A half an hour later found everyone in the gym, the kids still eating their cake and each cheering for one of the Trainers. Before they had separated to go to the ends of the gym, the three had decided to try to make it as flashy as they could for the kids.

"This will be a two on two battle; first side to have their Pokémon knocked out loses!" The referee said. Harry was started to get creeped out by the guy, always looking exactly the same.

"Come on Dratini!"

"Vulpix I choose you!"

"Raichu and Electrike, let's go!"

Bolt's Pokémon both had sparks emitting from their bodies. The first reminded Harry of a large rodent with long brown and yellow ears and feet but stubby brown arms, on its face was two yellow circles. It had two horizontal brown stripes on its back, its fur being a yellow-orange with a yellow belly. Its tail was very long, slender and black, the end being a yellow lightning bolt. Harry's Pokedex said: Raichu, a Mouse Pokémon of the Electric element. Raichu is the evolved form of Pikachu. It can shock with more than 100,000 volts, enough to render a Dragonite unconscious.

He pointed it to the second Pokémon, a small, green, dog-like Pokémon with yellow markings. Electrike, the Lightning Pokémon. Using the electric charge stored in its fur, it can run faster than the eye can follow.

"Let's start off with Dragon Rage Dratini!" Iriana ordered. Dratini let out a fierce growl (though it just sounded cute to the humans) and let loose a red-orange fire ball at Raichu.

"Vulpix, use Fire Spin!" Harry said, watching as Vulpix breathed a stream of fire that started to spiral towards Electrike.

"Raichu, Electrike! Both of you dodge and use Thunderbolt!" Bolt commanded. Raichu, being the faster of the two, managed to dodge and fire its attack at the Dragon-type, who was paralyzed by the powerful voltage. Electrike on the other hand, couldn't dodge the fire attack, and was swallowed by a tornado of fire.

"Electrike!" Bolt yelled, dismayed. He breathed a sigh of relief when the Electric type emerged from the attack, though it did have its affect on it. "Use Tackle! If we're going down, we'll take them with us!" Giving a nod at its Trainer, Electrike made a bee-line for Vulpix. The Fire-type was surprised by the swiftness and though she tried to dodge, she couldn't make it in time. Both collided with each other and rolled around. When they stopped, both were knocked out.

After Harry and Bolt recalled their Pokémon, Iriana turned to her Dratini, "Come on sweetie, it's all up to you. I know you can do it!" Dratini raised her head towards her Trainer, a determined glint in her eyes. All of a sudden, the sparks that had been dancing around the Pokémon's body vanished, leaving her completely healed of Paralyzation.

"What was that?" Iriana wondered.

"That would be Shed Skin. A Pokémon will shed its skin, getting rid of any status changes like Paralyzation or Burn." Bolt explained, watching Dratini raise up. All of a sudden, she was surrounded by a white glow. Everyone present watched as the glow changed shape and size, eventually disappearing. A sapphire-blue serpentine Pokémon remained, with dark glossy eyes and a small unicorn horn on her head. On either side of her head were small feathery wings, and on the end of her tail and under her neck were small blue orbs.

"That's…a Dragonair." Iriana breathed, awed by her Pokémon.

Harry brought his Pokedex: Dragonair, the Dragon Pokémon. Dragonair has the ability to manipulate the elements as it wishes.

Iriana suddenly smirked, "We got this in the bag. Dragonair, use Dragon Rush!" Dragonair launched herself like a missile at Raichu, who was surprised by the speed of the attack. It hit dead on, knocking the poor Electric-type out.

"The winners are Harry and Iriana!" The referee said. Cheers came from the sidelines as Bolt's younger siblings started to make their way towards the trio of Trainers. As they came nearer, Bolt and Iriana had returned their Pokémon and the two challengers were having a small victory dance to celebrate.

"That was incredible! How Vulpix did that tornado of fire…" Ian started.

"And how Dratini used those cool flames…" Oracia went next.

"And then how she evolved!" Jade added.

And together they finished, "This was the best birthday present ever!" Bolt laughed, his eyes shining in happiness from the excited looks on the triplets faces. He turned to the duo.

"I have you two to thank for making their special day one they'll never forget. I present you with the Lightning Badge." He handed the two their badge, shaped like thunderbolts and grinned again when they did victory poses. He then did mock-shooing motions, "Off with you two, to Venenum! You'd better beat Toxica and the rest, because I'll be cheering you on in the League."

The two just grinned and ran out of the Gym, the laughter of children following them out.

Giovanni sat back in his chair, an evil yet satisfied smirk on his face as he stared at his computer. At a questioning mewl from Persian, he explained,

"I've set my people to start buying everything related to Kesorir Inc. and I'm now the new owner of it. Though Team Quasso is still a large threat, and my Rockets haven't found Kesorir, I don't want him anywhere near Harry."

He started petting Persian, who was letting out satisfied purrs that matched her Trainers mood. His thoughts turned to a certain emerald eyed Trainer.

"That child has turned my world around and upside down for the better, along with this company. There's just something about him that draws everyone in and makes you love him, just like I do... Persian, do you think I should ask Harry if I could adopt him?" He chuckled when his Pokémon started purring enthusiastically. "Very well, I'll ask soon. I think Delilah knows a little about his past, I'll need to speak to her soon."

"Wow, this is a weird place." Iriana commented as she and Harry entered Venenum. The way to the city was uneventful; they basically enjoyed the changing views to a dark forest filled with Poison-type Pokémon. They had seen some awesome ones, though neither felt the need to capture any of them. The city itself was dedicated to medical purposes, mainly involving antidotes. This made sense with all the different types of poison not only from the surrounding Pokémon, but also from the wilderness itself. Harry had recognized different types of poisonous plants, and some he suspected were different strands of them.

"Let's head to the Gym, since we didn't battle or anything, our Pokémon are in top shape." Harry suggests. Iriana nodded to this and the two set off. After getting directions from a nice old lady (who gave Harry the creeps because she wouldn't stop gushing about his eyes) they headed towards the Gym, the lavender eyed girl still laughing at the other's misfortune. "It's not my fault I have green eyes." Harry muttered.

"Those aren't green, they're emerald!" Iriana laughed. The black haired teen just sent her a weak glare and started walking faster. The Gym rose up before them, with the referee standing in front of it.

"Do you think that the Gym referee's are like the Joy's and Jenny's? With multiple relatives that all look the same?" Harry asked, getting irked with the referee.

"Personally, I think it was a cloning gone wrong." Iriana commented quietly, snickering.

"Hello, are you here for a battle? I'm sorry to say that Toxica has left for the day and I don't know when she'll be back." He said apologetically.

"Alright, I guess we'll just have to check by later. Thanks anyway." Harry said, and then he and Iriana turned around and started walking. "Alright, since we can't battle, what do you think we should do?"

"Well, I gotta go to the store for a surprise." Iriana said with a grin. "And no, you can't come." She laughed at his look before taking off.

Harry just shook his head and headed in the direction of the park he saw as they were walking in. "Why is it that I always pick the weirdest but well-meaning friends?" He asked himself. The walk there was alright, though Harry kept getting the feeling he was being watched, but every time he turned around, there was no one around. 'That's just creepy.' He thought, picking up the pace. The park was blissfully empty when he arrived, so he let out all his Pokémon to relax. Medieon stretched out in a patch of sunshine, while Vulpix started running around, either chasing her own tails, chasing Snivy or playing 'climb-all-over-Absol', who seemed to find the whole thing amusing and let the young Pokémon play.

Shaking his head at them, Harry started practicing the stances Ario taught him, moving up to sparring with an invisible opponent. He continued this for a few minutes when the peace of the park was interrupted by a woman jumping out of the trees. Landing near him, Harry saw that she wore a slender purple ninja –like outfit. Her floor length hair was a bright light green tied just at the very bottom and when she looked up, her eyes matched her hair.

"Hey kiddo! Those moves are the signature of Ario's, though the tweaks you've done to them are impressive, more suited to someone your size." Her voice was a mixture of laughter and sternness, if that was even possible. Done with studying his stance, she finally looked Harry in the face, and anime squealed. "Oh my gosh! Your eyes are to die for! You look so cute! Kawaii!" She grabbed him in a hug, still gushing about how cute he was.

Mortified, Harry called to his Pokémon, "Are you going to stand there while I'm being attacked?"

Each one looked at him and replied, "Never mess with a fan-girl. You're on your own."

"Thanks for the love guys…" Harry muttered, promising revenge later on…as soon as he freed himself.

"Now…down to business. You got Ario's style down pretty good, but he's pre-school compared to me!" The lady said, finally releasing Harry. "He's more into directly attacking your opponent, but true strength comes from using your opponent's strength against them."

"Cool, I never thought of it like that before…"Harry said awed.

The green-haired woman grinned, "Yup! And I'm here to teach ya! What's your name by the way?"

Blushing at realizing he hadn't introduced himself, the emerald eyed teen answered, "I'm Harry. My friend Iriana and I came here to challenge the Gym Leader, but she was out. We split up to see the sights and try to challenge her later, as well as to discover the mystery of the referee. I think it's something like the Jenny's and Joy's, Iriana bets on messed up cloning."

The woman blinked, and then laughed, "I like you kid! Name's Toxica, Gym Leader and Poison-type Expert."

Harry sighed, with a wry grin, "How did I know you were going to say that? I swear, either I have the weirdest luck, or someone, somewhere, is getting a kick out of this."

"Enough chatter! Train now!" Toxica said, and she started showing Harry her style of martial arts. The two spent several hours training, Harry quickly mastering everything the woman showed him, to which she praised highly.

The peace was disturbed again by a scream of, "There he is!"

"The darling cutie with the gorgeous eyes!"

"Come here sweetie!"

Dread building in their stomachs, the two turned towards the other end of the park, where they saw a stampede of….fan girls!

"Oh crap…. I'm doomed" Harry whispered, eyes wide with terror.

"Oh no you're not." Toxica said. Quickly, she grabbed the teen, threw him over his shoulder, and headed in the direction of the Gym, Harry's Pokémon following closely. "HE'S MINE! YOU HEAR ME! I FOUND HIM FIRST!" The ninja woman yelled over her shoulder at the women chasing them. Thankfully, the doors were open to the Gym. The second they were through, Medieon and Absol closed them. On the other side, they heard repeated banging and screaming, though the actual words were muffled.

"Thanks for saving me…I think." Harry said, heart pounding.

"Don't mention it kid, now, since we can't go out, how about that battle?"

Emerald eyes lit up, "Really? But Iriana isn't here, and there's no way in the entire world I'm going back out there to find her." And idea sparked in his mind and he turned to Absol. "Would you mind going to find Iriana and bring her here?"

"Sure thing." Absol said with a laughing tone. Nimbly, she jumped out of one of the upper windows of the Gym. About ten minutes later, the Dark-type jumped back in, with a grinning Iriana on her back.

"That was a blast. You know there's an army of women with banners of you outside the doors right?" She said, turning to Harry. She and Toxica started snickering when the boy started banging his head on the nearest wall.

"Well, since you're finally here, how about that battle to pass the time?" Toxica suggested, already walking to the other side of the Gym.