Rex walked into the Saffron City Gym for the fourth time on four days and waited. After his first challenge he discovered somehow Sabrina knew when he would arrive. Well she is a Psychic right?

Sabrina appeared seemingly out of nowhere with her ever present Haunter. "Are you sure about this, boy? If you continue to come here just to let your Pokémon get beat up I might have to report you to the League." She said to him rather stoically (she really only showed emotion during battles).

"I'm not gonna lose to you." Rex growled through his teeth.

"Don't be so cocky. You still have much to learn before you can outwit me. If you are serious come with me."

Rex followed Sabrina to the same indoor field as the last three times and stopped in the challenger's box. Sabrina sauntered to her Place and faced him.

The referee repeated the same rules, "This will be a one on one Pokémon battle. No substitutions. The Leader will use Alakazam. The challenger may use any Pokémon. The winner will be decided when one side can no longer continue."

Rex thought she was so arrogant. Giving the opponent the advantage of knowing her okemon from the start. Too bad for her.

"Go Bre!" Rex threw his ball.

"Alakazam," Sabrina called for her partner and its ball flew through the air on it's own.

The two Pokémon faced off. Neither made a move.

Rex hesitantly called out, "Dark pulse!" Bre unleashed dark energy and the Alakazam predictably teleported from outside the ring to the inner part avoiding the attack entirely. Good it still teleports away instinctively.

While Rex was thinking to himself Sabrina had called out a command. Alakazam then teleported several times to confuse Bre before hitting it with a Psybeam. Paying more attention now Rex thought Okay, that's alright she couldn't have avoided it any way "Moonlight!" Bre emitted light and restored itself Good this should be easy now.

"Bre, Dark Pulse and don't let up. Keep 'em going." Just like we practiced girl one after another. Don't leave room for that big ugly thing to teleport. Waves upon waves of dark energy radiated in rings from Bre covering more and more of the field. Alakazam teleported further and further away until it was hugging the white boundary line. Good. Now it's either got to take a dozen or so direct hits or leave the ring and forfeit.

Sabrina's eyes widened when she understood what was happening. Her shock kept her from reacting fast enough. Alakazam teleported once more at the last second to the safety of a corner of the large arena.

Sabrina stood there in awe. After a few moments she began to giggle. The sound she made was like that of a little girl even though she was a woman clearly in her late twenties or early thirties. The giggles turned into full blown laughter. She stood there laughing for a moment before looking to the ref and saying between guffaws "Well-hahaha-call it-hahaha-already!-hahaha."

"Y-y-yes, ma'am," The ref was just as surprised it seemed, "Alakazam has left the field. The match is a forfeit. The winner is Umbreon. The victor is Rex."

"Good job, Bre. Come back here." Rex thanked his Pokémon and she bounded to the challenger's box and rubbed its side against its trainer lovingly, "Good girl," Rex patted her side and looked to the Leader.

"Good job, indeed." Sabrina congratulated, "Not many can say they got the better of me and fewer still have made me laugh."

"Uh.. thanks"

"No, thank you. It is truly refreshing to have such an opponent. Such a simple idea, but an affective one. That is the sign of a great strategist. You have definitely earned this," Sabrina looked to a pedestal behind the Leader's box and a small piece of metal flew toward her. She grabbed it from the air and held it in her palm, "The Marsh Badge."

"Thank you, Sabrina. I really learned something from all this. It really takes more than power to be a good trainer."

"Yes. It is one of many lessons one must learn to become a true master of Pokémon."

"Thanks again. And if it isn't too much trouble could you give me some advice as to which gym to head to next?"

"Of course. What badges have you already earned?"

"Um, besides the Marsh Badge, just two other: The Boulder Badge and the Cascade Badge." Rex said proudly.

"Oh, my. You had only defeated Brock and Misty before challenging me? What a confident young trainer you are. I'll have you know normally I would be the fifth or sixth Gym Challenge. You certainly have trained your Pokémon well. Since you have so elegantly defeated me either Surge in Vermillion just a day or so's walk south of Saffron or Erika in Cerulean east of town will be no match for you."

Rex blushed a bit from the compliment and thanked her once more before leaving.

That afternoon he went by the Mart to stock up on medicine and to get some camping food before strolling to the south Saffron gate. He and Bre sauntered down the streets of the city beaming with a new badge in his case when he heard a noise he was (in his opinion) becoming too familiar with coming from an alleyway.

He stopped and looked down the dank alley and as expected he saw a curled tail popping out from under a trash can's lid. Rex took out a ball from his belt and called Joltik out. "Electro ball on that can if you would, Joltik." Joltik created a small ball of electricity and hurled it at the can.

Sparks flew and there was a hissing noise. Soon after the commotion settled a charred Meowth climbed out of the can and mumbled, "Ey! Whatdya do tha for?" then collapsed.

Ten minutes later Rex was again walking down the streets of saffron with Bre beside him, but this time Bre had a passenger, an unconscious slightly black alley cat. Meowth began to stir. "Where am I? What's goin' on?"

"Well I tried to wake you up," Rex said not looking down, "but that seemed to backfire. So, I fixed you up with some potion and thought I'd bring you along to make sure you didn't die on me."

"How kind of a twerp."

"Well if that's how you're gonna be I'll just eat all this food myself," Rex said glancing down surreptitiously.

"Heh. Food you say. I guess this ain't such a bad ride. I guess I could put up with it for a while longer."

"Not like you have a choice anyway," Rex commented.

"What's sat supposed to mean?"

"Well seeing how the Nurse Joy thought I'd caught you I decided it wasn't a bad idea," Rex stated trying to keep a straight face.

"Whaaaa! No!I can't be some Twerp's lackey I don't even know what goes on in those pokéballs!" Meowth panicked and started breathing heavily.

Rex cracked up at Meowth's reaction. "Hahaha, you are so gullible. I didn't catch you besides I don't want some week little alley cat on my team."

"Why I outta…"

"Well I do have to thank you though," Meowth heard this and cocked an eyebrows well he would've if he had eyebrows, "Yeah without your big mouth I wouldn't have beat Sabrina so I'm gonna keep you around."

"Hmph, fine, but as soon as you put some grub in my belly I'm outta here."

Look at that. Could this be the beginning of a beautiful friendship… or just a gimmick for comic relief

Probably a gimmick.

Well hey that's three down five to go

Thanks for reading and please leave a review if you have any criticisms

Seeya

This geek is out.