still wasn't sure if she wanted to be a Kanto Gym Leader or a Johto Gym Leader) and then go through a special Ordeal of Leadership where she had to prove the bonds between her Gym pokemon and herself. The better she did on the Ordeal, the higher her Gym ranking would be.

Zell came out of the underbrush with an odd look on his face. When questioned, he just shook his head.

They continued down the road. Standing to one side was a young trainer with a net sticking out of his backpack. Zell groaned and covered his eyes.

"Great..A bug catcher...the most annoying trainer type on the planet..."

Krysta thought he was joking, then she got challenged.

The young boy was eager in his tactics, sending out a Metapod. Krysta chose a pokemon and sent it into the makeshift arena.

"Phanpy, go!"

Her small blue and red pokemon walked hesitantly around his side of the battle zone. The Metapod stared serenly at him.

"Phanpy, Tackle!" Krysta urged.

He obeyed and managed to knock the Metapod over. The bug catcher ordered his Metapod to Harden. The bug pokemon glowed white for a few seconds and tensed up. Krysta had Phanpy Tackle it again. The hit was fairly substantial, but not as effective as the first hit. The Metapod was ordered to Harden again.

------After an hour and a half------

"Phanpy! Tackle!" Krysta was mad. The stupid Metapod would just not faint! She started thinking At least it can't raise its defense anymore...Poor Phanpy's getting tired though... She would be glad when this battle was over.

Phanpy was getting angry as well. On his next attack, he put all his strength into his Tackle. The reward wasMetapod's squeal of sorrow as it fainted. The bug trainer stared at Krysta before angrily shoving a few bills at her.

Krysta graciously accepted them and returned Phanpy. Looking around for Zell, she noticed that he was gone yet again.

She decided to go on with out him. As she came to the bend in the road, she noticed him standing beside a small tree. He motioned to her and called out his Ivysaur.

It was a majestic pokemon. Its leaves were dark green and glossy, the bud a rich pink that seemed to absorb the light around it, and its eyes were bright and intelligent.

Zell patted his grass pokemon's head and asked it to use Cut.

The Ivysaur grunted and faced the small tree. Two vines extended from its back and lashed out at the little sapling. The tunk went one way and the crown of the tree went the other and a passage to the other side was clear.

Krysta and Zell continued down the road talking about different strategies that different trainers use.

Finally, the last jaunt through the grass was all that was standing between Krysta and Violet City. She dashed ahead of Zell and was sprinting for the GateHouse.

"Krysta, wait!" Zell called after her before running after the young trainer.

He got through the gate just in time to see her turn the corner and head towards the Gym. He ran even faster, lungs burning with exertion.

As he burst through the doors of the Gym, he heard her triumphiant shout.

"Falkner! I challenge you for the Zephyr Badge!"

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Author's Note: You all probably hate me now for leaving you here don't you? Well, that's okay. I like using Cliff Hangers and will probably use more of them as the story progesses. Ta.