Days later, Leon and Zoey both had rods from buying one from a local fishing store. Machop had adjusted to being a member of Leon's timing, already working on new moves as the rest spared with him.
"Well…hmm…" Leon hums out loud as he looks through his pokedex while packing away his fishing rod.
"What are you looking for?" Gardenia asks.
"Moves that my pokémon knows…what do you think…should I go train them with a stylish way of moves so it's a double use or what are you doing?" Leon asks as he is now pulled away by his collar by Zoey. "Yes?" Leon asks as someone rushes by with an injured pokemon.
"That's why," Zoey remarks, both looking at the injured zigzagoon carried by a man as he runs to the pokémon center. "Hey. What happened?"
"A buizel is running wild," the trainer calls not stopping.
'…wait. Is this the episode that Dawn catches Buizel?' Leon thinks.
"Come on. Let's go look," Zoey says.
"Or we could walk on…" Leon stops when Zoey gives him a look. "Right. Checking out the trouble."
"Good," Zoey says smiling at him, making Leon look embarrassed.
Both soon ran the way the man came from and come across a river as they see nothing. "So…fish for this pokémon?" Leon asks.
"Yeah…" Zoey starts before stopping and walks away as Leon casts his line.
"Something wrong?" Leon asks, keeping his eye on the bobber. After a bit, Zoey didn't answer and before he could look over, the bobber sank in, signaling he had a bite and he pulled up and a buizel came up with it. "Whoa!" Buizel soon landed beside them, holding a fighting stance as Leon tries to get back on his feet.
"Sorry. Not looking for a battle at the moment. Have this as a consolation," Leon says before pulling out a cooked fish from his bag to give to buizel.
Buizel blinks as it takes the fish confused before looking up at him and then eating and nibbling the fish while still watching him.
"If you are looking for someone to battle, then there is at least one trainer that way," Leon says as he gets ready to cast his line again.
Buizel looks over to where he is pointing as it kept nibbling while Amber raises an eyebrow at him. Buizel soon starts to walk in that direction as it kept eating the fish in its paws.
'Have fun Zoey and Ash,' Leon thinks fishing again and soon hears a few battles happen.
Leon hums as he keeps fishing and soon feels a tug before pulling it up to show a fish hanging from his hook. "Awesome," he says before putting it away into a bag and goes to cast the line.
"Leon!" Zoey calls.
"Yes?" Leon calls back.
"Get your stuff. We are going after that buizel!" Zoey calls.
Leon raises an eyebrow and turns to her as she runs up. "Um…I just sent that one down the road."
"What?!" Zoey yells.
"What happened?" Leon asks.
"It battled us and took our fishing rods," Zoey informs.
"Oh…tough pokémon," Leon says as he pulls in another fish.
"At leas…wait. Why didn't it attack you?" Zoey asks.
"I gave it a fish and sent it on its way," Leon explains, packing up his fishing rod.
"You did what?" Zoey asks.
Leon nods and looks at her. "I gave it fish and told where it can find some good trainers to fight."
"You're coming now for that one," Zoey says dragging him along now.
"Wait! What?!" Leon yells as he is dragged along by her while trying to hang onto his things.
"Having a tough time?" Dawn asks as Zoey and Leon joined them searching for buizel.
"Say that to this guy," Zoey says as she pulls Leon while he collects his things into a bag.
"Zoey told us you got your first badge," Dawn says.
"Yeah, I did," Leon says, now being let up to walk on his own.
"That's great. So you are going for the whole league now? Really convinced?" Dawn asks.
"Yeah, I think I will try it," Leon says.
"Awesome, let's have a battle then," Ash says.
"Um…I thought we were going after buizel?" Leon says.
"Oh, right," Ash says embarrassed.
Leon shakes his head as he looks around. "So…any ideas guys?"
"It headed that way down the river," Brock points out.
Leon hums as he looks to the river and tries to spot anything. "Well…you can try to tempt him with fish."
'Wow. Team Rocket was more flamboyant in real life,' Leon thinks sweatdropping.
"Now that part is over with…what are we going to do with buizel?" Zoey asks as they all turn to buizel.
"Bui," Buizel says before giving Dawn and Piplup the bring it on gesture.
"He's asking. Might as well give it," Leon says stepping away with the others.
"You ready piplup?" Dawn asks.
"Pip," Piplup declares.
"While they do that, we can have a battle?" Leon asks Ash.
Ash looks excited at that. "Are you kidding? That would be great. Who are you going to battle with?"
"Who are you battling with?" Leon asks, thinking it over.
Ash takes out a pokeball from his belt and holds it up to him. "Staravia. You?"
"Then Rhythm, it's time to battle," Leon calls, throwing one of his pokeballs.
Ash takes out his pokedex when the pikipek comes out and shakes itself before crying out once. "Let's see."
"Pikipek, the Woodpecker Pokémon. A Normal and Flying type. It can unleash sixteen pecks per second to drill a hole into a tree where it stores food. Native to Aholo," the pokedex says.
"A flying type versus flying, huh?" Ash asks smiling as he then throws his own pokeball. "Staravia, let's go!" he calls out and staravia comes out and thrills as it flies and then lands on the ground before Rhythm.
"Alright, we'll start this off. Rhythm, echo voice," Leon calls before Rhythm started to make an incredibly loud shout at staravia which seemed to hurt it.
Ash hums before smiling. "Alright staravia, let's go with quick attack and follow up with gust."
"Rhythm, supersonic, then start using the trees," Leon calls, making Rhythm switch tunes as staravia flew at him before starting to fly away as well.
Rhythm turns his head and uses a loud screeching noise at staravia that made it wobble in the air and slow down as he kept flying, dredging the trees before suddenly turning and making staravia smash into the trunk of one as Rhythm flew back.
"Good job Rhythm. Now you see us, now you don't," Leon calls making Rhythm smirk before ducking into the trees as staravia keeps hitting the trees in it's confused state.
"Staravia! Get it together. Fly up!" Ash calls and staravia tries to fly upward and kept hitting branches before coming out above the treeline as it wobbles in the air.
"Rhythm, keep up your echo voice," Leon calls and soon the sound started to be heard again.
"That is smart. Echo voice, being a sound attack is incredibly difficult to defend against and staravia can't find him even if he wasn't confused," Zoey says, watching with interest trying to observe both battles.
"Staravia, give a whirlwind everywhere!" Ash calls out and Leon blinks.
"Uh oh," Leon voices and turns to Rhythm as staravia starts to make whirlwinds come out from flapping its wings around everywhere in every direction. "Rhythm, rock smash and go for the ground!" Leon calls out and Rhythm immediately dives bombs into the rocky ground and makes a hole as the whirlwinds brush on top of the land. "Thank goodness."
"Staravia, snap out of it!" Ash keeps calling.
Staravia shakes its head before thrilling and looks around, clearly snapped out of the confusion.
"Rhythm, once more, echo voice!" Leon calls before the sound comes again and staravia looks like it had been in a battle for hours now as it wobbles in the air again.
Rhythm soon exits the hole he made and lands on the ground as he looks up to staravia who soon lost its balance and falls and hits the ground.
"Staravia!" Ash calls, rushing forward to catch his pokemon.
Leon, looking up to staravia as he was closer, holds his arms out and tries to carefully catch it before grunting and falling to the ground from the unexpected weight. "Ow. Wasn't expecting it to be that heavy," Leon groans with staravia on top of him as Ash catches up.
"Thanks," Ash says helping them up.
"Star…" Staravia groans as it tries to stand on its talons.
"Pik!" Rhythm calls before he starts glowing.
"It's evolving!" Zoey calls, getting everyone's attention as Dawn catches buizel.
Leon smiles as Rhythm's form changes into a larger and more sharper shape before the glow died down and Leon swears Rhythm just changed into a form of a toucan. "That is awesome. How does it feel Rhythm?"
"Trum!" Rhythm calls hugging him.
"Trumbeak, the Bugle Beak Pokémon, and the evolved form of Pikipek. It attacks its opponents by firing seeds stored in its beak. Native region, Alola," Dawn's pokedex says.
"Stores seeds…hmm…" Leon hums as he smiles and seems to be thinking as he pets Rhythm's head.
"Looks like yours evolved before mine," Zoey says smiling at Leon.
"Zoey. Did you come from Alola, like him?" Dawn asks.
"What? No. We are both from Sinnoh," Zoey informs.
"Yeah…I…uh…" Leon tries to agree.
"We came across them in the woods in route 206," Zoey informs.
"Got lost," Leon quickly spoke up, looking embarrassed.
"It worked out finding them," Zoey says putting him in a friendly headlock.
Leon chuckles nervously still. 'When should I tell them? What's more…what limits should I place?'
"So, what are your plans now?" Dawn asks.
"Well, find my rod and get back to looking for a water type," Zoey says chuckling.
"Maybe buizel knows," Leon offers.
"Where is the fun in that?" Zoey asks.
"Ah…" Leon stops as he sees her expression of grinning. "Okay. Free looking." 'You know, it's been weeks and I am starting to like Zoey more and more. She should have become a companion on the road,' Leon thinks.
"Let's get looking," Zoey says pulling Leon along while still in a headlock.
"Bye," Leon calls.
"And that's what happened," Zoey recounts to Gardenia.
"Wish I could have seen it," Gardenia says to Rhythm.
"You doing ok adjusting Rhythm?" Leon asks as he and machop helped wash the dishes as Beacon licked clean any extra food.
Rhythm holds up a wing. "Trum," he thrills happily.
"Good to hear," Zoey says, going over to check the dishes. "How about you machop?" Zoey says petting his head.
"Ma," machop cheers and goes back to washing the dishes.
"This the last one. Now Beacon, time to claim your sleeping spot," Leon reminds.
Beacon cheers and rushes around their camping area to find a spot.
"You can head back as well machop. You've earned a break," Leon says looking up to Zoey.
Machop grunts and walks off after putting the towel away.
"So any luck after we split up to fish?" Leon asks taking off his shoes and puts his feet into the river.
"Found my fishing rod…in a small cave," Zoey sighs as she sits by him.
"And you catch any pokemon?" Leon asks.
Zoey nods. "Got a shellos. Took my fishing rod as a bed."
"That's cute," Leon says smiling at her.
Zoey smiles. "Kinda is. Good news is that I have a new pokémon and you got an evolution."
"Thanks again for basically being my mentor," Leon says, surprising Zoey.
"Mentor? I just stuck with you because you were clueless for a bit," Zoey explains.
"That still fills that role," Leon says.
Zoey sighs. "Well…thanks for the compliment."
"I really mean it," Leon says starting to lift his hand but decides against it at the last moment.
"Yeah. Feel that. Any case, we should get some rest. Going to head out tomorrow and deal with the next gym and contest. More training too. I'm kinda curious to see what you will come up with. Considering you used rock smash against the ground and hid there," Zoey recounts smiling to him.
"I look forward to your next contest," Leon said smiling back.
"Would you mind if I borrow some of your tricks?" Zoey asks.
"Feel free," Leon says as Gardenia watched the two with interest as something moved on Leon's foot.
Zoey suddenly hears him shriek and move back from the water only for her to look over and see a magikarp swimming around. Zoey smiles and then sighs. "Still needs work."
"You were sucking on my toes?" Leon asks looking at the pokemon.
"Magikarp," it groans as it looks up to them and flaps its tail around.
"Hum…" Leon says thinking.
"You thinking whether or not to catch it?" Zoey asks.
"Kinda…" Leon hums as he kept watching the fish pokemon.
"What do you think?" Zoey asks moving closer.
"You want to come with us?" Leon asks the magikarp.
"Magi," the magikarp groans, looking up to them almost happily.
"Then come with me," Leon says holding his pokeball in front of him.
"Magi…" magikarp cheers as it jumps out of the water and bumps into the ball before being sucked in as red energy and has the ball close in before beeping.
"Heh. Looks like I have a full team now," Leon says before scanning his new magikarp's pokeball to see it was level nineteen. "Wow. You're a high level," Leon comments.
"What? No way," Zoey exclaimed and walks over to see the screen. "Wow. You are not kidding."
"Poor girl must have been lonely," Leon says petting the ball before bringing magikarp out and rubs her head.
"Magi," magikarp groans happily and seems to nuzzle back.
"You're part of a team now, but maybe it will become more of a family," Leon says to the magikarp as she swims around happily.
Zoey just smiles as she watches the two.
"For now, let's have you rest, ok?" Leon asks, picking magikarp up and holds her.
"Magi," magikarp groans while Zoey gives a few claps to him.
"Not bad. Another part of the team. You're doing better than I expected…maybe you don't need my guidance if you can make it this way with batting and catching," Zoey says smiling.
"I would still travel with you sensei," Leon says a bit jokingly.
Zoey grins. "Good. I might get lonely without something to spice it up. Besides, I need some moves to steal."
"Only if I can do the same," Leon says chuckling.
Zoey shakes her head amused. "Come on. We have to get some sleep. Long day ahead of us."
"Right," Leon says before pulling out a few berries and starts feeding them to magikarp as they walk back.
"Hope you are at least putting her in a pot of water so she remains wet and not dry out," Zoey voices.
"I am," Leon says.
Zoey smiles as she goes over to her tent while Leon prepares his and puts magikarp into a pot of water before she leans into the side and closes her eyes to rest up. "Sleep tight," Zoey calls out as she crawls into her tent.
"You too. Everyone, meet our newest member," Leon informs his team.
They all cry out tiredly before putting their heads down to rest as magikarp groans and lifts a fin without opening her eyes as Leon crawls into his tent to sleep as well.
"And with that, bedtime!" Leon calls.
All the pokemon call out tiredly and Leon takes out the last bit of light.