"Here you go! Take care of Panpour, please!" I thanked the kind lady for giving me the Pokémon. I left the Dreamyard with my new friend to train. I took to Route 2 to train.

"Panpour, Snivy, come on out!" My Pokémon emerged from their resting places. The semi-serpent attempted to slither around and was quiet successful for a few seconds.

The monkey swung up from its bright light of emersion and into a nearby tree. She swung by her tail, back and forth, on a low branch. Snivy walked up to the swinging Panpour. She tried to stop Panpour from swinging by jumping up and hanging by Panpour's hands.

Though, in the act, Snivy ended up swinging like an older style of metronome with Panpour. I laughed at the sight. "Come on girls, we can play after we beat our first gym!"

Snivy flipped down from her new friend's hands and cheered. Panpour, on the other hand, swung back into the tree and leaned back on the trunk.

"Come on down Panpour! You can relax after we beat the gym leader!" I shout. Panpour seemed to be in deep thought. She shook her head back and forth for a while. I laughed at the sight. Pokémon were fascinating.

Finally, she decided to come down to train. "Oh, Touko, your Pokémon are hilarious!" I swung around to see Touya come around. "Hey cousin I am obligated to call bro." I say cheerily.

Touya laughed. "So, are you going to challenge the Striaton City Gym?" I nodded. "Well, good luck. Who knows who you will face." It wasn't a question.

I cocked an eye at him. "What does that mean?" Touya shrugged. "It's just that there is more than one gym leader." "Like Liza and Tate?" They were the only leaders where I could think that there was two of.

Touya shook his head. "Not exactly. There are three leaders, but you only have to face one of them depending on your starter Pokémon."

Huh, I guess that's just another surprise that Unova offers. I comment to myself. "Which leader did you face?" I was curious. Who knows what kind of battle that was considering what a great Trainer Touya is.

Touya smirked. "I'm not telling you." I stomped my foot on the ground like a little kid and whined. "Come on Touya! Just a hint, please!" I batted my eyes to get him to speak, not that it would work. I guess it was worth a try.

Luckily, that's all that I needed. "Fine, you get one hint." Touya looked down at Panpour. "She'll have to be well trained if she wants to extinguish the flames that could burn Snivy." Touya spoke in riddle, but I wasn't confused one bit.

It was obvious that the leaders battle a Trainer depending on their starter Pokémon. You would face the leader in which the advantage would go to the leader. The purpose behind this was to teach a new (or seemingly new) Trainer on Pokémon advantages and disadvantages.

I have to admit that this was a very smart idea.

"Touya, I have one more question." Touya was beginning to leave but stopped as I asked my question. "And it is?" "What is your starter Pokémon?" I couldn't help but ask. It was killing me to know what he decided to choose from the start.

The same day I chose Chikorita.

Touya crossed his arms. "Tell me your secret Pokémon first." Thanks, Cheren. "How about a hint instead?" I offer. "As long as you don't tell me it's a flying type in another language." Touya says with a smirk.

Thanks again, Cheren.

"Fine, it's not just a flying type. It's also another type, but one could never really tell." I could never tell him more than that. He'd find out instantly, but he would never tell Cheren.

"You are so sneaky, Touko. Better change your behavior or people might begin to find out who you are." Instead of the smirk I expected, Touya smiled. "Now I have some advice for you."

I nodded for an okay. "Watch out when you see that N character. Something is not right about him." I looked at him bewildered. "What do you have against N?" I shot back. "You only tell me to look out for someone when you have something against that person."

"That's my point! He is not right! I ran into him a few days ago and just by our conversation, I could tell he's more than a strong supporter of 'Pokémon liberation'!" He yelled. "What do you mean when you say he's 'more than a strong supporter'?" I keep my voice calm to avoid a fight. A fight that could end up being one more than verbal or even just Pokémon. "Touko, I think he's one of their leaders. They way he speaks about the 'liberation' is like he doesn't care about the bond of human and Pokémon. He's just like the rest of Team Plasma."

My eyebrows furrow and my eyes set fire. "What do you mean! He's not one of them! N is just a new Trainer who doesn't understand anything yet. Sure, he's probably around my age and should already know the bond, but how does that make N a member of Team Plasma!"

This is typical Touya. He is always making false judgments on people that he doesn't know. It's like when I introduced Lance to him. Once Lance left Touya told me to watch out for him. That fight only ended in us exchanging black eyes and some new bruises.

"I mean that N is one of them! How much clearer can I put it?" The anger in Touya's voice was erupting in small bursts. I approached Touya with my fists clenched. "You are wrong. He is just a confused Trainer and I will break him of that. No matter what it takes." I turned around and headed back for Straiton City.

"You know, this won't be the first time you haven't listened to me about something that'll hurt you later!" Touya yelled at me.

I whipped around. "WHAT DO YOU HAVE AGAINST LANCE! WHY DIDN'T YOU WARN ME ABOUT SILVER INSTEAD! HE'S THE ONE WHO HURT ME! He is the reason why I almost ran away from home!" I stormed back to Touya. "If you want to warn me about people, get the people right!" I swear if he doesn't tell me what his problem is, we're both going to the hospital.

Before I could leave, Touya grabbed my arm. "I was right. Silver loves you. He has been trying to find you since you tried to run away. That call you got when Silver 'broke-up' with you was Lance."

A/N: I am soooo sorry that it took me so long to update. I have been crazy busy. I'm going to try to update Friday. Sorry for the short chapter too!

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.