"Well, that was some hard trek," Leon says as they rest at the pokemon center outside of the tunnel they had just traveled from to get to route two hundred and eight.

"Yeah," Zoey simply says, watching as Leon helps redo her wrappings with proper medical supplies that Nurse Joy gave them.

"How does it feel?" Leon asks, looking it over.

"Throbbing a bit, but fine. Doesn't hurt as much," Zoey tries to describe, watching as Leon sees the swelling has gone down considerably while he gives some squeezes in certain areas. "And at the joint. Like on the ball area."

"Not so much there," Leon says as chansey comes over and hits the ankle with her soft-boiled attack. Leon smiles as the ankle glow yellow while chansey gives a happy chirp and Zoey move her foot around before sighing in relief. "Better?" Leon asks, feeling the area and gives a few test squeezes.

"Much thanks, chansey," Zoey says.

"Chansey!" chansey cheers and walks off while Leon sits by her and keeps looking over her ankle.

"Everything looks fine," Leon says letting her get up and takes a few test steps.

Zoey nods as she slowly puts weight on her ankle and then jumps slowly on it. "Yeah…thanks for the help too," she mentions, looking back at him.

"No problem," Leon says getting up.

Zoey kept smiling as she walks back to the bed and sighs as she lays back down. "Now I can really train for my contest."

"Alright, everyone. Let's keep training," Leon says early in the morning as Amber and Ippo looked more motivated today than ever.

They all cheer happily while absol gives a motherly smile to all of them.

"Okay then. Going to be teaming you into two pairs. So, Amber and Beacon, you're one," Leon says, making both give a high paw to each other. "Ippo and Rhythm, you're team two. Team one and two will have a mock battle," Leon informs.

Ippo and Rhythm look at each other and smirk while Amber and Beacon give some eager grins back as the two groups look at each other.

Leon chuckles as the two steps onto the provided practice and training field by the pokemon center. "All right. So we are going to try some double moves guys. And this is just practice. So just try to get the moves working and we can work from there. So, Amber, you are going to use flame wheel. Beacon, thunderbolt on her. Try to steer yourself and keep up the charge," Leon instructs and Amber immediately spins into a flame wheel before Beacon charges himself up and then fire off a thunderbolt onto Amber. The flames licking the air and keeping the electricity from going far enough to Amber before she took off, spinning hard down the field. Ippo jumping out of the way while Rhythm takes to the sky. But they watch as Amber kept moving and trying to turn before tripping up over the field boundary logs and comes out of her flame wheel while Beacon ended his charge and looks at her worried.

"Mon!" Amber cheers, holding a thumbs up.

Leon chuckles a little. "Okay…got to work on steering a bit. Though it makes sense. You don't move, you get shocked," he notes to himself as he tries to remember the physics of electricity and fire.

"Ma?" Ippo calls out to him.

"Oh," Leon says a bit embarrassed. "Okay. Rhythm, supersonic the ground once Ippo break it with a karate chop. Then seismic toss them and even punch them. Rhythm, if you can, rock smash and make it easier to throw for Ippo."

Both of them nod before they get into a battle stance before Ippo chops the ground hard, cracking it apart before Rhythm uses super sonic, sending the waves into the rocks and even some to Amber and Beacon across the way. Both of the sparring opponents were dazed a little as Ippo picks up some rocks and tosses them while Rhythm pecks hard with a rock smash and breaks them into smaller pieces. Ippo smiles and then punch the ground hard and makes them all fly up into the air as Leon smirks a little, watching as Ippo quickly punches them and sends the pieces flying past Amber and Beacon who ducked and covered themselves. Rhythm himself even giving a hard peck at the rocks in the air and sends them flying off, both of them clearing the air in front of them before only a pebble fell to the ground.

Leon gives a few claps as Amber and Beacon pick themselves and looks to the rocks around them and even the ones that surround them in a makeshift small wall. "Not bad guys. Nice improv too. If I put you in a double battle, even with a few shaky moments, you can do damage before taking them down completely."

Both Ippo and Rhythm cheer happily to him before Leon blinks and looks to see Fury and absol having a conversation…shoot. "Haven't given you a name yet…keep practicing those moves guys. Give me a moment," he says to them before walking over to absol and Fury and grabs their attention. "Have to give you a name…what's good?"

Absol just smiles and lays her head on her forepaws. "Omen…?" Leon suggested and looks to absol. Absol gives a smirking look before nodding. "Okay, Omen it is. So what are you two talking about? Who's leading the group at times?"

Both of them look to each other and give a sly smirk before they look back to him and nodded.

Leon smiles. "Well…you two are quite protective. I guess once in a while, either one of you could either be in the lab or with my team. Maybe make things easy. Heck, you can help train. I'm sure you motherly duo would like that."

Both of them smile before Fury raises a wing and wraps it around him to pull him into a hug as Omen snickers.

"Okay. I'm your son too," Leon jokes along smiling.

"Is that an aerodactyl and an absol?" an excited voice calls.

Leon blinks and looks over near the entrance to the center and sees a little kid, a young, possibly six-year-old girl, standing there, looking very starstruck. "Yeah…yes, they are," Leon says as Omen smiles as she gets up and walks over to the girl and sniffs her before smiling brightly and nuzzles the girl, making her giggle and hug Omen around the neck. "Guess you like the rare pokemon, huh?"

"Yes, I do," the girl says, very starry-eyed.

Leon gives a happy chuckle while Fury walks over and pats the little girl's head who giggles and hugs the large aerodactyl, who was a bit surprised at the motion. "You're supposed to hug back," he whispers to her and Fury slowly wraps her wings around the little one while Omen gave some snickers behind a paw. She is acting like a female in the forest who doesn't know how to actually treat children, but they do try awkwardly.

"Are you going to compete in the local tournament?" the little girl asks.

"Tournament?" Leon asks interestedly.

"Yeah. It's a double battle tournament being held at a local dojo," the girl informs.

Leon blinks before humming happily. "A double battle. Strangely great timing," he notes, looking back to the four still training.

"Yeah. Though the dojo always wins it," the girl says.

Leon hums a few more. "Always, huh? Okay. Yeah, I'm going to compete. Where is it?"

"Over that way," the girl points.

"Thanks," he says looking toward the direction she is pointing. "A double battle and someone always wins," Leon says before heading in to find his companions and tell them what he was doing.

"You want to seriously take them on?" Zoey asks as they all made their way to the dojo area.

Leon smirks all the while. "Yep. Figure I might as well test put mine and my pokemons' skills here. I hope the master forgives me if I 'accidentally' destroy the field."

"You are the only one who gets hung up over such things," Gardenia says.

"I simply don't want to be billed and lose all my money just because I have a different way of battling," he informs, looming over the approaching dojo in a particular style. 'Wow…Japanese much? Then again this is a Japan made game.'

"Greetings. Are you here for the tournament?" someone asks at the front gate as they greet them.

Looking to the source, they see an older man with a black long beard that only was just showing signs of graying. "Ah, yes. Would I be correct to assume you are the master of this dojo?" Leon asks.

"No. I am an assistant, but my father is the master of this dojo," the man says chuckling.

"Oh. So do I need to do something? Sign up, fill out papers?" Leon asks curiously.

"You wish to compete?" the man asks.

"Yep," Leon says proudly.

"This is rare. For the most part, most trainers not of the dojo, don't sign up," the man says before leading him in.

"Reason?" Leon presses.

"They usually have no interest or don't even. Just bypass it, but…no. I shouldn't involve you in internal matters. This way please," the man says, leading them inside to see many different pokemon and humans training.

"Nice place," Leon complements.

"Thank you," the man says as the group notices some hostile stares at them as they passed before entering inside and the man starts to sign up Leon.

"Where's the master at the moment?" Leon asks, looking around.

"He is seeing to the field at the moment. You also cut it close. The tournament begins in just ten minutes," the man informs finishing.

"Oh, that's cool. What are the rules?" Leon asks, quite curious.

"The battle will be double battles with no substitutions. Other than that, standard league rules," the man informs, making Leon nod. "Will any of you be competing as well?" he asks.

"No. We are just going to watch the battle sir," Gardenia promised.

"Same," Lana and Zoey said at the same time.

"Don't worry. We won't disrespect the dojo," Leon promises and makes Zoey eyed him a bit at the formality.

"Alright. Then this way," the man says before leading them to the battlefield.

As they were lead to a sitting area, a gong was struck by an old man with grey hair and beard wearing a kimono. The gong signaled to the entire school it was time for the competition.

"Father," the man said walking up to the man to talk alone with him as they waited.

"I notice some new faces. I recognize two, but not the others. Tell me, are any of them here to compete?" the master asks.

"Yes. One and that is the boy looking quite eager for the battle," the man says, pointing to Leon.

"Ah, good. Let's hope he does well," the master says as the man adds a piece of paper to the box.

"First battle will be between…" the master calls out, digging into the box before taking out two pieces of paper.

Leon smiles all the while as two unrelated names to him were called and two trainers approached the ends of the fields. "You're excited," Zoey observed next to him.

"Yeah, I am," Leon says smirking.

"Got new ideas besides the ones at the center?" Zoey asks curiously.

"Now Zoey, that would ruin the surprise and make things too easy for them," Leon says teasingly, nodding his head to the others sitting by.

They all watch as the battle happens before the winner emerged from it before the next battle is called. "Leon versus Elbert," the master calls, having drawn the names.

"Good luck," Zoey says encouragingly as Leon steps down to the field while Elbert steps from the other side. "Now, what crazy plan you have today?"

"Alright, Rhythm and Omen, time to battle!" Leon calls before throwing his pokeballs and releases his absol and trumbeak.

"Noctowl, Shellos, go!" Elbert calls, throwing his pokeballs.

Leon hums as he looks over the flying and water type. "Okay. So this might be something."

"Well, isn't that an interesting choice," the master says as he sits with his son to watch the battle.

Leon taps his chin, Zoey recognizing that expression as the one before coming up with such a plan, it would destroy a field…again. "Well? I'll let you have the first attack."

Elbert smirked. "Foresight noctowl. Shellos, water pulse."

"Guys," Leon simply said and they both jumped away from the water pulse and Leon eyes the noctowl whose eyes were glowing. "Good. Now Omen, give me a psycho cut. Rhythm, give me a supersonic."

Rhythm lets out a screech toward the two, making them try to cover themselves and stop the screech from bothering them. However, they did not notice that Omen ran inside the supersonic screech with her horn glowing brightly. She then swings her head around and spins along the ground, swiping across the two of them before kicking them away with her hind legs and smirks as Rhythm stops his screeching. "Keep it up. Rhythm, pluck. Omen, slash."

"This is weird," Zoey notes as the two pokemon charged at the disorientated opponents.

"What?" Gardenia asks as Zoey watched intently.

"He never calls out this many attacks. He usually lets them battle on their own by giving them a guide to follow. Why is he changing his style now?" Zoey tries to figure out as Lana looks to them confused at this as isn't this what trainers would usually do?

Gardenia blinks before thinking about their gym battle. "Now that I am thinking about it…yes. This is weird," she says as the four collide and noctowl and shellos goes flying away, looking very weak with the number of battle marks on them.

"Isn't Omen a new pokemon for him?" Lana asks as Omen hits them with one last psycho cut, knocking both pokemon out.

"Yes…but he tends to find a way to make it work even when new pokemon on his team," Zoey says as both returns trainers return their pokemon and walk off, a little smile on Leon's face.

"Winner is Leon," the referee announces.

Leon and his team battled hard, impressing the master of the dojo as he defeated four of his students already. Now, he faced the one who is currently this tournament champion, Lincon. Leon smirks at this match. He knew he had humbled many of the students here now as they had looked down on him for being an outsider. Now here he was, facing the final opponent.

"This is so strange. Every single move called out. Every dodge. What's he planning? What's wrong here?" Zoey says, partially confused.

"Alright, you two. Time for the finals," Leon says before throwing out Fury and Ippo.

"Maybe something else is going on," Gardenia suggested.

"Go linoone and nosepass," Lincon calls, throwing his own pokeballs out and shows the two who keep their eyes on their opponents.

"What do you think son?" the master asks, watching intently as they had seen all six of Leon's pokemon battles today.

"He's strong. And smart," the son says, interested.

"I can already tell he has gotten a firm grasp on our school's style from watching and battling our students. He may have already started to come up with a strategy to counter the style," the master says.

Leon keeps smiling all the while, catching some hints of the conversation going on as his opponent seems very secure in his win by that smirk on his face. "Your move," Leon says as he thought, 'Nosepass is pure rock and it mostly excels only in defense. He must be a defender for this battle. Linoone on the other hand, if I recall, is an all arounder, but it's the best attribute is speed.'

"Alright linoone, fury swipes. Nosepass, give them a thunder wave," Lincon orders.

Leon smiles a bit more "Already utilizing the speed. Ippo, Fury, ground now!"

"There's the Leon we know," Zoey cheers as Fury spikes the ground with her tail and hangs low while Ippo punches the ground and also gets as low as possible before the thunder wave hits them and passes through them. Linoone running up with glowing claws before swiping quickly at Fury. Fury herself grunting from the attack before flicking her head up and knocking linoone away.

"Now, let's make things harder and easier. Fury, give them a scare. Ippo, go for the leg moves," Leon calls out and Fury immediately gives a scary looking expression to the two and they flinch a little while shivering fright. However, that soon passed when Ippo came charging in and sweeps his feet under linoone and sends it off the ground. Only another kick makes it fly off as Fury rushes up and grabs nosepass with her claws and lifts it up before spinning and slamming it into the ground.

Lincon became surprised before seeing linoone fly by when Ippo gave a hard punch and sends it across the field. Linoone huffs as it gets up again, ready for another round. "Headbutt! Nosepass, get up and use rock throw!"

Leon chuckles a little. "Guys, you know yourself how to handle that."

Lincon became slightly confused before nosepass punches the ground and picks up a rock before throwing it as linoone charges with a spread of energy across its head at Ippo. Only for Ippo to duck and put a hand under linoone, sending it flying as he throws linoone pass him and straight to the rock, breaking it apart before sliding to a stop near nosepass. "Great. Linoone, dig. Nosepass, rock slide."

Leon hums a little as rocks came up from the field before crashing near Fury and Ippo, covering the area in a small dirt cloud before linoone comes up under Ippo and pushes him up, giving a few hard scratches before jumping off of him and landing near nosepass. "Fury, give some bites. Ippo, switch with Fury. You know how to too."

Ippo gives a running slap on her wing as Fury flies past him at linoone, her fangs sparking heavily with a yellow color. Ippo crying out as his fist glows with streaks of energy and punches nosepass before giving a hard kick and keeps punching. Linoone staring up at Fury's menacing demeanor before a cry of "Dodge it!" hits its ears and it jumps and rolls out of the way. "Now use fury swipes. Nosepass, hold out and use thunder wave!" Lincon calls.

Linoone's claws glow brightly and extend before jumping at Fury and starts swiping at her back as it lands there while nosepass legs out a spark and then sends a thunder up into the sky and down onto Ippo who quickly punches the ground and grabs nosepass's leg, the thunder wave hitting him and travels into nosepass a little before heading into the ground.

"Guys, flick and punch!" Leon calls out, making everyone, even the master, confused at this move. However, his group knew what he was trying to do. His classic 'break the field' move as it is classic to him now.

Fury and Ippo look to each before Fury rolls over and lands onto her back, smashing linoone against the ground and making it get up weakly a little while Fury rolls back and flies at Ippo. Ippo himself grabbing hold of nosepass's leg and swing it around before flinging it at linoone and makes them both crash into each other.

"Dig and power gem!" Lincon calls out as Fury flies by Ippo and makes him grab onto her tail before flying upward.

Leon chuckles happily at the fact they got the idea before linoone digs itself into the ground and nosepass charges energy into five sparkling areas around it, aiming up at the flying duo. All at the point where Fury reaches the ceiling and spins in the air with Ippo still hanging on tightly. Spinning faster and faster before stopping and coming out of her spin while her tail kept going and gives a hard flick, sending Ippo down hard with a rush of the wing while he charges up a mach punch. Nosepass fires off its power gems and misses Ippo once he is already past the streaks of energy before punching the ground hard and makes linoone coming at him from the ground pop up in from of him. The field breaks apart into pieces and rocks fly up a little. Ippo quickly punches away linoone before picking up rocks and tossing them at the duo.

"Fury, keep them…" Leon starts before seeing Ippo pick up something furred and holds up, prepared to throw before realizing he picked up something alive and not rock. Everyone looking in some confusion as they see Ippo holding up linoone before they turn their head to see that another linoone is already with nosepass. "Hmm…so that's how he cheated. Multiple linoone…in the ground," Leon spoke up and Fury immediately flies down and crashes into the ground, sending up more rocks and revealing some tunnels as she swipes away the rocks with her wing and another linoone under her, looking pretty scared out of its mind. "Um…officials?" Leon calls, smirking inwardly as this can play out quite well for him.

"Lincon is disqualified," the master says looking very unhappily at Lincon.

Leon sighs. "Come on back guys. It's over," he waves over and Ippo jumps over the rocks while Fury flies and glides back to him and lands nearby him.

"I think we did well," Leon says as they traveled once more.

"And got your prize," Zoey says, looking to his TMs. "What are they anyway?"

"I didn't even know there was a prize like this," Leon says smirking.

"Well, now you do," Zoey says taking one and looks it over. "Wonder what these give?"

"I looked them up at the pokemon center. Trick room, focus punch, and iron tail," Leon says presenting each one when he told what they could do.

"Not bad. Trick room is actually rare to have," Zoey remarks smiling.

"And it is very useful. Especially with a slow pokemon," Leon says smirking.

"Who are you going to give it to?" Gardenia asks curiously.

"Need to think on that," Leon says as Amber happily swings in the trees.

"Well…you have a lot of time to study on that. Because it's my turn to win a few things. Like my contest coming up," Zoey states smiling.

"I have faith you will do great," Leon encourages.

Zoey chuckles and gives a playful shove to which he gives one back before they get into a shoving match and start to run ahead.

"They are having fun," Lana says, now wearing a new outfit thanks to Gardenia and Zoey's insisting.

Gardenia nods looking at him in her black jeans and Kyogre themed hoodie. "Yeah. It's not all training and traveling."

"I still don't see why I needed new clothes," Lana says.

"We are moving from climate to climate. You need different clothes for what's going on here," Gardenia explains.

"But still…" Lana nearly whines.

"No buts. You want to freeze when we get up north?" Gardenia scolds.

"Ah!" Lana calls.

Gardenia giggles and laughs as Amber rolls her eyes amused before trying to swing and catch up to her trainer and his possible future mate.