"So this is Hearthome city?" Leon asks looking around at the large and stylish city.

Zoey nods. "Kinda like a woman's clothing store, huh?"

"No, just bigger and I don't know what word I am also looking for."

"Gaudy?" Gardenia suggested.

"Maybe," Leon says making Lana chuckle.

Zoey rolls her eyes amused at this point. "Come on. We got to get me registered and then start thinking of a plan after seeing everyone there."

"I will set up camp. Rhythm here will be your guide where I am," Leon says bringing out his pokemon.

"Camp?" Zoey asks.

"The table and chairs," Leon clarifies.

Zoey sighs. "Alright. I'll see you after I get myself registered," she says before walking off on her own.

"After we choose a spot, one of us goes for drinks and another goes to get us a room at the center or hotel?" Leon asks the two.

"I'll get the center," Gardenia offers, raising a hand.

"Guess that means that I'll get the drinks," Lana says shrugging.

"Alright," Leon says starting to get out the foldable chairs and table.

Gardenia and Lana walk off as Amber stares at him while he sets up the table and chairs before trying to line them equally. "Mon?"

"Well, this is to rest Amber," Leon says patting a seat for her.

Amber jumps up onto the seat and looks up at him still. "Mon, monferno?" she asks, pointing to the others as they disappear in the distance.

"They are going to do some chores," Leon says.

"Mon," Amber says nodding, getting it. "Mon…monferno?" she tries to ask, tilting her head cutely.

"We will wait here for them all then continue," Leon says finishing.

Amber nods before sitting and waiting with Leon taking a seat nearby.

The two waited till Zoey came back with shellos and holds her as glameow and misdreavus rest on the table. "We all set?" Leon asks as Rhythm joined them now that Zoey returned from registering.

Zoey nods. "Yep. All done. Now I just need to train."

"You ready for it tomorrow?" Leon asks smiling at her when they heard Dawn.

"Zoey!"

Leon says nothing as he headed up to the balcony alone. "No need to worry?" he heard Zoey ask and he smiles knowing Zoey and Dawn were now fine.

Leon hangs back a little and watches from behind the curtains as he sees Dawn sitting at the table with Zoey on the rails as their pokemon stand and sit by them.

"No need to worry," Dawn agrees.

"Zoey, I see you are doing fine," Leon says walking onto the balcony.

Zoey became a little surprised before smiling. "Yeah. Can't let this bring me down."

"Good to hear," Leon says joining her on the railing. "So what will you do now?" Leon whispers to her.

"I have a plan," Zoey whispers back.

"And that, I have no doubt," Leon reassures to her as he looks over.

"Back on the road again," Leon says stretching as they walk south along route 212.

"Yeah. Still, need to work on training and ideas…you have any for me?" Zoey asks.

"Yes. Your style is very good and your moves are well coordinated. What you lack is battling power behind your moves," Leon says.

"Well…there isn't much battling," Zoey explains.

"Except everything past the appeal stage," Leon says smirking, making her chuckle nervously. "So yeah, you and your pokemon will be joining me and mine in our training," Leon adds.

"Oh, boy," Gardenia mutters behind them.

"That will put some power behind her attacks," Lana says smirking.

"Maybe even get some more moves to work with," Leon added.

"Watch it," Zoey comments.

"I'm just saying. You can have more and even more beautiful moves to show and impress them with," Leon explains, blushing a little as he looks nervously away.

'Oh, this is adorable,' Gardenia thinks smirking as they kept making their way down south.

"What time is it?" Leon asks groaning as he exits the tent as the sun only started to rise.

Zoey yawns as she sticks her head out of her tent. "Five…" she yawns before smacking her lips. "We need water for our breakfast…first up is the winner," she says quickly before zipping back into her tent and zips it up before fake snoring is heard.

"Fine, I am taking you with me," Leon says before smirking.

"Can't hear you. I'm asleep," Zoey says out loud before snoring more.

"Glameow, please," Leon requests.

Glameow meows before her shadow jump onto Zoey.

"Hey! Glameow!"

Leon chuckles as he can hear glameow snicker to herself before Zoey came out grumbling. "You are going to pay for that."

"Thank you glameow," Leon says before taking Zoey's hand and they start walking together.

Glameow meows at them before going back into the tent and curling up on the little bed.

"You doing ok?" Leon asks.

Zoey sighs. "My brain is literally hurting from trying to figure out a new plan of contest moves."

"Well, you did well with training for the past few days," Leon says.

Zoey nods. "I know…you still have any ideas…you tend to be good with that?"

"Hum…" Leon says as they near the small river near them.

Zoey raises an eyebrow before shaking her head and leans down to the river. "So…what do you think about maybe me using a double team in a way?" she asks as she starts to fill up some canteen and bottles of water.

"Depends on what you have in mind," Leon says filling his own.

"Mixing the moves and making sure they put on a show. What do you think?" Zoey asks.

"Hum…like earth and electric attacks?" Leon asks, setting down his canteen.

"Yeah…I think I can try something from that," Zoey says, lost in thought.

"Ok…Zoey where did our canteens go?" Leon asks.

"Huh?" Zoey mutters as she looks back down and sees none of them. "What? But I swore I…" she mutters as she digs into the river to find them.

"They can't be f…" Leon starts before both got water dumped on them.

Both of them stop before they look at each other and then looking up to see their canteens floating in the air, upside down and empty. "Psychic," they both muttered.

"You see anything?" Leon asks.

Zoey shakes her head as they look around the area. "It could be far enough away."

"Let's look go then," Leon says sending out Omen. "Omen, find the psychic pokemon please."

Omen's eyes glow bright blue before looking around, scanning the area as Zoey refills the bottles and canteens before quickly packing them away. Omen then walk towards some bushes before her horn lights up and then, swinging her head around, she sends out a psycho cut that cuts away a group of bushes that reveal two ralts hiding behind it. Omen's scolding look making them fearful of the dark cursed Pokemon. And that's a look only a mother can give.

"Zoey…those are ralts…and that one is a shiny," Leon says.

Zoey raises an eyebrow as the two seemed to be getting lectured as Leon made his way over to them, his canteen forgotten.

The two ralts became more afraid as Leon walks up and Omen blocks their way behind them. "Okay, you two are troublesome…hmm…Omen…make sure they don't go anywhere. Let me see…" he mutters at the end as he digs into his pockets. The two ralts close their eyes in fear before they feel something soft tied around their necks.

They both look down and see that the shiny one had a red scarf while the other one had a yellow one. Both of them look to each before pointing at the other's scarf as Omen lays down for a bit and looks between them. Leon sighs as he kneels before them. "I got a lot of work to deal with both of you…or one if Zoey takes one of you."

"Hey there," Zoey says leaning down and shows she had a handful of berries for them.

The normal one quickly noticed and walks over before slowly taking a berry and chews on it. "Well, you have yours," Leon observed as he holds out some berries to the shiny one and it grabs them before sitting down and chewing. "And this one to me," he says before placing an empty pokeball on the ground next to the shiny ralts. "Need to work on a name…Crystal," Leon says before scratching its head.

The newly named ralts smiles and keeps eating away while nuzzling back.

"Okay, let's see…" Leon says as he takes out his pokedex and scans away at his ralts. "Female…knows quite a bit of moves I can work with…want me to scan yours?" Leon asks as Zoey pets the other ralts.

Zoey smiles as she keeps petting away. "Sure. Might as well be lazy."

Leon rolls his eyes as she sticks her tongue out at him before he scans the ralts. "Male. Knows…pretty much the same."

"Siblings, you think?" Leon asks as Crystal climbs on his arm.

Zoey nods slowly as her ralts is grabbing for another berry and chews on it while Crystal climbs up onto Leon's head and sits down.

"Seems you got one with personality there," Zoey says.

Leon chuckles and holds up the pokeball to Crystal before she taps it and then gets sucked in. "Seems like," he agrees as it dings before letting her out again and back onto his head. "She better not stays on my head and shoulders too long. I don't want to be a bitter old man hunch when I'm twenty."

"Eh, not really funny?" Zoey says.

Leon raises an eyebrow at her before sighing. "Better catch the little guy before he eats your hand."

"Oh, he is already mine, aren't you?" Zoey asks.

The ralts sticks his tongue out at her before going back to eating.

"You were saying miss coordinator?" Leon asks smirking.

Zoey sticks her tongue out at him back at that and Leon chuckles. 'I guess like mother, like son.'

"Are you going to try and catch him before we go back?" Leon asks starting to feel up with canteens again.

"Yeah. Give me a bit," Zoey says, digging into her little belt bag of pokeballs.

"Crystal, you are going to enjoy your new family," Leon says.

Crystal smiles while watching him fill the canteens and nibble on the leftover food.

"Omen," Leon calls motioning his absol over.

Omen smiles and gets up before walking over.

"You take care of her, won't you?" Leon asks petting her now that she was close.

Omen barks a bit. "Ab."

"Thanks," Leon says as Zoey finally got a pokeball out.

"Here we go," Zoey says holding it up to the ralts and he holds up a paw before tapping it and gets sucked in as he keeps nibbling and eating on the berry.

"So we now have another new pokemon. How are you feeling miss future top coordinator?" Leon asks jokingly, pretending he was a reporter as he recalls Zoey had a gallade in the grand festival.

Zoey hums as he holds up the pokeball. "Well, I am glad to find out more ways to make tons of beautiful and stunning combinations that will wow anyone out there."

"And what about the rumors of a significant other?" Leon asks chuckling a bit trying to mess with her.

Zoey smirks playfully. "I have no such thing."

"Oh, but there must be those out there interested," Leon says chuckling.

"Yes. But they are mostly fans. Rather, I will choose my favorite and best person," Zoey explains.

"Oh, and who would this be?" Leon asks, now rather curious.

"Not yet," Zoey says teasingly proud.

"Well that is a bit of buzzkill," Leon says as he goes to fill another canteen and part way through it, threw some water at Zoey, splashing her.

"Hey!" Zoey complains, trying to block it before splashing water at him from the river.

"Heh, having fun?" Leon asks splashing her again.

Zoey grins and slashes him back harder. "Oh yeah."

"I thought you would like this," Leon says before getting Crystal and whispering to her to use psychic to soak Zoey with water.

Zoey grins more before yelping when a ball of water falls onto her head and soaks her hair. "Really?"

"Heh. You still look good," Leon says chuckling.

Zoey sighs and wrings the water out of her hair.

"You ready to head back?" Leon asks setting Crystal onto Omen.

"Yeah. Let's go," Zoey sighs as she gets up and follows them back, still wringing the water out of her hair.

"You happy?" Leon asks following her.

"Kinda," Zoey replies, now shaking her head a bit. "That's better."

"I am happy you're happy," Leon says.

Zoey hums and pats her clothes down.

Leon smiles as he trying to psych himself up for something which didn't escape Zoey.

"Something wrong?" Zoey asks, seeing his expression.

Leon exhales before getting closer to her and hugs her.

Zoey stops for a few moments before smiling and hugging him back.

"I have to admit, it's kinda shameful how long this took me," Leon says.

"It's okay. You finally got here," Zoey points out.

"I'm glad you found me that day," Leon says as Omen brushes by them.

"Same. You made things fun for me," Zoey replies, sighing in relief.

"Should we leave you two alone?" Gardenia asks smirking.

"GARDENIA!?" they both yelled as they back away from each other, seeing as they were a bit away from the camp.

Lana, seeing this, giggles a bit.

"So this is Pastoria city…kinda reminds me of home," Leon says without thinking on it.

Zoey smiles. "That's a good thing. Nice quiet town, good seaside, and some great Pokemon."

"A pier that mostly handles shipping from the looks of it," Leon adds.

"Good eye. But the best part is the gym," Zoey says almost teasingly.

"I looked it up. Water type gym," Leon says perking Lana's ears up a bit.

"So you have been doing your homework. That's good," Zoey praises.

As Leon was about to say something else, Lana appeared in front of him excited. "What kind of water pokemon?"

Leon stutters a bit. "Well…" he digs into his bag and takes out a travel before trying to find a few pages. "It's here somewhere."

"Watch it, Zoey. You have competition," Gardenia says smirking as they watch the two.

"Oh, shut up you," Zoey mutters to her.

Leon and Lana kept that up for a bit till someone ran into Lana.

"Hey. Watch where you're going," Lana complains as she rubs her side and looks to the new kid before them.

"Here Lana," Leon says helping her up as the guy went on something about fines.

"Thanks…he sure is chatty," Lana thanks as she looks back to the new kid.

"Yeah, he is," Leon says before Zoey clears her throat at the guy.

"Excuse me, but you need to calm down here. Plus, you bumped into her," Zoey explains.

"Look, I don't have time for this. I have to find the gym and challenge it," the guy says.

"It's closed on Sundays," Leon informs.

"What?! After all of what I traveled?!" the guy complains.

"Yeah…sorry. What's your name?" Leon asks sweat dropping, knowing this can only be Barry.

"Barry's the name. And I will get into that gym first thing when it opens, even if I have to camp in front of it," Barry promises.

"It will reopen tomorrow," Leon says as Barry seemed so brimming with energy.

"We should find somewhere to sleep for the night first," Zoey spoke up.

"Zoey, we should do something or he will be bouncing around the town all night," Leon says.

"Why? He seems fine enough to leave here," Zoey says smirking slightly.

"Hey, if I battle you, will you burn off that energy?" Leon asks.

Barry stops for a moment before grinning widely. "Let's do it."

"Let's head to the pokecenter there should be some battlefields near there," Leon says as Lana giggles seeing this.

Zoey sighs. "I hope they won't yell at us for messing it up."

"This should do," Leon says getting onto the battlefield with Barry as many of those staying at the pokecenter and passersby stopped to watch the battle. "How about a double battle?" Leon calls to Barry on the other side.

"Oh. This should be good," Zoey says forlornly as she bites into a pocky stick. "Battle meal?" she asks and holds out the rest to Gardenia and Lana.

"Oh, yes, thanks," Lana says taking one.

"Sounds good to me. Hitmonlee, Skarmory, battle time," Barry calls, throwing out his pokemon.

'I see. A steel and flying type and a fighting type. Let's make this interesting," Leon thinks before pulling out his own pokeballs. "Ippo, Fury, prepare for combat," Leon calls.

The two pokemon comes out and lands on the ground, staring down the two on the opposite side of the field.

"Okay…bets when he breaks the field?" Zoey asks, still eating with the other girls.

"Ippo, leer! Fury, supersonic!" Leon orders quickly as soon as the battle started.

"Five minutes," Gardenia voices.

"Um…six," Lana adds.

"I bet that Barry kid breaks it," Zoey says smirking.

The stare down from Ippo increases and hitmonlee gains a red aura around itself while Fury screeches loudly to skarmory and makes it flinch back and fly backwards.

Barry growls a bit and points at the two. "Hitmonlee, close combat! Skarmory, fury attack!"

Hitmonlee grunts and charges at Ippo, holdings its fists up and ready to punch. Skarmory flies past it at great speed, aiming straight for Fury as its beak light up a bright white and slams into Fury who gets pushed back hard before being pecked repeatedly. Ippo meanwhile gets up close with hitmonlee that started to punch and kick away at him, making him try to block all the attacks and move back.

Leon kept watching and tries to figure out the next plan before smiling. "Ippo, fight back as best you can. Push him back. Fury, but it off."

Fury screeches and uncovers herself from her wing and headbutts skarmory hard as her head glowed before it dies down after making contact. Fury then flaps her wings hard and rushes up in front of skarmory before screeching out loud, rattling all of its metal body parts and making it stumble back.

Ippo starting to fight back and not just block as hitmonlee goes for another punch but Ippo moves his hand and catches its wrist before giving some karate chops and small powered focus punch at different areas on its arm randomly. Hitmonlee retaliates by bringing its foot up and tries to sweep Ippo off his footing, but he quickly grabs the foot against his side and feels the impact hard. They both then start to hop around, Ippo preventing hitmonlee from getting another move in.

Leon grins now as he hopes this works. But Barry beat him to it with another moveset. "Skarmory, metal cutter. Hitmonlee, brick break."

Leon frowns slightly when hitmonlee lights up his free hand and smashes into the crook of Ippo's neck, him taking it and steeling himself as it kept repeating the move and trying to knock him out. Skarmory screeches beside them and its claws light up before flying at Fury and pushes her to the ground while trying to cut into her skin with the metal-like claws.

Leon grits his teeth slightly now. "Fury, get it off and into the air. Ippo, toss."

Fury's tail lights up as skarmory kept scratching at her shoulders and chest before slamming it hard into the ground and making cracks below her. The ground then gave way and lets them both fall a bit, catching skarmory by surprise while Fury's tail light dies down and now her wings light up. Fury then slams her wings into the ground and breaks them even more, sending them down for a bit, but is then suddenly lifted into the air and flies off.

Ippo gets another hit to his bruised neck before grabbing hitmonlee from his wrist and leg before spinning around quickly before tossing it towards Fury. Fury stops in the air and skarmory lose its grip and let's go of her while Fury's tail lights up again and she spins around hard and smacks into the back of skarmory, sending it flying into hitmonlee who is redirected to Ippo. Ippo's clenched fist lights up as he reels it back before planting his feet hard and punches into the two, bending them a bit before sending them back at Fury. Fury grins as she spins the other way now, her tail still glowing, and picks up speed before she feels her tail hit something and sees a blur crashes into the ground and destroy the area. Fury comes out of her spin and shakes her head from the dizziness while flying near Ippo as they both look to the crater covered in some dust that slowly gets blown away.

"Skar," Skarmory groans as its eyes show it was unable to continue as hitmonlee struggled to try and get up before falling face first onto the ground.

"Nice job you two!" Leon cheers as they happily look back at him before Ippo becomes covered in a bright light. Leon looks on in surprise with everyone else as Fury takes a few steps back while Ippo starts to grow in size and gain bigger muscles before the light dies down and shows Ippo now a machoke with different coloring on itself and multiple red spines going along its arms and even a gold wrestling belt that Leon had to wonder if that was part of its body or removable…he rather not know now thinking about it. "Wow…uh…fist bump?" Leon offers weakly as he holds up his fist. Ippo just smirks and walks over before bumping his fist against Leon's. "Cool. Now let's get you two some healing and food," he says leading the two inside. "Thanks for the battle Barry," he calls out while looking to Barry as he returns his pokemon.

"Ah man," Barry groans, no longer as hyper.

"Pay up," Gardenia says, holding up her hand to Zoey. "Five minutes."

"Who was the one who destroyed it?" Zoey asks as they see diglett and dugtrio already fixing the field.

"Fury," they both said.

"What did we bet again?" Zoey asks smirking.

"How long would it take for Leon to break the field," Gardenia answers.

"No, I mean what did we bet? I don't remember stakes," Zoey says.

"Eh?" Gardenia stops as Lana giggles and follows where Leon went.

"Ma!" the two hear called and turn to see Ippo holding up Lana playfully.

"What are you two doing?" Leon calls to Zoey and Gardenia.

"Agreeing on something," Zoey reassures as she walks over with Gardenia following and looking miffed.

"Well, whatever it is can wait, right? I hear there is a hot tub here," Leon informs.

"I am so heading there first," Zoey says almost teasingly as she walks by him.

"We need to take showers first," Leon says showing her a sign with rules on it.

"As always," Zoey says now pulling him away.

"So who is taking a shower first?" Leon asks.

"You will. We will join in the hot tub afterward," Zoey says smirking.

"Alright. If that is alright with the rest of you," Leon says heading into the room before the rest of them.

"You have a plan?" Lana asks.

"Yep," Zoey just says cryptically.