"What do you think, Crystal?" Leon asks as they walk around enjoying the other attractions while Crystal eats an ice cream cone.
Crystal just kept eating before giving him some with her psychic and he bites into it. "Kir…" she says, muffled through the ice cream.
"Much better to be out here when our friends aren't competing huh?" Leon asks motioning her that she can ride on his back if she wants.
Crystal leans over against his head at that and hugs his head. "Kir."
"Yeah…huh, what do you think?" Leon asks, pointing out a sign showing how long the wait would be to use a battlefield.
Crystal looks over to the battlefield wait time sign and nods happily, still licking her ice cream.
"Yeah, might as well seeing as the wait time is nearly an hour," Leon says, starting to walk to the receptionist.
Crystal nods and keeps looking around the battlefields. She looks over the many battles happening and their pokemon styles. Though, also noting it seems to be…simple than what Leon trains with her and the others.
"Thank you," Leon says after finishing putting his name down and getting the ticket. "Alright Crystal. Looks like we are B-5 for field four. Let's find our opponent."
"Kir," Crystal nods as he takes a seat on a nearby table for their field. "Kir?" she asks, holding out her half-empty ice cream cone.
"Want me to hold it while you search?" Leon asks.
Crystal shakes her and keeps holding it out to him with a smile.
"Oh, you want me to finish it. Why aren't you thoughtful," Leon says petting her head.
"Kir," Crystal hums happily and smiles at the attention.
"So let's find our opponent, ok?" Leon asks.
Crystal looks around, trying to find anyone who would be a good opponent. Then spotting a medium-haired girl in a red-and-gold ao dai dress holding a ticket and looking at the schedule. "Kir," she says, pointing to her.
"…well she certainly stands out, huh?" Leon asks.
Crystal nods and taps his head a few times. "Kir."
"Go spy for me to see if she also has B-5," Leon instructs.
Crystal raises an eyebrow to him smiling before jumping down and skips over to her and passes by the handful of people. Though, she pauses a bit to peer to the girl's paper and sees it's the same number and smirks before skipping back. Crystal then jumps up and sits on his shoulder with a smirk on her face. "Kir."
"Alright. Let's go meet her then," Leon says patting Crystal's head.
Crystal gives a cheer as Leon walks over and sits on the other side of the table as the girl takes notice of him. Her black hair tied back into a ponytail wave in the wind. While her brown eyes stare right at him as he notices she has some eyeshadow under them. "Hi. You have B-5 correct?" Leon asks showing her his.
The girl stares at him before slowly showing her card with 'B-5' written on it. Then her eyes go to Crystal who smiles and gives a wave from his shoulder.
"So you are our opponent. Leon," Leon says introducing himself.
"Shun," she greets back.
"How long have you been in the queue?" Leon asks but gets no answer as Shun glares at him trying to size him up from the looks of it. "Well…would you like to sit here and talk for the next…fifty-four minutes or get up and walk around?" Leon asks.
Shun scoffs. "Are you going to keep talking?" Shun asks, showing she was a bit arrogant.
"Hum…from the tone a lot of confidence in yourself and can tell you also train yourself and probably your Pokemon hard. Just the kind of opponent I am looking for," Leon says smirking.
Shun raises an eyebrow at that.
"So what do you say? It would be better if we keep an eye on one another so we don't wait for nothing," Leon says.
Shun rolls her eyes and turns back to the field that is still being used, looking for any sign when it would be finished.
Leon shrugs before taking Crystal off his shoulder and setting her on the table. He then pulls a brush out of his bag and starts brushing her.
Shun turns an eye towards them but quickly turns away when Leon looks up toward her.
"You like that Crystal?" Leon asks.
Crystal hums happily and leans into his brushing, pushing aside some hair for him to brush even.
Leon smiles as he kept treating her. "So I am guessing ours will be a one on one match, right?" Leon asks.
"If you don't know that, why did you sign up?" Shun retorts back.
"Because I'm looking for an opponent to face to test the results of my pokemon's training," Leon says, getting her full attention.
'Who is this guy?' Shun thinks to herself frowning.
"Crystal here will be my choice," Leon informs.
"Kir," the little pokemon says happily.
Shun inwardly smirked at that. 'Fool, you just gave me the advantage.'
"Her psychic has really been improving. Don't cha girl?" Leon asks, smiling and tickling her neck which Crystal laughs at and tries to push and slap away his hand. "But she wouldn't use it on me…" he stops as he feels his hand stopped cold and sees the little pokemon keeping his hand in a psychic hold. "Crystal," Leon says looking at the psychic pokemon who was smirking mischievously. Crystal lets go of him as Shun narrows her eyes at them as the two smile happily towards her. "So what are you going to use?" Leon asks.
Shun refuses to say as Crystal climbs into Leon's lap to sit.
Leon chuckles as he hugs and pets Crystal. "Come on. You can give some ideas."
"Why should I?" Shun asks in a way that reminded Leon of someone, but he couldn't put a finger on who.
Leon shrugs. "I don't know. Maybe we can be friends at least. Heck, maybe trade tips." Shun gave him a frown after hearing that. "What? You're the type where that stuff is earned?"
Shun gives a harsher glare as she narrows her eyes more.
"Yep, hit the nail on the head," Leon says.
Crystal taps his still hand and makes Leon return to petting her. "Kir," she says, tapping her wrist.
"What do you think, Crystal?" Leon asks.
Crystal hums and taps her chin before looking cheery and holds up an arm. "Kir."
"I think she is calling you out," Leon says, smirking.
Shun glares at the little pokemon and she gives a playful glare back. 'These two are pushing it. They are way too cocky.'
Crystal leans back against Leon at that point. "Kir Kirlia," she spoke up to Shun.
Shun looks up to Leon and he smiles. "She's asking if you are ready to fight."
"Cocky, huh?" Shun asks.
"She's fired up. This is one of her first big battles and she's eager. Aren't you?" Leon teases as he picks up Crystal and rubs his cheek against hers, making her laugh and playfully try to push him away.
Shun stares at them as they continue to wait.
"Number B-5," an announcer calls and both Crystal and Leon stop play fighting and look toward the field to see it being cleaned up.
"Oh, our turn. Come on Shun," Leon says a bit excited as this is the first true test of Crystal's knowledge and abilities. Crystal herself chirps happily and climbs onto his shoulder. Shun meanwhile takes her time and walks to the other end as she chooses one that is guaranteed a win. But she just sees the two not worried at all and smiling away.
Shun throws her pokeball after reaching her spot and releases a Weavile that grins at Crystal when he figures out he will win easily. "Both sides ready?" a referee asks them both and they nod back. "Then begin."
Shun frowns as Crystal doesn't move, body or eyes glowing, or even Leon calling out anything as he keeps smiling at her. Weavile was even slightly confused and looked between her and Crystal for any orders. "Metal claw," she says and weavile charges with his claws glowing.
Leon taps his chin as he tries to think of how far she can go, but Crystal beats him to it as her eyes light up and she holds up her arm at him. Shun smirks as this is an easy win when suddenly dust rises up and smacks into weavile, pushing him away and stopping his attack. Shun freezes for a moment as she sees the dust still being held by Crystal, ready for another swipe.
'Okay, dust from the ground. Simple,' Shun thinks before calling, "Blizzard!"
Leon looks a little surprised and she smiles that she caught him off guard as a cold snowy blizzard blew through the arena. Crystal shivers and huddles upon herself while weavile moves around the field, almost disappearing at times when a heavy gust happens between them. "Ice Beam," they both heard and a bright blue beam rushes past Crystal as she moves out of the way and starts jumping back. The beam moving towards her and icing what it could on the ground and even making shards. Crystal frowns before her eyes glow again and she swings her arm across the ground. A thick field of dust swept up in front of her and letting the beam hit, the dust turning into an ice wall now as she partly sees through it and sees his figure stop the attack and move away from view.
"Crystal! Stop playing around," Leon calls and Crystal smirks.
Shun frowns and opens her mouth for another attack. "Ice shards!"
"Now!" Leon yells and Crystals hits the ground with her hand and sends out a small shockwave that kicks up the dust and dirt on the field before she throws it up. The ice shards being caught in some heavy dirt and even the blizzard. Shun looks on in surprise as the dust and dirt stop the blizzard bit by bit until it slams back down and Weavile covers himself as he becomes covered in wet dirt and dust. Weavile growls as he shakes himself off while Crystal snickers at his predicament while the blizzard dies from lack of enough snow.
"Clever," Shun merely says.
"Disarming Voice," Leon simply says.
Shun instantly became confused as Crystal's body glowed before she sang loud high pitched notes that rang throughout the whole field. Weavile covering his eyes as the rumbling feeling hits him head-on. His form trembles as she keeps singing away before giving one last screech that actually knocks weavile on his back from the force. Shun groans as she uncovers her ears and looks to Crystal as she smiles before coughing a little.
"Sword dance with the metal claw," Shun calls and weavile groans before running towards Crystal as his claws glowed and became longer. His claws then sliced against each other and created sparks. But Crystal frowns before tossing mud at him and then creating a wall in front of her. Weavile just slices through it and she dodges to the side once. When another came up from a side she didn't notice, she felt the urge to move and moved her leg back from what would have been a strike that would have tripped her. Then ducking as he swipes where her head had been. She then leans back from another swipe and reels her arms back before punching forward and striking him hard in the chest. Weavile crying out as the psychically enhanced push knocks him a few feet before he slides to a stop.
Crystal takes a few deep breaths as she remains in that position before slowly looking back at Leon as he had the same look of relief on his face before smiling. She smiles back before spinning her head around and dodging the ice shards flying at her. She blinks as she tries to figure out how she knew they were coming. But another look at Leon made her smile. Leon even looked at her and smiled back.
Her eyes widened when Weavile was suddenly behind her as she ducks and spins. Weavile was in a state of confusion for that moment as he was looking where she was before his vision became one of the skies. However, Crystal didn't let it last long and her eyes glowed again and made a hidden column of mud smack into him and sent him flying away back onto the ground.
"How does a Kirlia know close combat?" Shun almost demands.
Leon chuckles nervously as he tries to smile. "Actually…that was just her. No move. Proud of her though," he says, giving a thumbs up to the psychic who smiles back.
'I have been taking this far too lightly. I need to up my game now,' Shun thinks turning serious.
"Uh oh," Leon realizes as he sees the expression on her face and can't help but remember it for some reason. "Crystal, watch yourself." Crystal nods as she watches the Weavile carefully while he gets back onto his feet.
"Metal claw again!" Shun calls and weavile cries out as he charges quicker than before. Crystal grits her teeth as she prepares to bring up a slab of mud before her until he suddenly disappears and she gasps alarmed before feeling scratches at her back that made her cry out in pain. Leon tried to see the Weavile as he kept moving around but couldn't exactly see him as he disappeared and reappeared everywhere around her. Plans and ideas flew through his head before Crystal latches onto one and slams both hands into the ground. A shield of mud flying up around her and weavile starts to attack like crazy on it, slicing and throwing away more and more of the mud that tries to repair itself as Crystal struggles to keep it up. Every once in a while, weavile would slice his claws together to make sparks in between attacks.
Shun finally smiles that she might have this one in the bag as Leon looks around the field frantically. All before he takes a deep breath as the shield starts to whittle away. Crystal feeling the calming blanket envelop her as her body starts to glow. She then slides all the mud outside her shield to the side and made weavile slip-up and falls flat on his face. The mud shield falls as Crystal's body starts to glow brightly before the three and those spectating. Some think she is evolving but Leon knew she was a ways away from that. Weavile growls as he brings out his metal claws again and charges towards her. The brightness blinding him before he slices where she should be and they hear a cry. But soon it explodes and blinds them as they hear a few thuds until a loud bang sounds out.
Leon groans as he rubs his eyes and tries to look past the spots to see that Crystal was struggling to stand on her knees while Weavile was on his back, down and out. He quickly rushes over and catches Crystal as she doesn't seem to say anything. Looking her over, she seems to be in deep sleep now, possibly from such an attack of that strength as Shun looks over to weavile but sees he is really knocked out.
The referee looks between the both of them before shaking his head. "Both pokemon are unable to continue. This match is a draw."
"You did good girl," Leon says softly down to Crystal who seems to slowly smile in her sleep as he brushes her hair. "Okay, let's get you to the center," he says walking off with Shun right behind him some distance away.
Leon smiles reassuringly as the Chancey wheels Crystal off as Shun gives her pokeballs to Nurse Joy.
"You did good," Leon says, smiling towards her.
"You were far better than I expected you to be. I should have taken you seriously at the start," Shun begrudgingly admits. "But how did your moves hurt weavile? Weavile is immune to psychic moves," Shun inquires.
Leon smiles at that. "Simple. The moves that hurt weavile directly were fairy type moves," Leon explains.
Shun stared at him. Her body language was betraying her and showing she was racking her brain trying to remember anything about that.
Leon blinks before realizing something. "Oh. You mustn't have heard of it yet," Leon says before pulling up his pokedex and showing Shun a kirlia on it. With the type being Psychic and Fairy.
"Fairy…what the heck is a fairy?" Shun had to ask.
"It's one of the eighteen known types. Fairy types are usually weak to poison and steel, resistant to bug, dark, and fighting types, and are completely immune to dragon types," Leon informs and Shun's face slowly starts to morph into an expression of complete shock as she absorbs the information.
"Come and take a seat if you want to talk more," Leon offers, heading her to a table before one of his pokeballs starts moving on his belt before Ruby releases herself onto the table.
"Sko!" she cheers and raises a claw towards him.
"Ruby," Leon says shaking his head while smiling, allowing her to climb up his arm.
"Sko sko," Ruby says smiling, waving her tail happily.
"As you can see, my pokemon are a colorful bunch," Leon says as Ruby gets comfortable.
"Sko," Ruby agrees as she waves a claw at Shun.
"I can see that," Shun says before they started to talk, though most of the conversation at first was about this new eighteenth type, the conversation soon shifted into how to use moves indirectly to get around type immunity like how Crystal did it to weavile. "Wait. You just gave her a college physics and matter book and that's it? That's all?" Shun asks, surprised.
Leon nods as he lets Ruby hang around from his arm and uses her tail to coil herself up repeatedly. "Mostly. Yeah. When she needs help on a particular part, she calls me and I try to explain it as best I can. I figure it goes like this. The definition of being a psychic is moving matter itself with your mind. So I thought, why not give her a book of this and see what happens. This was our first real battle like that," he explains, pushing Ruby like she was a swing.
"And her close combat?" Shun asks further.
"My mind, I think. I was thinking of so many moves she could try and she might have picked one. Or come up with it on her own from watching others fight. She's a smart girl and I'm thinking of not having her stand there and just use psychic forever. It would get boring. At this point, I might have machoke help train her fighting moves and psychic knowledge with the book. Once she understands many fundamentals of matter, she could manipulate and…maybe even create basic elements out of thin air. Air, water, earth, and fire. She might be able to handle types that she is at a disadvantage with even by that point," Leon explains and gives a tickle to Ruby who laughs and tries to playfully poke his hand but he quickly pulls it away in time.
Shun sat there in silence absorbing what he said and thinking hard on it.
"So how do you train?" Leon asks, holding up a cookie to Ruby whose eyes sparkle before she snatches and munches away at it. Shun stays silent still thinking over what he said as Leon looks at her appraisingly. "You spar with your pokemon as well," Leon says, making her look at him fully now surprised he picked up on that. "Your muscles, the way you twitch, it kinda says it all," he says looking at her arm as it tenses up.
"Yes, I train with my pokemon to become stronger," Shun admits, seeing no reason to keep it hidden now.
"No reason to hide it at times. So you use a training style with your fighting types and others that handle close quarters?" Leon asks.
"Correct, but with this new information, I will need to refine my training to account for this and this eighteenth type," Shun says as she orders some tea from the center's menu.
"I think I have a grasp on your battling style now. It's a lot like mine. You analyze your opponent and when you go into battle, unless you have insufficient information or another goal in mind, you pick the best type match up and strategy against your opponent and their usual style. Am I wrong?" Leon asks.
Shun stays silent until her tea is brought. "No, you are correct. But with how well you put it, you use the same style I do," Shun says and Leon swears he briefly caught a hint of a smile.
"You are not wrong, but I have a feeling you are catching pokemon with unique moves or hidden powers? Is my instinct right?" Leon asks, smiling now as they have now passed the awkward start.
Shun slowly puts down her tea and gives him an intimidating stare. "So what if it is?" she asks as if inviting him to say it is wrong.
"Nothing wrong with it. It's just I prefer to work from the ground up basically. Training my pokemon early on. It's like they say 'Anyone can take a legendary pokemon and make them a powerful figure, but it takes a truly talented trainer to take a weak pokemon and turn them into a champion'," Leon says, trying to show he was not trying to put her down.
Shun slowly sips her tea as Leon turns his attention to Ruby and feeds her two cookies which she instantly gobbles up. "…I see your point," Shun says after a bit.
"How is the tea?" Leon asks interested now.
"Fine," Shun says simply.
Leon, hearing that, orders a tea as well and a plate of cookies for the three of them.
Ruby drools heavily as she taps her claws against the plate before looking up to Leon with her big o' eyes.
"Just let us have some too," Leon says, patting her head.
Ruby squeaks and dives onto the plates, munching away happily while Leon sips the tea and hums. "Not bad," he says, grabbing a few cookies. "Please take a few," Leon says to Shun.
Shun reaches for the cookies and grabs a few of them before stopping as she looks to see Ruby having latched onto one of them and she slowly let's go. Crumbs all over her face as she smiles at Shun before going back to the rest on the plate.
Leon shakes his head at that before turning back to her. "So tell me about yourself," Leon requests. Both started talking about many other topics even after they got their pokemon back. To which Crystal was happy she was back and hugs him. Leon gave her a pet that she enjoyed for a job well done. "I am going to put you with Ippo for some close combat training," he warns and she just smiles and pumps an arm in the air with a happy cry.
"Are you planning on evolving your kirlia to a gallade then?" Shun asks, hearing that, securing her pokeballs.
"No, going to let her evolve into a gardevoir," Leon informs petting her as he releases a new pokemon. One that Shun had never seen and Rumble looks around before spying Ruby and moves over to her and Ruby gives Rumble a cookie.
Rumble chitters happily and grabs it with his mouth and chews graciously. While Leon feeds Crystal before she grabs the cookie and breaks it into two for him, taking the already eaten half.
"No data found," Shun's pokedex announces.
"Might want to get it updated," Leon notes and smiles as he eats at the same time as Crystal does.
"Can I see yours?" Shun asks, obvious to Leon she was swallowing her pride to ask this.
Leon nods and brings his out. "Wimpod, the Turn Tail Pokémon. A Bug and Water-type. From beaches to seabeds, Wimpod lives in all kinds of places. They eat anything, even if it's rotten. Nature's vacuum cleaners!"
"…why would you want a pokemon like this?" Shun asks after a pause trying to figure out a reason.
"Let's just say Rumble here has a lot in common with a magikarp. When you finally understand that, then you will know their potential," Leon says as Rumble was now playing with Ruby. Leon, seeing this, smiles as it means Rumble was really coming out of his shell figuratively.
Crystal taps his side and he looks to her as she taps her wrist. "Kir."
"Oh, that's right. Shun, are you going to be sticking around till the end of the contest?" Leon asks.
"I might. But I mostly will be battling and moving on," Shun admits.
"Can I get your contact info? I had a really fun time talking with you," Leon requests.
Shun takes one last sip of her tea as she looks over to the three pokemon and then sees Crystal reading the book without her seeing the little psychic taking it out and opening it. "Sure," she says holding out her pokedex.
Leon smiles and the two exchange contact info. "I will call if I am free to see if you want to hang out," Leon says.
Shun nods as he gets up to leave. Crystal sitting on his shoulder but Ruby and Rumble happily chirping and clicking claws before following him, almost having a conversation like normal people. "Such a strange trainer."
"How was your day of mostly just sitting in the back room watching the contest?" Leon asks Zoey.
"Don't start. I know what you did. You broke another field," Zoey teases and Crystal smirks as Leon give her a playful glare but she kept reading.
"That one's on Crystal, who learned a new attack mid-battle. I thought that usually is only spontaneous evolutions," Leon says sitting on the bed as Ruby walks around.
Zoey yawns before leaning against him. "Well…it's been a long day."
"Yeah, but my opponent was at least interesting," Leon says hugging her.
Zoey hums. "I bet."
"Let's rest," Leon says pulling her down onto the bed and lays there as Ruby climbs up to join them.
Zoey giggles a little as Ruby curls upon his chest. "You know she won't be able to do this when she evolves, right?" she asks, peeking an eye open to the little pokemon.
"Well, not as comfortably," Leon says.
"Sko," Ruby yawns, waving a claw at them.
"You won't be able to tell her no, huh?" Zoey asks smirking.
"Nope. Crystal. Rest up," Leon calls to the studious pokemon at the table who gives a wave, head in the book.
"It's too bad I am stuck doing that until my next round," Zoey says pulling the covers over them.
Leon hums before leaning his head over and kisses her cheek. "You'll do fine. After all, you came this far and didn't back down yet."
"Oh, I am not going to, but what will you be able to entertain yourself with this time? I know what you are like when bored," Zoey says.
Leon shrugs. "I can message my new friend. But if she isn't here for the rest of the contest…guess walk around and look at stuff until your turn."
"You worry me sometimes," Zoey says.
Leon smiles at her. "Is it really that bad?"
"I am half afraid you will wander off and get lost while bored," Zoey says smiling a bit.
Leon hums. "And the other half?"
"That something will be on fire, most likely the lake," Zoey jokes.
Leon snarks. "Don't you mean another field will be broken?" Snickers broke out in the whole room as Crystal was the one who had trouble keeping it in.
"No," Zoey jokes.
Both give some chuckles while Ruby and Rumble start to settle in between them. "You sure you don't want to hang out with Dawn and the others?" Leon asks, making sure the two were comfortable.
"I can't. They keep those in the competition separate a lot to minimize corruption and stuff," Zoey says.
Leon chuckles and smirks. "So poor Zoey is stuck with a trainer that can't do contests. Maybe he should find another bed," he laughs teasingly.
"You try to go and I will kick your butt," Zoey says smirking.
Leon pokes her cheek playfully and she pokes back. "Cute. Better rest up."
"Yeah," Zoey says.