"Alright? Are you three ready to go relax and have a break?" Leon asks.
They growl and cheer happily as he sucks them back into their pokeballs before going to the machine and trying to contact the professor. "You know, in all this time, I hardly contacted the professor to tell anything."
Zoey smiles comfortingly. "I'm sure you can treat the professor like family."
"Yes, I hope they have been keeping in shape over there," Leon says.
"With Omen and Fury watching over them, most likely," Zoey points out and Leon laughs a little.
"I wonder how King and Queen are doing under those two?" Leon says.
Zoey taps her chin. "Maybe trying to live with their status over there?"
"They did try to steal food," Leon says smirking as the in-transit sign showed the three made it.
"Or maybe training?" Zoey suggests.
"I mean that is how we met them," Leon says.
Zoey shrugs as they wait for pokeballs to come back. "Now I am wondering, what are you going to train them in?"
"Ippo, I am continuing that training. Hopefully, he has continued working on his stamina, speed, and dexterity as I told him to," Leon says.
Zoey picks up and holds Crystal in her arms. "And weren't you planning for Crystal to start fighting hand to hand too? You couldn't stop bragging last night."
"Yeah," Leon says, patting Crystal's head.
"At the end of this, you are going to have your whole team fighting like crazy?" Zoey teases.
"I am just trying to bring out the best in all of them," Leon says as Beacon, hearing that, strikes a victory pose.
"Case in point," Zoey says, pointing to him.
Leon chuckles before, one by one, three pokeballs were teleported in from the lab.
Zoey sighs. "So want to quickly get to them before all the good food is gone?"
"Yeah. Ok, you three into the pokeballs so we can hustle," Leon says.
The other three of his pokemon cheered as they were also returned into their pokeballs before the two trainers run off. "I call the ribs," Zoey says. "Last one there has to get the plate with the least amount."
Leon smirks as he runs after her. They soon get to the restaurant to find all of their friends' pokemon were out of their pokeballs and eating as well.
"Now we can enjoy," Leon says, releasing all of his, but releasing Quake outside to not destroy the place. "Thanks for getting a window seat," he says walking over to them as Quake slithers around the building to their window.
"Wow, is that an onix?" Ash asks seeing the big pokemon.
"Yeah. His name is Quake and I got him from the mine at Oreburgh," Leon explains.
"He was causing problems for some reason," Zoey explains as Brock took a moment to go outside to see this pokemon, feeling nostalgic.
"Oh, hey. Amber and Beacon evolved since we last saw them," Dawn says.
The two pokemon spoke in confirmation of that.
"Oh yeah. Got Amber to evolve when dealing with Quake. Beacon…well, he's Beacon. No dancing. You'll ruin the food," Leon quickly says to the prepared and about to dance pokemon who huffs and crosses his arms before sitting down at his plate. "Oh?" Leon asks before starting to scratch him under the chin.
Beacon blinks before panting and leaning into the scratching. The rest of the trainers almost laughed before Beacon suddenly fell over and almost under a sleeping move. "Whoa. When did you learn that?" Lana asks, surprised.
"I have my ways," Leon says smirking before putting food into Beacon's mouth.
"Come on. Tell us," Gardenia asks, leaning over to him.
"What do you say, Beacon?" Leon asks as Beacon gets up while chewing and boops Gardenia's nose. "There is your answer," Leon says, chuckling as Echo lands on Leon's shoulder and snuggles.
"And our snuggler is here," Zoey says, feeding Echo who happily chews the fruit.
"So how many pokemon do you have so far?" Ash asks, noticing that Rhythm wasn't there.
"Seventeen so far," Leon informs.
"Seventeen already?" Dawn asks, surprised by that.
"Leon here takes the slogan of the leagues kinda too literally. 'Gotta catch them all'," Zoey says.
Leon shrugs as he grabs a burger. "Actually, it was more of, 'How can I help this Pokemon battle better?', line of thinking. Crystal is a good example. I am not making her stand around and just use psychic attacks like that. No, she's going to move and fight like Ippo…bit more flexible though," Leon says, now thinking about it as Crystal looks over to Ippo and flexes his muscles to show off but she waves that off and gives a few air punches in return. "She even almost made like a focus punch move on Shun's weavile."
"Kir," Crystal says smirking to her little brother Ralts.
Ralts just starts complaining and looks over to Zoey now, almost pleading for the same thing.
"Alright. Don't worry. You will get the same type of training," Zoey says.
"I'll lead. Now have you been training as I asked at the lab?" Leon asks Ippo.
Ippo nods and gives some air punches at that.
"We will be seeing after we eat," Leon informs.
Quake growls and gets a steak thrown into his mouth. "We might go broke," Zoey notes as their pokemon chow down and keeps going back for seconds from their table.
Leon smiles as he gets himself something to eat.
"We'll all chip in. Don't worry," Gardenia reassures as she tries the cooked salad. "How do you grill lettuce?"
"Cooking class?" Leon asks.
"No one grills lettuce," Gardenia says, holding up the piece and they see the grill marks. "It's…"
"Weird and dry?" Lana asks as she eats at her ribs.
Gardenia nods while trying a bite and tries to chew through it.
"So how many badges do you have Leon?" May asks curiously while holding up a steak piece on her fork.
"Three," Leon says.
"Cool. I got the same too," Ash adds before stuffing the open mouth full as pikachu keeps slathering on ketchup.
"You know pikachu, if you want, I could just take the bottle and pour it right into your mouth," Leon offered, remembering that one episode where Pikachu discovered ketchup.
Pikachu blinks and freezes where he stood before he was suddenly near him and holding the ketchup up to him with the widest grin on his face.
"Open wide," Leon says, starting to do just what he said.
Pikachu cheers as he eats the ketchup happily while the other pokemon looks at them a bit strangely and then shrugs before going back to eating.
"I think I made Pikachu's month, if not his year," Leon jokes.
"I will never understand the appeal of ketchup for pikachu," May sighs.
"There must be a story," Leon says, smirking.
"Ah," Ash says looking sheepish.
Leon just kept smirking. "Come on. Must be a fun one."
"Oh hey, look. It's a steak," Ash says pointing to an approaching waiter with another set of dishes for steak.
'Oh, copped out,' Leon says smirking before feeling his arm being hugged and, looking down, sees pikachu doing so. "And what are you looking for? More ketchup?" he asks, chuckling.
Pikachu's eyes just shined in happiness at hearing that. "Here you go," Leon says feeding Pikachu again.
"You're going to make him chubby again," Ash says and scratches Pikachu's head.
"Pikachu, what do you think?" Leon asks smirking.
Pikachu smirks and sticks his tongue out at Ash before going back to feeding again.
"Watch it Ash or Pikachu will become Leon's pokemon," Gardenia teases.
Pikachu cheers and jumps over to Leon's side and eats from his plate smirking back at Ash.
'Oh, this will be good,' Leon thinks as Beacon walks by with a large plate of food and starts talking to Pikachu.
Pikachu chirps at him before putting some ketchup onto Beacon's plate. Beacon cheers as he slathers on a lot for the electric type.
Leon shakes his head as they kept eating. "Well, I best get going. My pokemon and I are going to go out and train for a bit," Leon informs getting up after paying for his food.
"Can we battle later then?" Ash asks with a mouth full.
"Maybe, we shall see," Leon says.
"Don't forget ralts," Zoey calls over and ralts happily follows before Ippo picks him up and puts him on his shoulder as the rest of his pokemon follows.
"I will be back later tonight," Leon says returning Quake to make traveling through town easier.
"He's a nice guy," Zoey says, turning her attention back to the food. "Though, much more unpredictable than all the rest."
"You're only saying that because you finally kissed him and openly called him your boyfriend," Gardenia says coyly and gets a grunt out as Zoey elbows her in the ribs.
"Were you waiting long?" Leon asks Shun who's pokemon were training on the field.
Shun shakes her head before turning to him. "Do you want to battle again or just train alongside us?"
"Train this time. My pokemon are working on moves and their powers. Plus, Zoey had me bring her ralts here. She wants me to help train him so he will be prepared when he evolves into a gallade," Leon informs as Shun's pokemon stop training though her magikarp was still swimming around in the nearby pool having fun.
"I see. Well, the area's open for you," Shun says getting up from her bench.
"Hum…how durable would you say your Ursaring is?" Leon asks looking the pokemon over as Shun looked over his pokemon.
Shun shrugs. "Pretty tough. Can take a large hit no doubt. Why?"
"I think he might be just the training partner to help Ippo develop his new move," Leon says before motioning Ippo to come over.
Ippo grunts as he flexes his arms and ursaring smirks a toothy grin before flexing himself the same way, showing off his muscles under all the fur which almost matches Ippo's.
"So what is this move? Focus blast? Focus punch? Submission? Cross chop?" Shun questions as Leon had her weavile make two very distinct lines on both sides of the two pokemon.
"None of those. We are developing a whole new move entirely. Alright you two, you have to stay in this line right here for the training. Ursaring, you can attack as much as how you like with physical moves. Ippo show me the results of the training you have been doing at the lab," Leon informs.
Both grunt as they step up and get into a stance, Ippo more relaxed though as ursaring looked like he was ready to grab an incoming attack with brute force. Leon stepping away to not get caught in the fight. "Begin," Leon says and ursaring started to use hammer arm to attack Ippo who started moving his torso side to side as Shun watched with interest.
Ursaring growls as he watches Ippo move around before swinging his arm around and knocks Ippo down the side to which Ippo gets up again. "Okay, again you two. Keep going until you can last longer and Ippo can knock out ursaring."
"I don't understand what you are up to here," Shun says as the rest of her pokemon, except her magikarp, were training with Leon's.
Leon smiles. "A trick of the eye basically. It makes him seem slow and fast at the same time. So get in close for a good amount of hits," he says making some punching motions.
Shun was confused as they kept watching as Ippo got knocked down time and time again by ursaring.
Leon watches Ippo and then smirked. Ippo was getting it little by little. Ursaring goes in for another hammer arm attack when Ippo seems to bend out of the way, shocking him and Shun. 'There it is!' Leon thinks as Ippo suddenly comes in was a strong left hook to the jaw that knocked the shocked ursaring back from the force, but, before he could recover, Ippo was on him with a strong right hook then kept hitting ursaring with interchanging hooks one after the other. Shun watches in horror as ursaring didn't even have enough time to breathe in between punches as she understands what this move was for. "You finally have done it. This is the Dempsey Roll," Leon says as Ippo stops, breathing hard from the full-on assault before ursaring falls back unconscious. "Good job Ippo. You pulled it off on a sparring partner and you did as I said. You never stepped outside the boundary," Leon says patting his pokemon on the back as he took a seat.
"I now see what you were trying to do. That move is designed to destroy fighting types and pokemon that rely on physical attacks that are also humanoid," Shun says walking over and pats her unconscious ursaring, not upset at all at her pokemon, but was actually impressed it lasted so long through that beating it received.
"That is the idea behind it," Leon says as Zoey's ralts walks up with starry-like eyes as he looks up at Ippo.
Shun smiles and looks over to him. "So I guess you have other moves to teach."
Leon sweatdrops as he gives a nervous chuckle. "Actually, that was mostly it."
'Liar,' Crystal calls out smirking.
"You are transparent when you are lying," Shun informs.
Leon keeps chuckling as Crystal rolls her eyes amused. 'Come on. Let's move on with the next one before you pass out from trying to explain yourself.'
"I think we give our pokemon here a break, don't you think?" Leon asks, looking at ursaring and Ippo.
"Yes," Shun says before going to the others.
"How about with Beacon and your electabuzz next? I have an idea of how to train them," Leon says.
Shun smirks. "Continuously do an electric bolt at each other?"
"Yeah, make it like an electric arm wrestle," Leon explains as Beacon hops in place.
Shun whistles and waves over electabuzz who stops his electrically charged punches on a rock nearby before walking over. "Training against Beacon. Let's see who can win this electric arm wrestle," she says with a competitive expression on her face and electabuzz gives one in return as he grunts and looks toward Beacon as he happily gives a friendly wave back.
"Beacon, are you ready?" Leon asks, scratching the sheep pokemon under the chin.
Beacon cries happily, trying to move and lean his head into the scratches.
"Alright," Leon says before getting up as Beacon starts to spark.
Shun smiles along as he returns right beside her. "A bet on who wins first?" she proposes.
"No thanks," Leon says as Beacon and electabuzz started to use thunderbolt.
Shun hums as the thunderbolts collide and make an electrical sparking ball. Though it started to move towards Beacon as he tries to keep up with the stronger pokemon. Shun then ducks as one spark goes flying at them only for a sand wall to fly up and block it. Shun blinks and looks at the sand as it glows in a physic hold and slowly looks to Crystal as her eyes glowed with the same color. "She's getting better at this. Keep it up and she might be mistaken for a ground type."
"It is as I thought. After this initial one, should we work on their stamina doing the move?" Leon asks mostly himself.
"How do you suggest that?" Shun asks, watching as Beacon put up as much of a fight as it could.
"They have to do a balancing act basically. They both have to work together to put out the exact same amount of power and hold it as long as they can," Leon suggests.
Shun hums, both of them watching over the sand wall. "This is still a competition in this regard though. Someone does have to win this part."
"This also trains them to be able to adapt quickly if we do that next?" Leon asks.
Shun now smirks. "Well, there is still being able to fight in case of a cheap shot."
"Yeah," Leon says smirking as they kept watching.
They keep watching as the lightning ball keeps going towards Beacon before it smacks into him and sends him down, sparks traveling across his body and making him tremble from the electrical shock.
"And down he goes. Come on Beacon. I know you can shake this off," Leon calls. A few seconds later, a yellow arm goes up with a cry of excitement from him as Beacon stands up again and pats down his fur to get rid of the sparks like he was covered in water.
"I am surprised. Your pokemon shrugged off my electabuzz's thunderbolt very easily. You must have trained it's defense well," Shun says.
"Heh, Beacon is naturally very strong against electricity. All I have to do later is give it a trim," Leon says, pointing out that Beacon's fur had grown.
Beacon gives an affirmative cry for that before stepping up again and having a serious expression on its face again as his body sparks, ready for a thunderbolt once again.
"Oh, that is interesting," Shun says, taking note as electabuzz was a bit shocked that Beacon got back up as if it was nothing.
"I will split the money I earn from the wool fifty-fifty. Sound good?" Leon offers.
Shun nods. "Yeah. That's fair. So you want to train someone else in the meantime as this might take a while?" she asks, looking to the rest still trying to do the training they were given before Leon came along.
Leon smirks. "Okay ralts. Time to train," he says, leaning down to the little guy and he cheers, giving some punches in the air at him. "Great. Go to Amber and weavile. Ask them to help you get ready for close combat training."
"Ra," ralts says running off.
Shun smiles as she watches the little guy run up to the two and talk to them as they look interested to help him. "Really excited, isn't he?"
"He is a big fan of Ippo and wants to be like him," Leon informs.
Crystal giggles from his shoulder, still keeping up the sand wall for them, but now reading from her book. 'He did say he wants to be as fast as a scyther or a lucario.'
"As fast? We won't settle for that," Leon says before feeling Echo latch onto him.
"I didn't say anything," Shun spoke up while he grabs and holds Echo in his arms.
"Crystal has figured out how to talk to me with telepathy," Leon says, scratching Crystal and Echo.
"Seriously? That fast?" Shun asks surprised. "Most don't have that until they are in the last evolution."
'What? You got a problem with that?' Crystal says in Shun's head, trying to sound a bit like a punk, but fails and sounds a bit childish.
Shun blinks before pointing at her. "You have to teach her about her tone."
"What tone…wait. Did she speak to you? Because I didn't hear anything," Leon says.
Shun sighs and keeps pointing at the pouting Crystal. "She must have not learned how to speak in a range yet and stuck on the mind to mind style only still."
Crystal blows a raspberry at her before going back to hugging Leon with Echo.
"Again, manners and tone," Shun now adds as Leon looks somewhat embarrassed by Crystal's actions.
"So shall we move on to my big guy?" Leon asks.
"Magmar!" Shun calls.
Magmar, hearing her, walks over, leaving magikarp alone to watch. "Go train with the big guy over there," Shun instructs, pointing over to Quake as he gives a growl towards him.
"Quake, you have to make sure he never touches you and Magmar is trying to touch Quake physically with no attacks, sound good?" Leon asks looking to Shun.
"A simple game of tag? That sounds fine to me," Shun shrugs.
"Get to it you two," Leon instructs.
Quake and magmar growl or grunts and goes off to another empty area to train in peace from everyone else.
"That just leaves Echo here and your gliscor," Leon says.
"Gliscor," gliscor cheers, waving a claw as Echo screeches, wanting to fight and train right now.
"Speed training?" Leon asks.
Shun nods. "My gliscor is supposed to be fast where I doubt even Echo can keep up. So a good way to see if he can work on dodging attacks."
"Is that a challenge?" Leon asks.
Shun smirks over to him. "Why not? Make things more interesting."
"Echo, you heard her," Leon says.
Echo screeches and flaps over to gliscor before giving his best battle glare. Which was pretty good as it was using mean look.
"When did Echo learn that?" Leon asks.
'Just now,' Crystal says dismissively.
"Well, that will be helpful if I don't want my opponent to change out and she informed me just now," Leon says to Shun.
"He has mean look, doesn't he?" Shun asks simply.
"Yeah, take a look," Leon says showing his pokedex.
Shun hums as she looks over Echo's stats. "Yep. You weren't kidding."
"He shouldn't have learned that for a few more levels. Not that I'm complaining," Leon says before the two bat-like pokemon started to race.
Leon smiles at the progress as both of them flew around the trees in a sort of mock track. Shun looking over and noticing the smile before smiling as well. "Now all that is left is her," Shun points out, looking to Crystal as she gives a small wave.
"She has been keeping the shield on us up this entire time," Leon says.
Crystal sticks her tongue out teasingly to Shun who sighs. "There must be something else, considering you."
"I am having her do random little things from her reading my mind. This is to work on her reaction time and be able to multitask in battle," Leon says.
'And he won't say what the final massive thing I have to train in yet,' Crystal says teasingly to him as she gives a little tap to his head.
'Oh, like say pull whatever is in my left pocket to you?' Leon asks in his mind.
Crystal smirks as she floats up a chocolate bar behind her back. 'Maybe…'
'That was an instruction,' Leon informs.
Crystal sticks her tongue out at him. 'Yep. It was. And I won. Easily. You need better pockets that grip stuff,' she says and shows off the candy bar.
"Why? That was a reward for you for getting through this," Leon says smiling.
Crystal rolls her eyes before unwrapping it and breaking it in half and gives one half to him. 'Eat up before training at least. I really want to punch something.'
'Don't get the other one. Save it for your little brother,' Leon says taking the bar.
Crystal gives a wink and proceeds to eat away happily. 'So creamy…'
'You strong enough to patch me into all of my pokemon or just single targets for now?' Leon asks.
Crystal holds up a hand and takes a big enough bite before jumping and floating down to the ground. She then waves at him to follow and leads the two to Ippo as he finally stands and stretches. When he notices them approaching, Crystal's eyes glow and then Ippo's for a second. 'Try now master,' Crystal says before eating away. 'And only one other for now. I am still working on the rest.'
'Ippo, check on ursaring. Make sure he is alright,' Leon thinks.
'Sure thing master,' Ippo agrees as he nods before going to check on the bear pokemon.
"Very impressive," Leon says petting Crystal's head.
Crystal smiles and hums happily, enjoying the petting. 'Always there to protect and please you, master. Now…can I learn how to fight? I really want to kick someone in the face.'
"Told you, we will be starting physical training soon," Leon says.
Crystal pouts a little. 'When…?'
Leon smiles and leans down to her height. "Eager little one, huh?"
Crystal bites onto the last piece as he did the same. 'What do you think?'
"Alright, come with me. Shun, can you help me help my pokemon practice their punches?" Leon asks, getting into his bag and pulls out two pairs of punching mitts.
Shun nods as she walks off and looks over everyone. While Crystal licks her lips clean and gets into a stance as Leon kneels down before her and holds up the punching mitts before she starts trying to punch them in a simple routine. Sometimes crossing her arms into the other aide. He smirks as he looks over her form. 'How about some kicks? Get your legs involved?' he thinks as he sends a few mental images of her fighting in a certain way. Crystal catches on and kicks up a leg, smacking into the mitt and even spins kicks it. 'There you go. Now I am wondering how you can make this work when you evolve and you get a skirt.'
Crystal smirks. 'You humans don't know, do you?' she asks, giving a hard side kick that makes his hand move to the side.
Leon raises an eyebrow. 'Know what?'
Crystal stops for a few seconds, getting her stance right again. 'You think those entries on your pokedex always stay the same? It takes time, somewhat uncommon, and it's only if we go out of our way to try something different. The elders talk about it, but none of us ever had it happen to us yet,' she recites sighing. 'I think it requires a lot of training and time before evolution.'
'Then show me,' Leon says before bopping her lightly with one of the mitts.
Crystal stumbles back a little and smirks back. 'Okay. You've asked for it,' she laughs and punches back harder, giving more kicks even and able to swing her legs around more than even Leon thought possible.
All the while, both Zoey's ralts, and Shun watch with interest at what they are doing. "Wow…we are going to have a challenge if you face up with her next time," she says over to weavile and he gives a small smirk back before continuing to spar with Amber. Though, ralts continue to watch her moves with great detail, wanting to see if he can try it once he evolves and has more movement free.
After a bit, Crystal stood there out of breath, having gotten bopped five more times. "You need a break?"
Crystal chuckles and rolls her shoulders. 'You kidding? I can do this all day,' she says and takes her stance again.
"Then keep doing so and you are telegraphing your moves. We will work on that later. For now, we work on your stamina with this," Leon instructs, going at it again.
Crystal yips, getting bopped in the head. 'You love this,' she says, now working on deflecting his strikes to her head.
"Of course. I love training with my pokemon," Leon informs, bopping her nose with the mitt.
Crystal's nose wrinkles before trying to see how he moves, what are his triggers, and signs of him making a hit. 'Come on,' she thinks, trying to imagine his movements ahead of time and he smirks at how much she is trying to predict his move. 'There!' she cheers and punch and kicks both of his hands as they went for her.
"Nice job. Keep it up," Leon says, seeing how excited she is to fight. 'Better than standing or floating around and just using physics.' "Now give me your strongest punch, right here," Leon says pulling one glove back, wanting to get a bit of measurement of her strength.
Crystal smiles as she leans back before leaning forward on one leg, smacking a fist into the glove hard and makes his hand pull back from the force a few inches. 'How's…that?' she pants, smiling up to him.
"Acceptable starting out," Leon informs before rubbing her head without a mitt on, making her wonder when he had time to pull it off.
'Can I train more?' Crystal asks, smiling up to him.
"Crystal, what time is it?" Leon asks.
Crystal blinks and looks up to see the darkening sky. 'Oh…I guess I did lose track of time. I am usually good with that.'
"You have been training hard. All of you have," Leon says, pointing out even ursaring was conscious once more and training with Ippo, although with a bit more caution.
Crystal nods, looking over the entire group and then notices Shun sitting down and nodding her head like she was ready to sleep. 'Maybe it's best to stop now. She looks ready to sleep here.'
"Alright, everyone. That's all for today," Leon calls.
All the pokemon immediately drop the ground, out of breath at this point and sore all over. 'I think they are done,' Crystal notes humorously.
"And returning," Leon says, getting out his pokeballs to do so.
Crystal floats up onto his shoulder as he walks back over to Shun. "Hey?" he asks, shaking her shoulder and knocking her awake for a little. "You good for heading to bed at least?"
"I think so," Shun says, about to return her pokemon.
"Leave some out so they can help you on your way there," Leon says.
Shun hums and starts to return the very tried ones before the rest come up to her and help by letting her lean on them. "This is one of the longest training I have ever done."
"Want to say anything to this one?" Leon asks as Crystal uses psychic to bring over her magikarp.
Shun yawns and smiles at the fish pokemon and pets his head. "You did fine today," she compliments, receiving a very happy splash attack.
"Who is a very good boy?" Leon asks, scratching it.
"Karp, karp, karp," magikarp happily cheers, enjoying the attention.
"That he is," Shun says before holding him in her arms and stroking his head softly, calming him down and relaxing him.
Leon smiles as he watches her work and wonders if Paul would have ever been like this. 'Maybe…maybe not. Too late now but he did care a lot in the end,' he thinks to himself. "Want me to walk you back?" Leon asks.
Shun smiles up at him. "Sure," she agrees before they start to head back to the center to finally get back in their rooms and rest.