By the time that Roy had pulled himself out of bed, the clock on the bedside table in his room told him that it was past ten. His initial response to discovering how late he had slept in was a fuzzy kind of satisfaction with himself, but soon Roy began to wonder why he had been allowed to stay in bed so late. Normally, Antonia was such a taskmaster that Roy was more than a little surprised that she wasn't standing over his bed and dumping a bucket of water on him. His wonder did not turn to worry, however, and instead Roy got dressed and crossed the hall to Antonia's room whistling tunelessly.

He knocked on her door, then did so again louder, and was about to really pound on the door when it opened and Antonia stood before him, bleary-eyed without her glasses and with her hair a mess. "Roy?" she murmured. "What's the matter?"

"It's time to get up is what's the matter," he replied gleefully. "We can't stay in bed all day, come on!"

Antonia was too tired to appreciate the reversal in their situation, but Roy enjoyed it enough for the both of them. He told Antonia that he'd meet her for breakfast and then closed the door behind her when she forgot to do so, struggling to contain his laughter the whole time.

When Antonia made her appearance in the pokémon center's cafeteria ten minutes later, she looked much more presentable, her hair tied back in a simple ponytail and her thick-framed glasses once again perched on her nose. Escorting her was her bulbasaur, looking equally refreshed after a good night's sleep.

"Where's Beedrill?" asked Roy from behind the plate of eggs he was shoveling into his mouth.

The question gave Antonia pause and dimmed her imperturbable air for just a moment before she explained, "I tried letting it out in our room last night and it didn't like being inside too much. It kept bumping into the walls and the lights. I'll let Beedrill out when we're done eating."

"Sounds good," Roy said and then continued to work on his food while Antonia grabbed herself a plate of the now-cold breakfast prepared by the pokémon center's staff. When she had set down a bowl of food for Bulbasaur and sat down at the table with her own plate, Roy asked, "So, what's the plan for today?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, there's a pokémon gym here, right? Are you thinking of tackling it today?"

Antonia looked down at Bulbasaur and found that her pokémon was looking up at her with the same expectant expression that Roy was wearing. "Well, actually, um, no."

Roy smiled and leaned back in his chair. "Good. I mean, we just got done traveling all this way. We should take it easy, kick up our feet, and-"

"We need to be training."

Roy's body came forward over the table, his smile gone from his face. "What?"

"Going over the mountain made us stronger," explained Antonia, "but it didn't improve our abilities in battling. We have some new strategies that we can try with our pokémon."
"Do we have to, Toni?"

Roy's groaning ceased when Antonia wagged her fork at him. "Yes, we're going to be going up against another gym leader, and I don't want us going in blind. I beat Brock, and, well, you didn't."

That earned her another groan from Roy, and next to him Charmander took the opportunity to scrabble for some of his trainer's food. Roy laced his hands behind his head and looked up at the ceiling. "I guess that you're right though. Charmander and Nidoran are going to do great though." He smiled at Antonia again. "With your help of course!"

They finished up their meal and took a quick visit to their respective rooms to wash up and then the trainers and their pokémon stepped outside into the midday air. This pokémon center, like its counterpart in Pewter City, had a small recreation area consisting of a small play structure and a swing set within sight of some picnic tables. Roy and Antonia set up at one of the tables and sent out their other pokémon. Nidoran and Beedrill joined Charmander and Bulbasaur and the four pokémon looked expectantly at their trainers for instructions, even Nidoran. Roy didn't know what to say to them, but Antonia had evidently been thinking about how they would go about training their pokémon and she quickly instructed them.

"I think that it would help if we paired up at first. So, I want Bulbasaur and Charmander to work together first. Charmander, you'll be trying to hit Bulbasaur with some of your fire attacks, and Bulbasaur you'll try to block them with your vines, okay? Nothing too intense, but it should help both of you."

Bulbasaur nodded, while Charmander's response to Antonia's idea was to glance over at Roy. "Yeah, I think that Toni has the right idea." Charmander snorted out his annoyance, but followed Bulbasaur over to an open area past the picnic tables and playground.

"Now, as for Nidoran and Beedrill, I think that you two can try and do something along those same lines," said Antonia. "We can work on your water gun and your flying by having Nidoran try and hit Beedrill while it flies around." The two pokémon looked at one another, and then Roy's pokémon looked to him for reassurance just as Charmander had done.

"It'll be okay! I'm sure Antonia wants Beedrill to keep its distance, so you don't have to worry about getting attacked! Just work on your own skills, Nidoran!"

Those two pokémon broke off from their trainers as well, and made for a stranger sight being so mismatched in size compared to Bulbasaur and Charmander's pairing. Soon all four pokémon were hard at work, alternatively attacking and defending in line with Antonia's instructions for them all. She and Roy were not idle either. Both of them were moving among the dueling pokémon, making observations and offering suggestions. While Antonia tended more towards analysis, Roy was quicker to offer his enthusiasm and encouragement to his pokémon and Antonia's. After making a few circuits and talking with each of the four pokémon, Roy and Antonia met at one of the picnic tables and sat down.

"So," Roy asked over the sound of Beedrill's droning wings, "do you think this will help us beat the gym leader?"

"I hope so," answered Antonia without looking away from where Bulbasaur and Charmander were sparring, the latter less enthusiastically than the former. "There's so much potential in our pokémon, I can see it just by watching them now. But it's our job as their trainers to bring it out of them."

"And our own potential too, right?"

That question got Antonia to finally turn her focus on Roy. "What do you mean?"

"Well, we are helping our pokémon, and they're helping us too. I mean, just by being on this journey together, don't you feel like you've changed?" He met her skepticism with a good-natured laugh. "I mean, look at you! Would you ever think a few weeks ago that you would climb a mountain or stick your head in a cave full of zubat?"

"I mean, I always knew that I could do those things, if I had to, I mean."

Roy laughed again. "Maybe you knew it up here," he said tapping his finger to his head, "but not here."

Antonia followed Roy's gesture down to the middle of his chest and then she abruptly looked back at the pokémon and hopped off of the picnic table's bench and onto her feet. "All right!" she called out loud enough that her and Roy's pokémon stopped what they were doing and looked to her. "You've all been working hard on this, and I think that we're making some good progress, but I think that we should try changing things up." She was about to say something, when she thought to turn back and saw Roy looking oddly contemplative. "Do you have any ideas, Roy?" asked Antonia perfunctorily.

"Yeah, actually," Roy said, causing Antonia to bite down her next words. "I think that we could have the pokémon who were working on their defenses just now try the other thing, attacking, you know? Beedrill's got those stingers now, and I don't think its ever had the chance to use them. So why don't we have him and Charmander try going toe-to-toe? Claws against stingers." The two pokémon in question looked plenty pleased with the suggestion, with Roy's charmander smiling and flexing the claws on his upper limbs while Beedrill beat its wings and briefly took off in its own excitement.

"What about the others?"

Roy scratched his chin as he looked at Bulbasaur and Nidoran. The two pokémon had four legs but beyond that they had little in common. Antonia's pokémon looked confident and powerful while Roy's was already looking for an escape judging from how its eyes were darting around. Remembering how he had chased Nidoran before catching the nimble pokémon made Roy wince. Antonia had been lucky that the first wild pokémon she caught was a slower weedle, plus she had had Bulbasaur's vines to keep it from getting away.

That finally gave Roy an idea. "Okay, how about this? Bulbasaur, you give Nidoran a head start and then you try and grab him, but only using your vines. Otherwise, it doesn't count. And Nidoran, you try and get away! But you can't just run away either, you have to stay close by. Maybe, if you can jump on Bulbasaur's bulb then I'll let you stay outside of your poké ball the whole rest of the day, deal?"

Nidoran looked as though he was considering the proposal, while Bulbasaur croaked his own annoyance. "I don't know if Bulbasaur wants to play the part of a trampoline," Antonia offered by way of translation.

"Easy enough!" said Roy. "Don't let Nidoran bounce on you then!"

Antonia looked at her pokémon, expecting more resistance, but instead Bulbasaur just grunted and bounded over to a spot of blacktop where he could plant himself. Two cords of vine emerged from under the bulb on his back and soon were waving around in-between Bulbasaur and the others.

At Roy's feet, his nidoran looked at his new opponent and then up at Roy. "Go get him, buddy!" said Roy and then, taking that as his cue, Bulbasaur shot one of his vines towards where Nidoran was standing, or rather, had been standing. The small pink pokémon had leapt into the air, level with Roy's waist, and the attack landed powerfully but ineffectually on the ground by Roy's feet. The boy jumped too, backwards in surprise, but he quickly regained his bearings and watched with glee as Nidoran landed and angled itself towards Bulbasaur before taking off like a shot at the larger pokémon.

Bulbasaur growled in annoyance, but he was eager to meet Nidoran's charge. Tilting his squat body this way and that, he swung his vines in a sweeping motion just a few inches off of the ground. Nidoran had to stop running in order to leap over the first vine, and then jumped again as the second one came close behind. Before Nidoran could resume his advance, Bulbasaur pulled his vines in tight and then shot them out at Nidoran, one after another again, so that the smaller pokémon had to dodge and weave. In the process it fell back, farther away from Bulbasaur, but there was no trace of fear in Nidoran from what his trainer could see. Whether the cause of this change in attitude was the friendly nature of the contest or his focus on a singular goal didn't matter to Roy, he was just excited to see it.

While Roy watched and encouraged one pair of sparring pokémon, Antonia turned her attention to Charmander and Beedrill. The two pokémon were locked in a more physically constrained contest, but one that was no less intense. Both Charmander's orange scaly skin and Beedrill's tallow and black abdomen were marked with shallow scratches and cuts, but the injuries did not slow either of the combatants down. Beedrill worked hard to use its speed and wings to flit away out of reach of Charmander's claws, launching a flurry of blows and then darting away from the inevitable counterattack. But Charmander was a dogged opponent, and was constantly advancing on Beedrill no matter what attacks he had suffered or how far the buzzing pokémon had retreated.

Antonia wanted to offer some guidance, but the dueling pokémon seemed so focused on their contest, and so set in their ways, that she was not sure that any advice that she could offer would be heeded, or even useful. Instead, she just stood back and watched as her pokémon and Roy's matched stingers against claws, just as he had described it. As she was marveling at how her beedrill had so quickly adapted to its new body and capabilities after evolution, Antonia realized that Charmander had been driving her pokémon back into a corner. Before she could raise a cry of alarm, Beedrill darted forward and scratched a long line of red against Charmander's belly, but Roy's pokémon merely snarled at the pain and continued to push forward. Beedrill tried to take off, but found out, too late, that it was underneath the two-story play structure. While it tried to shake off the unexpected blow to its head, Charmander grabbed one of Beedrill's legs and pulled the larger pokémon back down to the ground.

Before their fighting could resume, Antonia called out, "Stop! I think that's enough for now!"

Beedrill and Charmander, as well as Roy and the pokémon he was supervising, all halted in their exertions and looked to Antonia for guidance. The girl only faltered somewhat under the weight of their eyes and their expectations, but she steeled herself and tried to sound as professional as she could as she explained, "I think that's enough work, for this morning at least. How about we cool down inside the pokémon center and ask the nurses to look at our pokémon?"

"Sounds good to me," Roy agreed readily, his eyes widening as he saw the crisscross of wounds on his charmander and on Antonia's beedrill. "Our pokémon really did that to each other? And kept going?" When Antonia nodded her answer to both of his questions, Roy just said, "Wow," in a low voice.

Bulbasaur and Nidoran did not have as obvious signs of their training, but both pokémon were breathing heavily when their trainers returned them to their poké balls. Waking back to the pokémon center, Roy was eager to relay to Antonia what he had seen. While Bulbasaur had succeeded in keeping Nidoran from making contact with the bulb on his back, the smaller pokémon had still managed to avoid being entangled and had kept up the pressure until Antonia had called them off. Antonia listened to his account as they walked through the sliding doors of the pokémon center and handed their pokémon over to the nurse at the front desk to be treated.

Then, left by themselves, Roy and Antonia took up seats in the lobby of the pokémon center. At first they watched some of the other people and pokémon passing in and out of the center, but soon their conversation turned to their plans for the rest of the day.

"Please tell me that you didn't change your mind about challenging the gym leader today."

Antonia shook her head and said, "No, I think that we can use the rest of the day to think about her though. What pokémon will we face, and how will she use them? There's a lot of information that we should try and get so that we can get there bright and early tomorrow and earn our gym badges."

"Sounds like we should visit the gym then," suggested Roy. When Antonia looked confused he explained further, "I mean, not to challenge the gym leader, but maybe she'll have some matches for show, like Brock had in that park. We can take it easy with our pokémon and just sit back and watch, maybe grab something to eat on our way there and then have dinner back at the pokémon center."

"That's not actually a bad idea."

"Thanks!"

Antonia smiled and Roy returned it tenfold. The two of them agreed not to discuss gym leaders or pokémon battles for the rest of their wait for their pokémon and instead talked about school, the other kids in their class, and, above all, home. Antonia talked a little bit about how she missed her parents, especially their Sunday meals together, but mostly she just listened and asked Roy a few questions. He was happy to oblige her, and freely talked about the adventures he had gotten up to around Pallet Town with his circle of friends. His smile faltered the first few times that he mentioned Jesse's name, but soon Roy was so caught up in the stories he was telling that any ill feelings towards his brother were soon subsumed in the happiness of his memories.

Antonia was listening raptly to another tale of Roy and Jesse, this one about a prank that had gotten out of hand, when a nurse interrupted them with a soft cough.

"Excuse me, but your pokémon are ready to be picked up," she said with an apologetic smile. "Shall we have them waiting for you at the front desk?"

"Yes, that will be fine!" said Antonia quickly, more to her feet than to the nurse. Then, she smoothed out an imaginary wrinkle in her outfit until the nurse had gone back to her station before standing up and saying to Roy, "Okay, let's get going."

After picking up their poké balls and receiving some directions from one of the other pokémon trainers at the center, Roy and Antonia set off for the Cerulean City Pokémon Gym. It was not difficult to find.

The city had grown from a trading post and a few settlements for travelers between Saffron City and Pewter City to a city known far and wide for the handiwork of its people and its clean living. While not boasting the same traffic in tourists as Vermillion City on the coast, the scenic greens and blues, including the river running through the heart of the city, attracted plenty of people to visit or live in Cerulean City. In keeping with its mercantile heritage, the centerpiece of the city was a bustling market square. It was there that the pokémon gym was located and there that Roy and Antonia had been directed to travel.

The two young trainers were almost immediately overwhelmed by the sights, sounds, and smells which greeted them when they entered the open area which played host to all manner of stalls and shops. The gym was visible across the square, but it was impossible for Roy and Antonia to take a direct route to their destination. Instead, they simply had to satisfy their curiosities and each led and was led by the other to a smattering of vendors.

Their first interest was in the food, naturally enough, and Roy and Antonia marveled at the fresh fish at one stall and then at the desserts at another. After perusing all of their options, Roy and Antonia almost begrudgingly settled on just a few items which they could eat while walking around. Once their hunger had abated, the two of them turned next to some of the stalls selling more aesthetic fare such as paintings and postcards, or jewelry and clothing. At Roy's insistence, Antonia modeled a few necklaces until she found one that she really liked, a small golden staryu with an insert of red glass on a chain. It was simple but she thought it was beautiful. Unfortunately, it looked to be well out of reach of Roy and Antonia's budgets.

"Oh well," said Roy apologetically. "It's a pretty dumb thing to be spending money on anyway, huh?"

"Yeah," Antonia agreed without looking away from the glittering jewelry laid out on display.

Roy clapped her on the shoulder and said, "Hey, how about we check out the gym?"

"Yeah," said Antonia again, and she and Roy walked over to the large domed building that served as the headquarters for Cerulean City's gym leader. Unlike the one in Pewter City, this pokémon gym did not have an outdoor arena, but as Roy and Antonia walked inside, it soon became apparent that there was no need for one. That was because the main floor of this pokémon gym was a giant pool, with the water cordoned off by ropes floating on the rich blue surface. People and pokémon were everywhere that Roy and Antonia looked, splashing in the water, swimming laps, and even battling, with the trainers standing on floating platforms while their pokémon duked it out between them in the pool.

The activity rivaled that of the market outside, and both Roy and Antonia stood just inside the entrance, unsure of what to do. Before too long, they were noticed, however, and an older girl who looked to be about the same age as their guide over Mt. Moon, Sarah, approached them.

The girl had the same type of body as Sarah, lean with muscle, and the same friendly smile to welcome the younger trainers to this unfamiliar setting. Unlike Sarah's longer black hair, however, this girl's face was framed by a shock of shorter red hair tied back in a quick and easy ponytail. "You two look a little lost," she said to Roy and Antonia.

"Well, uh, this is the pokémon gym, isn't it?" asked Roy.

"Sure is! So, you're not lost then. Why'd you come here?"

Antonia answered this time, saying, "We're here to challenge the gym leader."

"But not right away!" interjected Roy, before Antonia continued, "We wanted to learn more about the gym leader, possibly observe some battles even."

The older girl scratched the back of her neck absentmindedly. "Doing your research first, I can respect that! Unfortunately, the gym leader's not scheduled for any more challenges today. You're welcome to hang around the gym and meet some of the pokémon though. Who knows, you two might even learn something. Do either of you two have any water pokémon?"

"Um, no," said Antonia. Somehow while talking to the other girl, she and Roy had been led deeper into the gym, to the edge of the pool. The girl whistled sharply and then started to kick off her sandals. As sat down and lowered her feet into the water, a gaggle of pokémon swam towards her, including a yellow-feathered psyduck, a horned goldeen, and a dopey-eyed magikarp which was more carried along by the other pokémon than swimming forward under its own power.

"I love water pokémon," the girl was explaining, "they have more variety than any other kind of pokémon, so you can see them on land, in rivers or lakes, or out at sea. To master them, you need to be quick on your feet and willing to do the work to meet them where they are at."

"Master them? Does that mean you're the gym leader?" Antonia asked.

The girl laughed and pulled her hand away from stroking the magikarp's back to offer it to Roy and Antonia. "That's right, I'm Misty, it's nice to meet you both."

Antonia took it and introduced herself before Roy did the same. Then, Misty asked, "So, are both of you planning on challenging me? I've got some openings tomorrow, I could schedule you two back-to-back in the morning, if you'd like."

"Yeah, uh, that would be great," said Roy. Belatedly, he looked to Antonia and asked, "Is tomorrow okay with you, Toni?"

"I suppose that will work. We did some good training today, after all."

Misty clapped her hands together once. "Great! It's all set then! Well, take as much time as you need to walk around and meet some of the other trainers and pokémon here. You should have your pokémon walk around and get comfortable too." She gestured over to the section of the pool where two trainers were battling. "That's more or less what our matches are going to look like tomorrow."

Antonia nodded in understanding, but Roy got a look of uncommon worry on his face. "Yeah, but, ah, I have a charmander. How's that going to work out for him?"

"That's something you two are going to have figure out by tomorrow."

Now Antonia looked at Roy while he looked down at Charmander's poké ball in his hand, his lips moving around voiceless words.