With his new strong pokemon, Kyle found training in the wild too easy. Lucarios had a lot of type advantages and almost everything they fought, Rachel took out with ease. The road to the next gym was quite a long one in over a month and it was a water gym so Kyle knew that Sceptile would do well. He was faced with a problem though since he was now running with 4 pokemon. Sceptile was from his starter pokemon, a Treecko but the pokemon league would force him to leave one of his other pokemon out in Blaziken and Abomasnow. Kyle was the sort of trainer who didn't want to waste time raising a pokemon he would eventually have to drop. He didn't know who it would be, or when it would be. He didn't have to, but it was for the best.
Kyle became closer to Rachel through this time and the two basically became friends, not afraid of criticising each others opinion. In Rachels case she was glad that someone appreciated her. Her previous trainer used her, molded her into something she wasn't and then discarded her. But Kyle wasn't like that at all, he seemed genuinely interested in her. Rachel had the intelligence of a human though and she wasn't unaware of how Kyle looked at her, the same way Jarrad looked at Hayley. She liked the feeling and even sometimes teasing Kyle, especially when bathing in hot springs they found along their journey. Kyle made excuses to not get into his bathers whenever she went in the water. She especially noticed how he stared at her tail as she rubbed it dry with his towel afterwards, she would turn around quickly to catch him staring every time.
She also noticed Kyle referring to her as Rachel more and more often and it made her happy especially in public. He went from saying "go, Lucario!" in battles to saying her name and now introducing her as that name when meeting all sorts of new people, since she was always at her side she felt more like a person and less like a pokemon and that meant a lot to her.
Two days before arriving at the new town, she felt comfortable enough with Kyle to tell him something that was on her mind. As Hayley and Jarrad were off training nearby in an adjacent park, Rachel took the opportunity to talk to Kyle in private. [If you're interested I've been meaning for a long time to talk to you about something...] she said. "Hmm, yeah?"
She took a deep breath, but she had rehearsed this in her mind before. [You know how there are a lot of human qualities about me... why do you think that is] she asked. "You're asking me? Well, yes I have noticed you are much taller than the pokedex says you should be and you're very smart... I've known something was different about you but I wanted to wait until you told me when you were ready, I think that was the right thing to do!" he said. [… Yes it was, thank you for that.]
Rachel looked away as she continued to talk. [I never knew my parents, I was born naturally from an egg like all pokemon but I, along with some others, was raised by a pokemon breeder trying to get the strongest types of pokemon.] "There's nothing wrong with that!" Kyle said quickly. [I know, but other pokemon were bred for their strength or even to learn certain attacks. I was bred, along with an Abra, for our telepathy. This might be something new to you, I don't know but my breeder told me this.] Kyle was listening intently.
[I was told that the ability to speak human language is something passed down from generation to generation and that no psychic pokemon is born knowing it, we have to inherit it. With selective breeding, breeders can sell trainers pokemon able to use psychic powers, the ability to use telepathy]
"Thats...cool" was all Kyle could say to that. [Yes, I'm grateful for the ability to speak the human language. It is a good thing. I however...] Rachel looked sad now. [I was deliberately bred, but I was an accident. Breeding pokemon that can speak requires splicing of exact human genes. Normally pokemon capable of this are found in the while and selectively bred but when you are as rare a species as lucario, that is not easy. To do this, while still in an egg] Rachel looked uncomfortable while she spoke. "please go on" Kyle said.
[I was given slightly more human DNA than normal. I am still mostly a Lucario but some of the side effects were mostly physical. The extra genes spliced into my body mostly affected my height, my hearing is not as good as a normal Lucarios, I am stronger in my arms but weaker in my legs, all human things. They also gave me these] Rachel said as she lifted up her breasts slightly. [I know you've been staring at them so I thought I'd explain that particular thing.] "What I haven't been staring!" Kyle said, but Rachel ignored that as she turned to him. [I've told you my history, how about yours?]
Kyle happily told her about his history for almost half an hour, how he was homeschooled by his overbearing mother, how he convinced her to let him to to a regular school and completing that, only to choose to raise pokemon at an age much older than normal. [So you have had a pretty easy life then, nothing serious to worry about?] she said once he had finished. "Kind of, I guess. Training is hard though and I dedicate my life to it. I can't go back... I chose this life and if it doesn't work, I don't know what else to do."
For the next few weeks until the 6th gym, the water gym, things progressed as usual with the trio. This gym was known for being quite easy despite being the 6th gym and it stayed that way. Kyle was especially happy with how Rachel had been progressing and let her fight first. The first battle was easy with her doing her usual think and beating a Poliwrath in 2 hits while barely getting hurt. When a Gastrodon was thrown out, Kyle knew Lucarios were weak to this and sent out Sceptile but it didn't go to plan.
Sceptile was an equal level to the Gastrodon, but it looked nervous and out of practice. Even with such a heavy type advantage, no matter how much Kyle willed his pokemon to fight, sceptile just couldn't do enough damage per hit and kept missing razor leaf. Kyle frustratingly recalled Sceptile and sent out Abomasnow while checking his pokedex what moves Sceptile would learn soon, hopefully to do more damage. While Abomasnow fought by itself Kyle noticed that Sceptile didn't actually learn any maximum strength grass type moves naturally and that Sceptile was more of an agile fighter. But Kyle didn't need that, his speciality was heavy hitters with strong type advantages.
He recalled Abomasnow and sent out Rachel to deal with the Gastrodon even though it was a bad choice and as Kyle expected, it used Earthquake but not before she got in an aura sphere to almost knock it out. As usual he recalled her as Kyle never wanted Rachel to faint in battle and sent out Sceptile.
"Sceptile you only have to hit it once, you can win this!" he said as the pokemon, looking very nervous from its poor performance less than a minute earlier. "Vine whip it, that should be easier to hit with." The pokemon nodded and used vine whip to hit the Gastrodon. Gastrodon however had extremely high defense and the vine whip brought it to critical health, not KO'ing it. "Seriously!" Kyle said out loud as Sceptile looked terrified on the battlefield. "Just one more, you're fast enough!" Kyle said as Sceptile tried again, but it panicked and missed. Gastrodon didn't waste its chance and a simple tackle knocked it out.
Kyle was furious and sent out Abonasnow who despite not having a type advantage, easily dealt with the Gastrodon with a powerful body slam. Kyle was so proud of Abomasnow and when the gym leader sent out the next pokemon, a Relicanth. Kyle smiled and knew this was a time to show this gym leader something special, sending out Rachel. "Rachel, lets make this quick. Metal claw!" and she dived into the water to deliver a one-hit knockout. When she was super effective against something, it was always a one hit knock out as her level was so high and Kyle just loved seeing her be so powerful. After collecting his badge Kyles mind immediately returned to Sceptile and what to do next. That performance was unacceptable and after his other pokemons performance, it made it look even worse with him only being allowed 3 in the pokemon league.
After the battle, Kyle walked alone into the forest outside of the town for a few hours aimlessly. He had thought about this for a long time. He released his Sceptile, he wanted this to be quick. The pokemon looked at him confused. "I'm sorry, but this isn't working out. I need only strong pokemon in my team and if you couldn't beat water pokemon... There's only room for 3 in the pokemon league and I have to let you go. You've been very helpful but it's time to go". "Scep... tile" it said back to him before trudging off, it knew it had failed. Kyle didn't feel bad, it needed to be done. All of his pokemon knew the stakes when they joined him.
Upon returning to his hotel he went to the outdoor dining area and released his remaining pokemon in Combusken, Abomasnow and Lucario and explained what had happened to Sceptile. "After I found... Lucario, I knew there was only room for three on my team and Sceptile was the weakest. I had to let him go, he performed too poorly and its clear that you three are all my strongest and will stay that way so you should be happy about that". He couldn't help being brash like that but it was the truth. Combusken and Abomasnow looked a little worried before Kyle returned them, Rachel however was angry at him.
[You just abandoned him like that? Because of one poor gym battle? How could you!] She asked him. "I had to. I cant keep training Sceptile if he's always going to be weak. Every moment I waste training him further is time I should better spend training one of my other pokemon. He would just be ignored forever. Its for the best, you wouldn't like it if a trainer only kept you in a pokeball and never raised you, ignoring you for the others would you?" he said, annoyed that she questioned him like that.
[Well... yes, but its not all about winning!] she said. "Rachel, you dont get it. If its not about winning, what's the point of battling pokemon? If you don't want to win you should go into the wild and live there among your kind you aren't forced to battle. There's nothing wrong with not wanting to be a fighter. I never keep a pokemon on my team against their will. If a pokemon wants to battle with a trainer they understand they need to win otherwise the trainer will fail in their quest to become the pokemon league champion."
[… I understand] She said. "Don't worry you're so strong I'll be having you in my team forever at this rate". That made her happy. She just hoped Kyle never came across a high level Rhydon in the wild, that might be the only thing that would make him abandon her. She made a conscious decision at that point to train super hard and never let that happen, she refused to let Kyle down.
The next morning Kyle was busy looking at the route guide on how to get to the 7th gym when he saw something very interesting, he had to show Rachel right away. While still in the hotel room, he released her from her pokeball and excitedly told her to come and look at his map. "Check this out, about 4 kilometres off the path is a place called Iron Mountain." She stared at him, clueless. "I checked this out and found out something interesting. Inside a ravine in this area, its pretty dangerous, is the largest known population of wild Lucarios. Apparently there are only a few dozen, but its one of the only places in the world where they live. You've always wanted to meet other ones, haven't you!
Rachel snatched the map away from him. She couldn't read anything but that didn't matter [Yes! I've wanted to for so long can we go now?] she said excitedly. "Well just let me get ready and wait for Hayley and Jarrad and we will go." Rachel ran outside and waited patiently. After a few minutes sure enough the trio came out and began their walk to the 7th gym, the poison pokemon gym. Rachel couldn't contain her excitement the entire way there but she did feel nervous, she didn't know what to expect but she was confident meeting other Lucarios would make her feel less alone in the world.
It was quite a boring walk there with not much to do and no pokemon to battle either so time seemed to fly until they reach the t-junction with Iron Mountain off to the right. Kyle had already told Hayley and Jarrad where they were going to go and there was time to spare, so they went their separate ways and Kyle headed off with Rachel. Just like lake Kintaro, to reach the summit of Iron Mountain they had to use a self-driven cable car, something that Rachel would never have been able to use by herself. The pair were silent on the way up with Rachel being very excited. On the cable car on the way up every single time Rachel looked backwards she caught Kyle staring at her backside. She thought it was funny so she walked over besides kyle, lowered her tail and leaned forward to look out the window so it was pressed against his legs then flicked in between them and as she expected, he didn't move at all.
Once at the top there was a single sign pointing to 'Steel ravine – dangerous ahead' which didn't bother Kyle at all. He released Combusken and Abomasnow as his body guards as they walked throw it. Sure enough there were pokemon such as Golem and even Onix angry at their presence but once they saw the trio of powerful pokemon, they backed off. It was an extremely easy walk through the ravine until they finally got to what must have been their destination as Rachel made an excited noise as her and Kyle both saw a Riolu run past them at the entrance, see the four of them, and then run back towards what must have been its mother. Rachel ran up ahead of Kyle to the mother who seemed quite welcome as Kyle stayed back.
Kyle knew they were talking but couldn't hear anything. The other Lucarios, especially the males gave him and his pokemon menacing looks but they weren't about to approach a Combusken and an Abomasnow. After a few minutes Rachel came running back, noticing Kyle looking at her chest as she ran but it didn't bother her [This is amazing! She told me there are about 50 Lucarios here and she said she wants to show me around and meet everyone and I can even stay here if I wanted! That's not even the best part a lot of these Lucarios are from that genetic line I told you about and can speak just like me, I don't feel so alone any more!] Kyle looked happy for her but before he could say anything, she continued [But they don't want you, she said something about freeing me. I'd love to stay here and see what its like, I can come back tomorrow though just meet me here in the morning!] She said happily.
Feeling the glares of more and more Lucarios against him, Kyle agreed to meet her there tomorrow and head off. She had wanted this for so long so she could stay there if she wanted for a bit if it made her happy and he completely believed her in that she would return. With that, Kyle turned off and headed to an overnight stay inn just off the main road, he would train his other pokemon for the rest of the day.