Thanks for the reviews last chapter! Special shout out to my anonymous reviewers, who I can't reply to personally like I do everyone else. You guys should all get accounts so I can respond to your comments!

Also, let me know if you see anything weird with the formatting (Or any mistakes on my part). The upload randomly broke up a line last time!

Chapter 8: A Rocky Road

May and Brendan were crossing a long, wooden bridge over a vast lake (Brendan had told her its name, but it had already slipped her mind) when she first caught a glimpse of Rustboro City's skyscrapers above the treetops.

Even though May was still slightly wary about large cities, the signs of civilization were welcome ones. They had spent over a week traversing Petalburg Woods, and she couldn't wait for a nice hot shower and a warm bed. Better food would be fantastic, too.

Although her ferry to Hoenn had docked in Rustboro's harbor, she hadn't managed to get a decent look at the city the first time around. It had been dark, and she was still all doom and gloom about her move back then. When she finally reached Rustboro for the second time, it was like nothing she had ever seen.

Everything from the tallest apartment building to the city's walkways was designed out of smooth stone. The rocks were carved beautifully in varying shades of gray, some far more ornate than others. The elegant simplicity gave an old-town feel, which was an odd combination with the otherwise modern metropolis. In the northwestern corner of the city, May could make out one glorious building that towered over all the others

"That's the headquarters for the Devon Corporation," Brendan explained, following her wide-eyed gaze. "I think the gym's pretty close to it, actually."

"Oh yeah, the gym," May said in a small voice.

Brendan nodded, only halfway paying attention to her. He squinted at a board near the city's entrance, and it seemed to be detailing where all the important areas were located. He sought out one of the pokemon centers (Yes, there were actually multiples in such a large place! Who Knew?) with his pointer finger. Luckily, he made sense of the map, for he adjusted his backpack straps on his shoulders and started off determinedly in a particular direction.

May followed, her mind on her approaching battle.

When she had first left her house, the fact that she was going to face gym leaders to earn her right to challenge the League had thrilled her. She couldn't wait to get started and finally prove her worth. However, now that her dream was actually within reach, reality was suddenly crashing down on her. May knew she wasn't a bad trainer, but gym leaders weren't like the greenhorn trainers she had battled on the road; they were good.

"Um," May began, biting her lip nervously. "She uses rock types, you say?"

Brendan glanced at her weirdly. "Yeah, I told you that like three times. I thought you'd been practicing for it?"

May had, or so she had thought up until this moment. She had been trying to teach Soren bullet seed so that he wouldn't have to rely on contact moves so much, and they had had varying degrees of success. He was decent at it for having learnt it so recently, but it wasn't yet as powerful as it could be.

And Demi, she was even less prepared! May had laid low on her training for a few days to allow for recovery from her poisoning, and she had less practice than Soren in the first place!

Oh, she felt so unprepared!

"Yeah, but do you remember what pokemon she uses?" May asked.

Crap, what if it was an onix? She really hoped it wasn't an onix. It would squash her tiny pokemon.

"It's been a long time." Brendan frowned, the way he always did when May broached the topic of his past career as a trainer. "And I'm sure she's switched up her team since then. She was pretty new when I battled her."

"But how strong was she?" she urged. They had reached the pokemon center sometime during May's internal crisis. It was far larger and grander than the one she had stayed in in Oldale, yet she barely noticed as they passed through the sliding doors.

"Well, beating her won't be easy, but-"

"Ugh," May wailed. "I haven't trained enough! I'm gonna lose and be a failure! I-"

"Calm down," Brendan snapped. "You're fine."

He stepped up to the counter and handed his trainer card over for the nurse to scan, muttering something about needing a room for two. The lady watched them cautiously from her computer screen as she checked them in. After a few seconds, she handed him a room key.

"Have a nice evening," the nurse said meekly.

"Wait, can you take my pokemon for a checkup?" May asked, holding her two pokeballs across the counter. The nurse nodded, taking them and saying they would be ready for pickup in an hour or so before ushering them away.

Brendan led her through the large lobby and past several trainers. Unlike those in the Oldale Center, these people came in all varieties. Obviously, there were travelers from all sorts of places in Rustboro, but Brendan seemed much less intrigued than May was. He passed right by them and traveled down a hall to their room.

They opened their door to find a modest, yet relatively nice room with two small twin beds and a connecting bathroom. May set her bag on one of the beds absentmindedly.

"But I don't know if I'm fine," May admitted, finally responding to Brendan's earlier comment.

Brendan sighed. "Look, you've trained every single day. You're already better than a lot of trainers."

May shuffled unsurely. She knew she must look pretty pitiful if Brendan was giving her a pep talk, but her worry about the gym somehow overcame her desire to look strong.

"But am I as good as Roxanne?" she asked, running a finger over the stitching on her comforter with a troubled expression.

"Only one way to find out," Brendan said honestly, shrugging. Seeing that his comment did nothing to improve matters, he pulled his hat down further over his head in exasperation. "It might help if you go watch one of her battles. They're open to citizens, and it might make you feel better if you know how she fights."

May brightened, feeling considerably better already. She tugged on Brendan's sleeve. "Great, let's go! Um, you are taking me, right?"

"Do I have a choice?" he grumbled grouchily. May pretended not to hear him, and he followed her back outside nonetheless.

After checking the map in the pokemon center, they started towards Rustboro's northern half, where the gym was located. May felt strangely naked without her pokemon, never having left them behind anywhere since starting her journey. She knew nothing was going to attack her in the midst of the city, yet she still missed them.

After they entered the main street, they were immediately surrounded by people that pushed by them briskly, as if they were in the way. Brendan seemed annoyed, although May was mostly shocked at the behavior. In the little towns she was familiar with, everything was much more slow-paced and genuine.

Frustrated with most of the surrounding crowd, May tried to focus on the city itself. They passed several shops with interesting looking objects in their windows. If not for the dominating priority of preparing for her gym battle, Brendan probably would have had to drag May away from all of the displays.

Before she knew it, they had reached an imposing, sleek building. Like the rest of the city, it was carved primarily out of gray stone, yet it stood out in that it had beautiful orange colored gemstones woven in the roof and around its sharpest edges. Just above the door, the symbol of the Hoenn League was drawn, labeling it as an official pokemon gym.

"Oh Suicune," was May's initial reaction. Secondly, she thought, "Maybe Dad should take some decorating lessons from Roxanne."

"These are automatic doors, so don't worry about knocking," Brendan said, carrying her out of her thoughts. At first, she was irritated at the jab, but one look showed that the smirk on his lips was more playful than mean.

"Ha, ha," May replied, unable to think of a superior comeback. She sounded much more confident than she really felt, but Brendan didn't say anything, instead stepping through to the gym.

Impressive statues of rock pokemon and fossil displays lined the walls, and surprisingly, the entrance branched off down several different hallways. A receptionist sat behind a desk in the center of the room, surrounded by traveler' manuals and lots of important looking paperwork.

May looked around, absolutely lost, but Brendan nudged her down the front hall. They neared an impressive set of double doors, although they didn't go through them. Instead, he veered them off towards a smaller side entrance that led to a set of bleachers.

An immense, rocky battlefield encompassed the majority of the room. Bright lights illuminated the ceiling as well, revealing a beautiful depiction of ancient rock types in mid battle. Their figures were carved straight into the stone that made up the building.

May trailed after Brendan to take a seat on the cold, hard metal bench, her attention held by the female figure standing on the far side of the gym. She appeared to be wearing a school uniform, of all things, and her long chocolate hair was tied out of her face with twin ribbons. The girl was only a few years older than her, twenty at the most, and she held herself with a calm confidence that made her seem much older than she really was. Without asking, May had no doubt it was Roxanne.

A woman with excited young children meandered in to join May and Brendan on the mostly empty bleachers before the challenger finally arrived. May bit her lip nervously, watching as the young boy exchanged words with the gym leader. Roxanne ushered over someone, and a battle judge appeared to explain the rules to the boy.

May leaned forward, straining desperately to hear, but they were too far away. She scrunched up her eyebrows in frustration.

"Careful, don't hurt yourself," Brendan commented, quirking his lips. She shot him a halfhearted glare, and he smirked. "All he's saying is that you use two pokemon, first to defeat both the other's pokemon wins, blah blah blah."

"I know that," May said. She did, sort of. From the little Brendan had discussed about Roxanne, she had assumed it, and she hoped he would've mentioned if she didn't have enough pokemon to battle her.

"Mmhm," he said, in an irritating manner. She pursed her lips, ready to argue with him, but he nodded towards the battlefield. "Look, it's already started."

A sturdy geodude sat in front of Roxanne. It looked strong, but May couldn't help but be relieved that it wasn't the onix she had been petrified of having to beat. Across from her, the boy had released a shrimpy looking zigzagoon, of all things.

"Oh boy," Brendan muttered. He frowned down at the battlefield as the pokemon began moving around one another.

"Maybe it knows iron tail, or something?" May suggested optimistically. Geodude punched Zigzagoon in the face, sending it flying into the far wall. She winced.

To Zigzagoon's credit, it struggled back upright before running fiercely back towards Geodude. The rock type never budged, allowing Zigzagoon to run straight into it. The striped pokemon collided with him head on, and it briefly went still before letting out a cry of pain and kneeling over in a faint.

"So I guess it didn't know iron tail," May said, watching Geodude flex with uneasy eyes. "Maybe he's counting on his second pokemon! Yeah, that has to be it!"

The little boy on the battlefield called out his next pokemon, scowling. A nincada appeared, looking very squish-able next to the heavy geodude.

"Oh boy," May echoed Brendan's early sentiment. She almost felt worried for the nasty bug type- imagine that!

Geodude didn't go straight in for the kill this time. Instead, it began ripping massive rocks out of the ground and hurling them at its opponent. May put her hands over her eyes, occasionally peeping out through a tiny crack in between her fingers.

Amazingly, the nincada crawled out from behind a particularly large boulder, shuddering but unharmed. May let out a tense breath of air. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Brendan watching her bemusedly.

Nincada used a move similar to Soren's absorb attack (leech life, maybe), and Geodude let out a mere grunt of irritation before pumping his fists and curling into a ball. It rolled forwards, flattening Nincada completely.

"Both of the challenger's pokemon are unable to battle. Roxanne wins!" the battle judge announced, his microphone ringing loudly throughout the gym. The little kids on the bleachers next to them cheered excitedly for Roxanne.

"Waaah!" the challenger screamed, tears rolling down his face. He recalled his fallen pokemon and ran sobbing from the gym.

Brendan groaned, slapping his hands over his eyes.

"I'm doomed," May announced. Her face paled dramatically. "I might as well turn around and go back home now. Maybe if I'm lucky Dad will let me check in trainers to his gym or something, because no way do I want to-"

"Okay, so maybe that wasn't the best example," Brendan cut across her quickly, standing up. He had a grumpy look on his face. "Roxanne's good, but she's beatable!"

"She creamed him!" May cried, waving her hands in the air as they walked out the door.

He sighed. "So? I know you're better than that guy."

She took a deep, calming breath. Brendan was right. That boy wasn't her, and she'd waited way too long for this to give up without even trying.

"Okay. I'll sign up to battle her tomorrow. Might as well get it over with."

May stood outside the gym at ten the next morning. Her clothes were freshly cleaned, and she had groomed her hair to lie perfectly straight atop her shoulders.

She stared down at Soren and Demi, her sapphire eyes determined but tinged with a touch of badly concealed nervousness.

"Alright guys. This is it," she said, trying to keep her voice from wavering. "This is gonna be hard, but we can do it!"

"Zur, ril!" Demi squealed, bopping her tail enthusiastically.

Soren cocked his head at her questioningly, staring at her with his cold golden eyes. May shifted uneasily under his gaze, hoping he couldn't sense how nervous she really was. After a moment, he blinked and nodded his head with a cool resolution.

May managed a smile before returning them back to their balls. She wished they could walk in alongside her, but she could just imagine the harping voice of her dad (And probably Brendan, as well) if she let Roxanne see her pokemon before battling her.

"You're gonna be late," Brendan piped up from behind her.

The boy had been in a peculiarly bad mood ever since visiting the gym the day before, so she was a bit surprised that he had even come to watch her battle at all. May had a sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with bringing up old memories, but she was smart enough to keep from mentioning it. For the time being, at least.

"Let's go in, then," May said, too uneasy for any smart-alecky remark.

She walked inside, intending to head for the service desk to say she was here for her battle appointment, but the lady manning it stood up and marched over to her before she could.

"Are you May?" she said sharply.

"Um, yes," May said, glancing around uncomfortably.

"Well go on then, everyone's waiting for you!" the woman barked, grabbing her shoulders forcefully and steering her off down a side hall instead of towards the battlefield. May turned around, peering back desperately at Brendan, but he remained in the lobby. He waved a cheeky farewell to her before making his way to the actual battlefield.

"W-what are we-"

The lady shoved her into a classroom, of all things. Two other people sat in the desks. One was a girl approximately May's age, and she was ringing her hands, looking like she could burst out crying at any second. The other was a slightly younger guy. He was twirling a pencil between his fingers, and his demeanor was bordering on cocky.

A stern man standing at the front of the classroom turned to glare at her. "Thank you for gracing us with your presence, at last. Sit down, will you?"

Hesitantly, May perched on the edge of one of the seats.

"As you may or may not be aware," the man began pompously, looking over his nose at the upset girl. "Roxanne requires her challengers to pass a written exam before accepting their challenge. The highest grade gets to go first."

"Thanks for the warning, Brendan," May thought darkly. No wonder he had seemed so amused.

May took a deep breath as the man handed out test booklets and pencils to those who needed them. She didn't really appreciate the throwback to trainer's school, but she felt relatively confident. She had been a good student for the most part, and she had done her fair share of reading up on Hoenn pokemon since she started her journey. Plus, Norman had been drilling pokemon knowledge into her head since the moment she was born. As long as the test wasn't ridiculously hard, she thought she could pass.

Bracing herself, she read over the first question.

Which of the following is known as the Whisper Pokemon?

May tapped her pencil against her cheek in thought. It wasn't shroomish or geodude; those didn't make any sense. The remaining two options were whismur and surskit, neither of which she could really remember much about. After a moment of contemplation, she filled in the bubble for whismur, going with the logic that its name sort of sounded like whisper if she stretched it far enough.

Which option best describes vigoroth's temperament?

May almost laughed. That was an easy one.

She continued on, only occasionally coming across questions she had no clue on. Others were common knowledge, such as which type was the most effective against electric.

Which habitat can sableye NOT be found in?

"What's a sableye again?" May pondered, frowning. "Oh well, I haven't used C in a while."

May was the second to turn her paper in, standing up minutes after the cocky boy. They had to wait for a while on the other girl, who kept biting her nails nervously and shaking her head. Finally, she handed her exam to the instructor with a gloomy expression.

The man left to run the papers through the grading machine, leaving the three teens to their own devices. "Oh, Kyogre, I failed! Roxanne will be so disappointed in me!" the other girl wailed, pulling at her blond hair.

No one responded to her. May was far too anxious about her own test, which she thought she did alright on but couldn't help but stress over anyway. The boy simply rolled his eyes at her in disgust and turned away.

Thankfully, they didn't have to wait for very long. The man walked back in, shuffling the papers ominously. Clearly enjoying their looks of fear, he slowly walked by them, handing them back their tests with vague mumblings under his breath.

May squinted her eyes at first, scared to see her grade. Bracing herself, she opened them and took in the number written on the paper. "91" was marked in bold red ink at the top of her test.

"Yes!" she couldn't help but exclaim. The others' heads snapped to her at once, causing her cheeks to tint pink.

"What did you get?" the boy asked, peering over her shoulder with nosy eyes. Sulkily, he spat, "Dang it! I got an 85."

"I knew I failed," the blond girl cried.

"Alright, Red. Looks like you're first," the instructor said, waving his finger at her bandana. May bit her lip.

She was minutes away from battling Roxanne.

May gulped, taking her place on the battlefield. It looked a lot bigger than it had from the sidelines the day before. Instinctively, she glanced around for Brendan, and she soon spotted him sitting alone in the bleachers.

"Hello," a voice said. May jumped slightly, startled. Roxanne was standing across the battlefield, watching her with large cocoa colored eyes. Up close, she looked so much sterner, as if she were an old, wise woman trapped in a young body.

"I'm Roxanne, the leader of Rustboro Gym," she continued, inclining her head ever so slightly.

"I'm your challenger," May blurted awkwardly. "Um, I'm May M- just May.

At the last second, she decided to keep her last name to herself. Roxanne would surely recognize it, and Norman had plainly told her not to go around telling people that she was his daughter.

Whatever his real reasoning was, she decided to listen to him.

Roxanne stared at her curiously. "You look familiar. Have we met before?"

"No, no definitely not!" May said quickly, avoiding the older girl's gaze.

People had always told her that she favored her mother more, although she did have her dad's face shape. May was sure she wasn't picking up on it that easily, though. Either Roxanne was confusing her with someone else, or she had seen a photograph of her sometime from Norman.

"Hmm. Okay then," Roxanne said. Her voice wasn't unfriendly, but she didn't smile. "Shall we begin?"

May managed a nod. She grabbed a pokeball in her hands, and then she realized it was Soren's instead of Demi's, who she had intended to use first. Quickly, she switched them out.

"Both the challenger and the gym leader may use two pokemon each, and whoever defeats both of her opponent's pokemon first will be the victor. Only the challenger is allowed substitutions," a judge called from the sidelines, his tone professional.

"Geodude, come on," Roxanne called calmly, releasing the same geodude from the day before. He grunted and pounded his rocky fists into the ground beneath him.

May shut her eyes momentarily, fingers brushing the emerald charm bracelet Norman had given her. Oh, how she hoped it really did bring her some good luck.

"Let's go, Demi!" she said, tossing Demi's pokeball out in front of her. The room was illuminated in white light, which dimmed to reveal the bouncing azurill. She was smiling as usual, completely oblivious to the tense atmosphere.

"Not a bad choice," Roxanne complimented. "Alright Geodude, get things started with a rollout!"

Geodude locked itself into a ball and shot forwards, rolling like a bowling ball towards Demi. Rocks and dirt clouded the air as he moved.

"Demi, bounce over him!" May cried, too late. Luckily, Demi had already gathered the sense to dodge. She swung her tail like a lasso, and the greater weight of the blue ball sent her smaller body flying just out of harm's way.

Unfortunately, she misjudged the maneuverability of the battlefield. She had landed herself in front of some large boulders, leaving little space for her to move when Geodude sprung back up to glare at her.

"Again," Roxanne ordered.

"Use bubble!" May cried quickly.

Demi watched the approaching Geodude with a worried expression, yet she spat a river of bubbles at him nonetheless. True to her training, her aim was spot on and the bubbles popped forcefully against Geodude's hide.

"Dude," the rock type grunted, uncurling from his ball.

Much to May's distress, he seemed relatively unharmed by Demi's attack. Instead of continuing his rollout assault, he threw himself forward with his arms and crashed into Demi. The tiny azurill went flying, trapped between the rocks behind her and Geodude's weighty body.

"Demi!" May cried, fear evident in both her expression and her voice. "Use bubble in his face! Get him off!"

Demi wiggled uselessly, looking from her trainer to her winning opponent with scared black eyes. Desperately, she blew bubbles at Geodude, but it was a much smaller stream and they splattered against him weakly.

"Finish up with another tackle," Roxanne said.

Geodude threw himself into the air with his strong arms, elbows poised to come down on the barely conscious Demi. The move would finish her off if it hit, no question.

"Use charm!" May said randomly. She was grasping at straws at this point; anything to save Demi.

Demi's ears wiggled, signifying that she had heard her trainer's orders. She tried valiantly to smooth the lines of her face and make her eyes as large as possible, but the effect couldn't be pulled off with the undercurrent of doubt in her expression.

Geodude simply shook his head once before crashing down onto Demi, officially knocking her out cold.

Glumly, May recalled the azurill. Geodude was strong. So was Soren, but she had no idea what Roxanne's next pokemon would be. She fingered her treecko's pokeball, praying that he could pull it off, yet she knew he wouldn't have a chance unless she managed to pull herself together first.

"Focus, May," she told herself as she threw her last pokeball. She had to do this this, both for herself and for her pokemon.

Soren appeared, his face a cool mask of confidence compared to Demi's previous uncertainty. He crossed his thin green arms, watching Geodude with a challenging stare.

"You can do this, Soren," May said, as much for her own sake as his. He glanced back at her and nodded in understanding.

"Use rollout again, Geodude," Roxanne commanded, unaffected by Soren's display.

For the third time, Geodude wrapped his arms around his body and came barreling forwards, yet he was facing a more agile opponent this time around. Soren easily leapt away from him, landing on all fours and preparing to spring again if necessary.

It was all for naught, however; Geodude was unable to change direction so soon after getting going.

"Bullet seed," May said quickly.

Just before Geodude became aware he had missed his target, Soren spat a barrage of glowing yellow seeds at Geodude's retreating back. A few of them collided with the ground with loud 'pops', yet most hit their target.

"Dude!" Geodude cried, for the attack caused him to run off course and crash into a boulder.

For a second, May allowed herself to hope he had been knocked out, but it was all wishful thinking. Geodude jumped back up, glaring.

"Well," Roxanne said, raising her eyebrows. "It seems the real battle has begun. Geodude, show them your rock throw."

Grinning darkly, Geodude used his strong arms to rip the nearby rocks out of the ground. With surprising speed, he began flinging them in Soren's direction, and rocks of all sizes were soon coming down on the grass type like rain.

"Dodge it with your quick attack!" May screamed, her heart leaping into her mouth.

Few other pokemon would've been able to move with the finesse Soren showed next. He darted around on the ground to escape most of the rocks, but in one precarious moment, one boulder hovered over him, inescapable from all sides. Thinking fast, Soren quickly jumped to scamper up the rock before it crushed him, leaving him to twist around the last few in mid leap.

Soren was free falling in the air directly above Geodude when the rock type grew a satisfied expression on his face. He held one last, medium-sized rock in his grip and flung it with all his might at the smaller pokemon, apparently convinced he wouldn't be able to avoid that one.

May clenched her fist. "Use your pound to break that rock!"

Soren had been practicing his pound by breaking rocks for weeks. Skillfully, he managed to spin around in the air so that he was tail first, allowing him to ram into the opposing rock with optimum speed. He winced when it made contact, and for a scary moment May thought the battle was over, yet the pain paid off. The rock cracked into dozens of pieces that fell back down onto Geodude, who tried in vain to shield himself with his arms.

He lifted his hands off of his face when the rocks ceased, only to be faced with a determined treecko. Soren continued with his pound attack, strengthened by the force of his fall, and smacked Geodude directly in the forehead with his powerful tail.

Geodude's mouth dropped open in agony, and his body shuddered before falling over loudly. Soren had beaten him.

"Yes! Go, Soren!" May exclaimed, beaming.

She wanted to just squeeze him and jump up and down, but her smile died drastically when she caught sight of his state. He was panting heavily, and his limbs were trembling slightly. Running circles around Geodude had exhausted him.

"Are you okay?" she asked, her face etched with concern. She wanted to win, but not if it was going to seriously damage him in the process.

"Tree," he said obstinately, nodding his head with gritted teeth.

Roxanne returned her fallen pokemon with a strangely appraising expression. "Interesting," she said. "But this second part is the real test."

May didn't really know how things could get much testier than what she had just faced, but Roxanne was already tossing out her second pokeball. A strange, bipedal stone pokemon appeared. It was approximately three feet high, and a red triangular nose took up the majority of its face.

She knew at once that it was something she had never seen before, not in real life at least. Its pokedex entry lingered stubbornly at the back of her mind; all she could remember was something about a magnet.

"Nosepass," it hummed, its voice deep and gravely. It was a male, probably.

"Use block," Roxanne commanded.

Nosepass barely moved, though when he tapped his heavy leg against the ground a quiver went across the gym. Tall rocks sprung up all throughout the battlefield, limiting both the space for Soren to dodge and even May's ability to see what was going on. She had to strain on her tiptoes just to see her pokemon.

"Use absorb!" May tried, hoping that Soren might be able to regain some of his lost energy by stealing it from his opponent.

His body lit up with the tell tale white shimmer, and fragments of life began to drift from him to Nosepass.

"Stop that with your rock tomb!" Roxanne said, pointing her finger towards Soren. She actually seemed to be getting really into the battle at this point.

Huge, angular rocks erupted out of the ground, forcing Soren to stop his attack. Had he reacted a split second later, he would've been completely encased in the jutting rock cage.

"Tree," he sighed tiredly, although he didn't look ready to stop anytime soon. Even if he had wanted to, he couldn't have, for Nosepass soon followed up with another rock tomb on his other side. At the last second, he managed to roll out of the way, but May could see the strain on his face when he stood back up.

"Bullet seed!"

Soren spat a second line of seeds, although they dissolved weakly in the air before even touching Nosepass. He shook his head frantically and tried again, yet nothing came out of his mouth at all this time.

It was all May's fault. She hadn't taken enough time with him to practice the move, and now he wasn't able to use it with low energy.

The shadow of a smirk appeared on Roxanne's lips. "Use thunder wave."

May's mouth dropped open. Did she just say thunder wave? Since when did rock types learn electric moves?

But sure enough, electricity began crackling around Nosepass's nose. It condensed into a stream of yellow light just as Soren finally managed a feeble bullet seed attack. Unfortunately, the electricity easily pushed the seeds aside and traveled down Soren's body. His muscles jerked, unharmed but still thrown off by attack.

"End things with rock tomb, Nosepass," Roxanne said calmly.

"No! Use your quick attack to dodge again!" May cried.

The ground beneath Soren began to quake as rocks shifted around him, and he attempted to jump away as he always did. However, his legs seized up at the movement, still damaged from the thunder wave attack, and he fell to his knees. May could do nothing but watch hopelessly as his tiny form was completely covered by the rock tomb attack.

"Soren!" May yelled despairingly at the unmoving rocks.

Roxanne inclined her head at Nosepass, and the rocks shrunk back into the ground abruptly. Soren lay in their wake, his body frail and unmoving. The attack had taken him out, and the battle was over.

"We lost," was all May could think.

"Both of the challenger's pokemon are unable to battle. Roxanne wins!" the judge announced.

Shakily, May returned Soren to his pokeball, and a lump formed in her throat. She held back the tears forcefully; she was not going to cry. She hated crying.

"I'm impressed," Roxanne said, although May could hardly pay attention. "Most people don't get that far."

But did it really matter how far she had gotten in the battle? A failure was still a failure in the end.

"And I failed."

AN: SHE LOST? With two type advantages? Yep, because May is still learning, but at least she aced the test I guess. Anyway, battles have never been my strong point, but I've been trying really hard on the ones in this story. If you have any tips, send them my way!

I really wanted to write a scene in the Pretty Petal Flower Shop, but I couldn't seem to wedge it in. Sad day.

Who's your favorite gym leader and why? (I don't really have a favorite, but I've been having a ton of fun writing Brawly for this story, if that counts)