"How is the contest going so far?" Gardenia asks, taking a seat next to Leon.
"Zoey is doing well, but the others are good as well," Leon says.
"Oh. So four left?" Gardenia asks watching.
"Nope, three. Zoey is already in the finals," Leon informs.
"Not bad. You going to treat her to a full course meal if she wins all of it?" Gardenia asks.
"Going to be hard to do as I'm going to the battle contest after this," Leon says.
"You too? What about the gyms?" Gardenia asks.
"The water battle contest," Leon informs.
"Oh. Better prepare then," Gardenia warns. "Some battles are pretty tough since there might be trainers from other regions."
"I have as much as I think I could," Leon says holding Tsunami's pokeball, half the time looking down to it thinking.
Gardenia sees his gaze slightly. "Why not go train a bit? Come up with a plan?"
"It's in fifteen minutes," Leon says getting up.
"What are you going to do?" Gardenia asks.
"Use Tsunami," Leon says.
"Ah. You have first competition nerves," Gardenia says.
Leon slouches. "Yes. Yes, I am."
"Want me to come with you?" Gardenia asks.
"Please?" Leon pleads, looking up to her.
"One moment," Gardenia says, getting up as well before heading back and soon returns. "Ok, Zoey knows what is going on and say relax," Gardenia says walking along.
"Ok, relax," Leon says, taking a deep breath.
"Again," Gardenia orders, walking along with him.
"Relax," Leon says before breathing in again, making her smile.
"There. Now, what battles do you have to do?" Gardenia calmly asking him.
"I don't know. I just signed up with Tsunami," Leon says.
"Well, you just need to battle hard like you and your pokemon did at my gym," Gardenia reassures and the next thing Leon knew, he was on the lake on a boat on the other side of another trainer.
"Alright. Leon from Aquagrass city versus Trike from Jubilife City. Begin!" the ref calls.
"Seaking, go," Trike calls, throwing his pokeball.
"Tsunami, time to battle!" Leon calls, releasing Tsunami to the shock of the crowd as Tsunami was a color they had never seen before. One, in particular, a blue-haired girl took a special interest. "Okay…what do you do?" Leon asks himself as he watches seaking for anything.
"Seaking, don't be intimidated. Horn attack!" Trike calls.
'Heh, don't be intimidated. That's Tsunami's ability,' Leon thinks as Tsunami slams her tail into the water, creating a violent upheaval underneath seaking as it launched itself out of the water. "Just like we practiced. Now follow up with bite!" Leon calls.
Tsunami roars and launches herself at seaking, biting onto its body and shaking it around.
"Now, slam it into the water!" Leon calls before Tsunami reels her head back before thrusting it forward, slamming seaking onto the water's surface with a bit of speed and power.
"Seaking no!" Trike calls and soon seaking emerged, but unconscious from the move.
"Seaking is unable to battle. The winner is Leon from Aquagrass city," the referee declares, causing Tsunami to celebrate happily.
"Good job Tsunami," Leon calls, making her face him and try to rub against him rocking the boat a bit. "Okay. Easy. You are going to TIP IT OVER!" Leon yells when he falls out of the boat and into the water, making Tsunami dive after him and come back up with him on top. "Really?" Leon scolds, looking down at her.
"Gar!" Tsunami says happily as most of the observers have a light-hearted laugh as Tsunami was vastly different from most Gyarados in disproportion.
"Okay. Back to land," Leon orders and Tsunami swims back and lets him off before returning her. "I have got to teach her about her own strength with humans."
"I'll say," Zoey says walking up with a pokemon egg in a container.
"Wow. Guess you won the contest," Leon observes smiling as he looks closely at the egg.
"Yeah, I had hoped to catch your first match, but it was already over," Zoey says.
"It was just a smack on the head," Leon simplified.
"There you go with your unorthodox style again," Gardenia chimes in.
Leon chuckles nervously. "Yeah…so…um…"
"Was pretty impressive defense even though it drenched me," Gardenia says chuckling.
Leon blushes a bit at that. "Sorry. I just never thought he would go down that easily."
"What are you apologizing for?" Gardenia asks.
"I was kinda hoping for really battling. Not a knockout smash into the water like a bad wrestling drama show," Leon admits.
"That's just how some battles go," Gardenian says.
"Too short. Like cheap drama," Leon jabs again.
"Oh, accept your win," Zoey says nudging him smirking.
"I'm actually jabbing at wrestling. So cheap and mostly a drama show," Leon explains, waving a hand in the air.
"Oh yeah," Zoey says.
"Any case…more battles?" Leon asks, looking to the torment area and sees another battle going on.
"Yes," Gardenia says, showing him the brackets of it.
"Well…while we wait. Who's hungry? I'm buying," Leon asks, turning back to them.
"Let's go," Gardenia says pulling him along.
"Alright. Final match. Leon from Aquagrass city versus Lana from Hau'oli City," the referee calls as the boats started to come out into the lake.
'Lana…why does she look so familiar…' Leon thinks confused as they stop the boats.
"Alright, begin!" the referee calls.
"Go, Araquanid!" Lana calls, throwing her pokeball.
'Araquanid! That's an alola pokemon!' Leon thinks as he throws out Tsunami. 'And Lana…that's one of the aloha characters…shit. I hate to battle those that were from Ash's group in the show…wait. They are good. Why didn't Ash actually get better with that?' Leon thinks to himself as he drifts off thinking before Tsunami rocks his boat with a splash near him. "Sorry girl. Okay. Let's try a simple bite and go from there."
"Araquanid, dodge!" Lana calls as Leon noticed that araquanid barely managed a dodge there.
Leon hums as he watches the pokemon move around. 'Special ability makes this tough. And that movement…' Leon thinks for a few seconds as araquanid kept moving. 'It's like a tank…Tsunami has mostly physical attack moves as well so I guess this will be a brawl.' "Tsunami, slam your tail into the water!" Leon calls.
"That move again, huh? Araquanid, bite onto gyarados before it can do that!" Lana calls.
"Give it something to chase! Dive!" Leon calls out and Tsunami stops her tail before diving head first into the water. 'It's good at gliding on the water. But under it should be like normal fish.'
'He has to know that araquanid is slow,' Lana thinks, seeing her pokemon chase after Tsunami and neither emerged for several minutes, though the water was disturbed several times.
'I can't let it attack on top. But I have to make it uneven…uneven underwater…' Leon thinks for a bit before grinning visibly as he looks to Lana as she seems to be thinking hard about something before noticing him. Leon puts his hand into the water and makes Tsunami notice him before he spins his hand around, swirling the water around before taking his hand out. "Keep it under!"
Tsunami, seeing this, nods and starts swimming around araquanid as fast as it could, keeping as much distance as possible and soon everyone started to see what was happening from the sidelines as a whirlpool was starting to form and the boats start to be pulled in. "Oh, this may have been a bad idea," Leon says, trying to start up his boat.
"You think!?" Lana spoke up as she tries to start hers.
"Tsunami!" Leon calls, making her look up, seeing Leon's boat being pulled towards the whirlpool she started.
Tsunami looks around and notices araquanid being spun around before suddenly turning and swimming towards it before flicking it hard and sending it flying upward, straight out of the water as the water slowly became calm and she flew out of the water before spinning hard and smacking it back down with her tail. Araquanid crashes into the water and makes it sink for a bit as Tsunami lands into the water as well and keeps an eye on it. "Seems that training did real good," Leon says watching carefully.
Tsunami growls happily up to him but keeps an eye on araquanid as it kept sinking before noticing the swirling eyes and carefully lifts it up by the tail and holds it out of the water.
"Araquanid, poison jab!" Lana calls before Tsunami roars in pain feeling a hit.
"How did it…?!" Leon tries to question before frowning. "Give it a ride," Leon orders and Tsunami immediately latches on with a bite before swimming down the bottom and starts smacking the ground with araquanid along with it, making sure to hit it first as the waves above rustle slightly. "Playing dead, huh? When did you teach it that?"
"A while ago," Lana says as araquanid kept punching Tsunami with a poison jab.
"Maybe I should have made her fling it out of the water and onto land to see that fake knock out. Saves me the trouble," Leon retorts, hearing the loud thudding from Tsunami who is smacking into everything with araquanid getting the biggest hits.
"Alright, last resort. These boat electric proof by any chance?" Leon calls to the ref.
"Um…yes," he says, slightly confused.
"Sorry in advance, but not really Lana," Leon apologizes, partly. "Tsunami, thunder bolt!" Leon calls.
Lana's eyes grew wide before a yellow light and crackling are heard from under the water before it dies down and Leon sits down in his boat while araquanid floats to the top, knocked out for real this time.
"Good job," Leon says as Tsunami bursts out of the lake, roaring in victory. "So yeah…a sneak thief is only good in a game if he is never caught," Leon offers to Lana as he returns Tsunami before driving back to the shore.
"Good job," Gardenia says.
"What…a…pain. First time I ever saw anyone use a fake-out like that," Leon noted as he gets out of the boat.
"Well, get used to it," Zoey says helping him out before Leon is lead away to receive his prize.
"Anyone at the gym ever did that?" Zoey asked curiously.
"No, not allowed in official tournaments or gyms," Gardenia answers as Lana was also lead to getting the runner-up prize.
"You ever did this anywhere else?" Leon asks as he looks at his prize.
"No. It was something I discussed with my pokemon, but how did you know about him? I could tell from how you battle, you knew about her and what some abilities she had," Lana says.
"Like how she is a water and bug type and has the water bubble and water absorb?" Leon asks.
"You even knew that?" Lana asks surprised.
"Yeah, I remember it from studying pokemon. I would love to stay and chat, but I want Tsunami to be looked at by nurse joy in case she is poisoned," Leon says before making his way to the pokemon center.
"So…you look slightly pissed off," Zoey noted, walking with him and Gardenia.
"I'm not. I am thinking though," Leon says trying to remember who Lana was.
"Well, what will you do with your water stone now?" Gardenia asks.
"Keep it for a while. I rather evolve my pokemon the natural way. That way, no immature minds," Leon lectures, mostly to himself.
"You talking to yourself?" Zoey asks smirking as they enter the pokemon center.
"Kinda. I really don't want to use this thing…how much can it go for?" Leon suddenly asks as he walks up to the counter and gives the pokeball.
"About five to six k," Gardenia informs as they take a seat and wait for him to join them.
Leon hums as he looks at the water crystal.
"But remember, hard to find and some charge ridiculous prices for them," Gardenia informs.
"Yeah," Leon mutters before packing it away.
"So I never saw that pokemon. Where is it from?" Zoey asks.
"Oh, that pokemon is from Alola," Leon answers.
"That explains a few things," Gardenia voices as she looks through her pokedex.
"And you said prep school is pointless," Leon says smirking.
Gardenia scoffs at the mention of that place again.
"Though I don't think Alola has a league so most trainers don't go there to compete," Leon says.
Zoey rolls her eyes, still miffed at the mention of the school.
"Anyways, we staying until the end of the festival?" Leon asks.
"Yep. Going to enjoy this event," Zoey says smiling, happy at the change of subject.
"Oh, was that a date proposal?" Gardenia teases.
"Shut up," Zoey shot back, hitting her back.
Gardenia chuckles as Leon blushes.
"Come on you two. Let's enjoy ourselves," Gardenia offers as she pulls Leon up with Zoey.
"By the way, how does Tsunami know thunderbolt?" Zoey asks. Leon chuckles a bit nervously, looking side to side. "What did you do?" Zoey asks sighing.
"I may have spent most of my money for this," Leon offers, bringing out a TM 28.
Zoey sighs. "That explains that part."
"How much you got left?" Gardenia asks, sighing as well now.
Leon slouched. "I got around five thousand left."
"…we will be paying for groceries for a bit," Gardenia says.
"Right…" Leon kept slouching.
"You will also be sharing the TM, right?" Zoey asks.
"Yeah. Of course," Leon assures.
"Good. Glameow will do well to learn that," Zoey says, eyeing the cube.
Leon hums and gives her the cube. "Here."
"Thank you. I will return it after I use it," Zoey says pocketing it as they walk along and Zoey soon bought them all a funnel cake.
Leon hums as he gives a bite. "Never had this before."
"Well, time to enjoy it," Zoey says taking a bite.
Leon hums again as he starts to eat. "So…what now?"
"Well. there are fireworks, then we can call it a night and head out tomorrow," Gardenia says.
"Sounds good to me," Leon agrees.
"Hey, where are you heading off to?" Lana calls out as she runs up and sees the three leaving.
Leon blinks and looks back to the girl that gave him the runaround. "Um…where are we headed?" he asks himself as he looks up the map.
"Not sure," Lana informs.
"Wasn't asking you…ah. There's the name. But what do you need?" Leon asks, turning to her.
"Was wondering how you got your gyarados to be a royal purple," Lana says before starting a bombardment of questions about raising and caring for Tsunami.
"Quiet!" Leon yells and makes her stop. "Alright…one at a time…and just wondering, right?"
"Half and half," Lana says.
"Alright. Shoot," Leon relents, hoping this will get the troubling part out of the way.
"You mind if I come with you?" Lana asks straight up.
Leon stares at her before sighing. "Um…girls…what do you say?"
"You are from Alola, right? Do you know how things work around here?" Zoey asks.
Lana looks slightly embarrassed. "Not really."
"Leon, we should," Zoey says.
"Oh, my…okay. But last traveler, okay?" Leon says to both of them.
"We'll see," Zoey informs, not wanting to make a commitment to that statement.
Leon sighs. "Okay…so what idea do you have of how this region works?"
"You do some work and get paid for it," Lana says.
"You want to field this or should I?" Leon asks the two female trainers.
"I'll take care of this," Gardenia says reassuringly.
"Thank you," Leon says.
Zoey smiles and looks to Leon as Gardenia leads Lana away to explain things. "Another traveler…you're going to learn to like this."
"Well, I think she is a water pokemon specialist. That may be helpful for us seeing as we got new water pokemon," Leon says as Gardenia and Lana talk.
"See. Good," Zoey pushes smirking.
"Point taken…we staying a bit longer to register in the official league, aren't we?" Leon asks.
Zoey chuckles. "Yep."
"Ok, best find a comfortable seat," Leon says.
Zoey just gives him a few supportive pats on the back.
"Let me know when we are ready to go," Leon says.
Leon hums as he looks through his pokedex. "Interesting…interesting…ew. No."
"What are you doing?" Zoey asks.
"Looking up recipes for pokemon food," Leon says before showing her the one he was looking at and saw how much ingredients were needed.
"Wow. That would make a five-course meal," Zoey observed as she quickly reads it over.
"Yeah, I find those overblown," Leon says before feeding Breeze a oran berry.
"Free," Breeze says happily taking it and flies around with it.
Leon sweatdrops. "Eat. Not plant…and she's gone. Well, what's the next gym?"
"We are still a ways away from that," Zoey says as they kept waiting for the bus from Floaroma town to Jubilife city.
"But…? Come on. At least tell me the type," Leon pushed, leaning in and smirking at her.
"It's in Oreburgh city and the gym is a rock gym," Gardenia says.
"Thank you, Gardenia. See Zoey? That's a good friend," Leon says teasingly.
"Oh, shut up," Zoey complains as she shoves his shoulder.
"Can you quiet down?" Lana asks, trying to rest with a blindfold.
Leon hums and turns his head to look at her. "When was the last time you slept?"
"Last night," Lana informs, leaning back on the bench.
"Great," Leon says simply and looks back to his pokedex and keeps flipping through recipes.
"Why are you a bit crabby?" Zoey asks.
"Nah. I have a hope of getting training in. And then she stepped in," he explains, throwing a thumb behind him.
"What, Gardenia?" Zoey asks.
"No. Our new sleepyhead…think she will out sleep you?" Leon asks, looking to Zoey.
"What was that?" Zoey asks, making him sweat slightly.
'Me and my big mouth,' Leon scolds himself as Breeze flies back and lands on his shoulder between them.
"You have fun?" Leon asks, petting Breeze.
Breeze thrills and nuzzles his hand.
"Good girl," Leon says before feeling a hand on his to see it was Zoey's.
"Relax. It's two cities away and do you like the idea of reviving ancient pokemon in fossils?" Zoey asks.
"Kinda…" Leon slowly says, noticing she is still holding onto his hand.
"Then the gym might be a side thing for you at the start," Zoey says as Breeze lands atop of both their hands and thrills happily.
Leon chuckles nervously. "Yeah…maybe…maybe…" he quickly stutters, looking away blushing. 'This isn't helping my thoughts Arceus or whoever handles love. Cresselia, is it you?'
"You feel better with something to look forward to?" Zoey asks.
Leon sighs. "Yeah…um…Zoey?" he asks, holding up their hands.
"What?" Zoey asks.
Leon slowly let's go of her and looks away as Gardenia smirks behind them.
"So this bus is going all the way there, right?" Leon asks.
"A stop or two, but yeah," Zoey explains.
"Oh…I will be right back," Leon says getting up and heads for the snack machines.
Zoey smiles as she watches him grab some snacks while Breeze lands on her shoulder and nuzzles her.
"He feels better now girl," Zoey assures.
"Free," Breeze thrills and keeps nuzzling her.
"So soon to hold hands?" Gardenia says smirking.
Zoey sighs. "Quiet."
"Why? You embarrassed?" Gardenia asks.
Zoey sighs and rolls her eyes.
"I'm sorry, what did I miss?" Lana asks, pulling up the blindfold.
"Zoey and Leon dating," Gardenia says teasingly.
"We are not dating," Zoey hissed.
"Oh, so what is it then?" Lana says, blushing a bit.
"Helping friends out," Zoey quickly explained. "I am basically helping mentor him," Zoey informs.
"Right. Mentoring," Gardenia air quotes.
"Like how I will show him how to properly beat someone," Zoey says.
"And find love," Gardenia kept pushing.
"That's it! Come here you!" Zoey calls before starting to chase Gardenia.
"What did I miss?" Leon asks returning.
Lana just points to the two. "Gardenia teasing Zoey."
"Ah, the usual," Leon says handing her a drink as she removes the blindfold.
Lana sighs in relief as she drinks away. "So…going to battle the league but are still new to it?"
"Yes," Leon says simply as Breeze lands on Lana's head.
"Free. Free," Breeze cheers to him.
"So, what are you going to do?" Leon asks.
"I'm here mostly to learn about water pokemon," Lana informs.
"Better to learn from a Pokemon breeder then. They can tell you everything you need to know," Leon suggested.
"I meant in battle, besides, I want to pet Tsunami more," Lana says.
"Oh. Okay then," Leon says simply and drinks from his own can. 'Man, Tsunami must be like an ultra-rare shiny,' Leon thinks as Zoey returns.
Zoey scoffs as she sits down next to him. "Idiot."
"Feel better?" Leon asks, handing her a drink.
Zoey nods as she takes it. "Yep," she mutters, popping it open.