"So you've come to challenge the Eterna Gym? All right," said the gym leader, who was leaning against some sort of pedestal inscribed with all the winning challengers of that year. Of course, Kevin couldn't see that, but he was pretty sure that was what was happening. He was currently inside his Pokéball, straining to hear the conversation.

"Y-yes! I'm Lana," said his trainer. Why was she so nervous? She already had a badge.

"Okay. Tell you what; you can battle me in five minutes if the guy who challenged me yesterday doesn't show. Which means… You're going to have to wait, because I see him now," The gym leader must have been looking behind Lana's shoulder or something, because judging by the motion he could feel from his Pokéball, Lana turned around.

"Oh my— Hi Henry! It's me!" Lana squealed. Kevin blinked. Er… okay.

The person called Henry replied, "Oh, hey. You're on your journey too?"

"Yeah! I picked Turtwig! But I also have a lot of other Pokémon now, and some guy traded me his Chimchar—"

"Somebody gave you their starter?" Henry cut her off, sounding suspicious.

Kevin sighed. Okay. Despite whatever rights thing went on in the place, Sinnoh's human population still tended to speak the same way Hoenn trainers did, which meant that "Lana's Pokémon Team" was being shown off like a collection of stamps. Ugh, he hated when trainers did that. And what was that about being a starter?

"Yeah, weird, huh? But he was having problems with him or something, so I accepted. He's really not that bad, he just kind of does his own thing sometimes," Lana said.

Narrowing his eyes, Kevin kicked at the Pokéball wall and released himself.

"Whoa, wait a second. I'm not… I wasn't his starter," he told Lana. He then looked over to his right to see whoever the Henry guy was.

Henry was a tall kid with longish brown hair that stuck up in places. He was wearing a blue shirt with something written on it, too, and jeans. Kevin diverted his attention back to Lana.

"Huh? I thought you were the only Pokémon he had," Lana replied.

"Probably, but I'm still not a starter," Kevin retaliated. "Look, what part of 'I grew up in Hoenn' didn't you get?"

Lana took a step backwards. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I thought starter meant that it was your first Pokémon." She muttered something under her breath that Kevin chose to ignore.

Henry was squinting at him. Kevin turned around. "What?"

"Chimchar are native to Sinnoh. You say you came from Hoenn? Were you domesticated at all, or is there an undocumented settlement of your species in the area?" Yeesh, he sounded like some wannabe scientist guy. Kevin wasn't too fond of people like that.

"He called his mom earlier, so I just assumed that he was bred in captivity…" Lana said. Kevin rolled his eyes. Hello? He was right in front of them? This was going nowhere.

"No. Wild Hoenn Pokémon. I said this already. Can we just drop this please?" Kevin was getting tired of talking to dumb ten-year-olds. Lana complied and returned him back to his Pokéball.

The sensation of being turned into red light was sort of relaxing. Kevin frowned. Why was it so difficult for everyone to believe that he was from Hoenn? It wasn't a lie. Heck, the only thing he'd lied about was his name, and even then, that wasn't lying. He really did prefer to be called something other than his real name for plenty of reasons, one being because of the way his brother had whined it whenever he won a battle.

Battle…

That wannabe scientist guy was currently challenging the gym leader, right?

Kevin's curiosity was getting the best of him. But hey, he'd never actually seen a gym battle in-person. He might as well sneak a peek at what the kid could do, even if the battle wouldn't be as high quality as the league videos he'd seen. Yeah, that was a good idea.

Kevin kicked the Pokéball again, succeeding in releasing himself once more. Lana gave a yelp of surprise and turned to him.

"What are you doing?" she hissed, glaring at him. He shrugged.

"Just wanted to watch," he said. He glanced at his surroundings, found himself on what appeared to be bleachers at the side of the stadium, and sat down. Then he laced his fingers together and focused his attention onto the scene that was happening at the moment.

On Henry's side was a vibrant red dragonfly Pokémon, beating her wings too fast for Kevin to make out, not that he ever made out more than a bunch of smudges. The gym leader had sent out a Turtwig. This startled Kevin for a moment – the Turtwig on the field looked far more sociable and happy than Kari. He was in better shape, too, being a gym leader's Pokémon and all.

Despite that, if Kevin was getting his types correct, the leader had a distinct disadvantage against what was clearly a bug and flying type. Which meant that the fight would either be one-sided or awesome.

Henry calmly commanded his Pokémon. "Yanma, Wing Attack."

"Dodge," was all the green poncho-clad gym leader said. It suddenly occurred to Kevin that he didn't know who she was.

"Who is she?" he questioned Lana beside him.

"Hm? That's Gardenia," she answered.

Well, okay. He'd never heard of her. He supposed not all gym leaders made international headlines. Turning back to the battle, Kevin started to spectate again. The Yanma was quite fast, as she was moving so quickly that she was nothing more than a red streak in the air. The Turtwig tried his best to dodge, but the airborne insect quickly caught up with him.

In one fell swoop, her wings pretty much sliced a clean cut on the Turtwig's side. The Turtwig, unable to balance properly with the fresh wound, took a tumble to the ground and stayed down. Huh, it was one sided after all.

"Return," Gardenia said calmly. She was probably used to this.

Henry did the same for some reason, opting for a different Pokéball. Kevin frowned.

"He's switching because…?" He turned to Lana.

"I guess he felt that Yanma battled enough. It took down a Cherubi too, but you were still in your Pokéball," Lana didn't bother to take her eyes off the match.

Shrugging, Kevin turned back in time to see the new fighter…

Ah. No way.

"A Monferno," Kevin stated disdainfully. "Wonderful. Damn it."

"What's your problem? It's your species, isn't it?" Lana squinted her eyes. "Really, what's with you today?"

Ha, that was a good one. Lana totally needed glasses. (So did he, but even from far away he could see the obvious.) But so long as she was oblivious, he could work with it.

"It's nothing. Um… Clan rivalry junk. Just ignore me." He focused on the other Monferno, whose battling was pretty standard; mixing both physical and special attacks together. Then again, it was Henry who was telling him what to do. The Roserade he was facing didn't stand a chance against the fire attacks and was down like the Turtwig before it.

Kevin watched Gardenia hand Henry his badge, announcing that the kid was skilled and would do well in the upcoming league. Then Lana decided to dash over and congratulate her friend, so he followed.

He stopped short a foot or two and stared at the other Monferno. Gray eyes, sharp fangs, and a hunched stance, though that was mostly because Kevin had the advantage of being balanced on his legs. Yeah, no doubt about it, this Monferno was normal. And it was easy to tell.

The other Monferno was eyeing him too, and after giving a quick glance upwards to see that his trainer was occupied with Lana, walked over.

"Where'd you learn to stand like that?" he questioned. Kevin smiled falsely and opted to stall.

"Shouldn't you introduce yourself first?" The other raised an eyebrow but nodded.

"Ifern, Stark Mountain. You?"

Stark Mountain? Where in the world was Stark Mountain? Kevin nodded. "Right. Um, Slick, from… Mount Chimney," That was a lie, but whatever.

"Ah, yes. The Southern clan was dying out, last I heard. Then again, you guys always love to stick to tradition, right? The Shades couldn't have been good for you, one of your own and everything…" He suddenly stared at Kevin's face. "Is blue a natural eye colour for you?"

"…Yeah, pretty much. Uh, the Shades—"

At that moment, however, Henry chose to return Ifern to his Pokéball and leave. Waving goodbye to Lana, the ten-year-old stepped out the door and never looked back.

"Hey, Slick, it's an hour to our gym match, okay? We'd better go over some strategies," Lana said.

Damn. Even if he had gotten the chance… He wasn't sure if he wanted to hear things from someone like that.