"Shhhhhhh!"

Delaney peered over the side of the wall, her eyes scanning the Pokemon Center lobby anxiously. Perry was still sleeping in his pokéball, but Charlie was at her side, far more energetic than he had been the previous day. Way too energetic, if you were to ask his trainer, who was biting her bottom lip in anxiety and trying to time the perfect escape from the Pokemon Center. Well, not perfect. Just quick- a hop, skip and dash out of the doors was precisely what she needed in order to avoid being spotted.

To think she had almost leisurely strolled out into the lobby! It was a good thing that her eyes were quicker than her brain, because things could have gotten bad quickly.

After all, if Cheren was here, Bianca had to be close by.

Though Cheren alone probably would have been tough to take as well. From what she could tell by the conversation she had eavesdropped on in Nuvema Town, the two kept each other in check- Cheren would stop Bianca when she got too ditzy and chatty to take, and Bianca prevented Cheren from being overly snide and arrogant. He was probably an unbearable prick when his lighthearted friend wasn't around.

Delaney, however, thought they were both pretty unbearable anyways, hence why she was hiding.

Well, if you considered it hiding when you were standing next to a wall with half of your body still showing and hiding your face with your hair as much as humanly possible… and your lillipup is about to out your hiding spot by being oddly loud for such a small pokemon. The cheerful pup barked loudly before wandering out from where the two were doing quite a pathetic job of concealing themselves.

"Damn," Delaney swore under her breath. "This is already not my day, is it?"

Before Delaney could dart out to grab her pokemon, she could hear him start to fuss and yip, which typically meant someone had picked him up, and there was nothing Charlie disliked more than being picked up. A tall lanky young man with light brown hair and glasses came around the corner, holding the scowling and growling puppy, who was shedding on both his white t-shirt and the gray sweatshirt he had over it. "Is he yours?"

"Yeah," Delaney said, taking Charlie from him. The lillipup turned his irritation to Delaney and he bit at her hair. "Ahhhh! Are you going to stay by me if I put you down?" The lillipup looked at her with a blank look. "Ugh, that better be a yes," she muttered as she set him down. Instantly the scowl disappeared and he trotted around Delaney's feet. It wasn't too long before he had discovered the frayed laces on her sneakers and pounced on the offending string, pawing at the knot that kept Delaney's shoes on her feet.

"He's a feisty one," the guy commented, adjusting his wire-framed glasses. If Delaney hadn't been so agitated already, she would've pondered more on the fact that he was pretty attractive, but considering they were now out in the open, where Cheren and Bianca could find them, she didn't much care.

"That's Charlie. Feisty," Delaney grimaced. There were other words that she would definitely choose before feisty. "Thank you for grabbing him. He's… restless."

"Yeah, no problem. You guys have been standing here for a while. Are you waiting for someone?"

Well, now Delaney knew their hiding spot had been a bust anyways. "Not exactly."

The guy chuckled as he began to pick Charlie's hair off of his sweater. "Are you here to challenge the Striaton gym?"

"There's a gym here?" Delaney asked. She didn't know why she didn't just assume as much- if a trainer left from the lab in Nuvema and followed the path Delaney had been on since leaving Nuvema, Striaton would be the first bigger city a trainer would come upon. Of course they would put a gym there.

"Yeah, it's usually the first one on the traditional circuit." He looked slightly puzzled as to why she wouldn't know this.

"I'm not from Unova," Delaney explained. Shit, why did she say that? She didn't need this stranger asking questions about where she was from. "Um, thank you for grabbing Charlie for me," she said quickly, grabbing the small puppy pokemon from by her feet. She could feel her shoestrings were wet from Charlie's saliva. "We should probably go."

"You're probably excited to go challenge that gym now," he grinned. "Before you go, what's your name?"

"Christa."

"Christa," he repeated thoughtfully, staring hard at Delaney. "I'm Luke. Maybe we'll meet again sometime."

"Yeah, maybe," Delaney echoed, though with all the trainers in Striaton alone (much less the rest of Unova), it was unlikely. In her arms, Charlie yipped unhappily. "Well, I guess that's my cue to go. Thanks again."

"Take care of yourself, Christa," Luke said with a two finger salute, and with that, he disappeared up the stairs.

At least there was no Cheren or Bianca.

The previous evening, she hadn't cared to glance around the city much- she had been caught up in her own thoughts after what had happened with Lydia. She had found the Pokemon Center, grabbed something to eat in the cafeteria there and then gone up to her room where she had stayed for the remainder of the evening where she had wrestled endlessly with her guilty conscience. She, of course, had lost (though really, in that battle, the winner and loser were one and the same) and had called Lydia right before she had gone to bed. It had been one of the most awkward conversations she had ever sat through (though her conversation with her father the day before she left still was still sufficiently more awkward), but it had made her feel a bit better. She had apologized for being so stubborn and thanked Lydia for making the trip out to Striaton and bringing her supplies, as well as a pokedex. Lydia's anger from earlier seemed to have melted upon answering the call, and she looked happier than Delaney had seen her, well, ever.

Not that this meant Lydia was getting a second chance. But nice gestured deserved a thank you. Years living in the Caldwell home meant at least fairly decent manners… Most of the time, anyways. And besides, Delaney was quite grateful to have slept in something other than the clothes that she had been wearing for two days straight.

Now, the brunette and her lillipup gazed restlessly around the small city of Striaton. The fact that they were somewhere bigger than a sleepy small town did wonders for Delaney's mood- she absolutely loved cities, and always had, even as a child. Granted, Striaton was no Hearthrome, but it wasn't Nuvema either. It had a few tall buildings, a rather large school and a few sprawling neighborhoods that looked like nice places to grow up.

The city in general had a friendly vibe, which was a bit strange for a city, seeing as how urban areas usually were far less welcoming and generally apathetic towards their many inhabitants. Delaney looked from building to building with a growing smile on her face. This was what she had always loved best when journeying- traveling to new cities and exploring (and shopping, if she was lucky). She didn't have nearly as much money on her as she had when traveling in Sinnoh, so going on a spree wasn't really an option now, unfortunately. She could always visit the school, though she was fairly certain it was going to be all about type match-ups and status conditions, as most learning institutions were. If they had been offering a crash course in say, Unovan pokemon, or how to make sure your secret identity stays secret, or how to have a less awkward conversation with the mother that abandoned you as a young child, she would sign right up, but otherwise, there was no point.

Her feet began to move, though where they were heading, the brunette had no idea. Charlie bounded in front of her happily, though he made sure to stay fairly close; he was just content to be out in the autumn sunshine no matter where the destination was. Then again, who was to say she needed a destination? Maybe she just wanted to explore and wander- what was so wrong with that? With a cheesily large smile on her face, she took Perry's pokéball out of her bag and released the otter pokemon as well, so he too could enjoy the day of doing nothing of importance. The oshawott yawned sleepily as it was released. Delaney giggled. "Wake up, sleepyhead! We're going to have fun today!"

"Christa! Hey Christa!"

Or not. Delaney's peaceful drifting was interrupted by exactly who she had wanted to avoid running into. The perky blonde Bianca was running to catch up with her, though the skirt and shoes she was wearing weren't exactly cooperating with her. The orange pig pokemon at her side wasn't helping matters much either, tripping over Bianca's feet and at times lagging behind, it's portly shape preventing it from being overly speedy. The two were quite a pair, rushing down the crowded street and nearly tripping with every step they took. "Maybe if I just pretend I don't see her…" Delaney muttered to herself.

"Shwott!" cried Perry gleefully, running back towards Bianca and her porky companion. And naturally, after seeing his friend Perry run off down the street, Charlie decided he needed to run after him to see what fun the oshawott might be chasing. Delaney's eyes widened- if she was going to chase after Perry and Charlie, she was going to run right into Bianca, literally. There was no avoiding this one.

"Damn, damn, damn…" Delaney chanted under her breath as she ran after the otter and puppy. Perry and Bianca's pokemon reached each other before their trainers did and seemed absolutely ecstatic to see each other. Charlie sniffed Bianca's companion, tail wagging, though the orange pig completely ignored him, focusing instead of Perry.

"So you got the oshawott!" Bianca exclaimed upon finally reaching Delaney. "I was totally planning on starting out with Oshawott, but when Cheren and I went to get our pokemon, Professor Juniper said somebody had already gotten him! I thought she said it was a boy, though, but maybe I'm mistaken and she was just saying that Oshawott was a boy…" Her chipper voice trailed off as Delaney processed the words that had just come out of her mouth.

A boy.

Well, at least Bianca hadn't started out her long, overdrawn mini-speech with hey, that pokemon was stolen! Delaney really wouldn't have known what to say to that, and she probably would've started to cry at the idea that maybe she would have to give the little otter back. Even if her pokemon weren't overly fond of her, Perry and Charlie were still the best company she had.

Delaney was curious to know if it had been a boy that Professor Juniper had given Perry to, or if Bianca had indeed just misunderstood the professor- that was very literally the only hint she had to who could possibly have sent her the oshawott. Realizing that Bianca was looking at her expectantly, as if she expected Delaney to go into an equally long spiel, she cleared her throat and poised herself to reply… But to say what? Oshawott was given to her anonymously with an unsigned note that had a creepy tone to it that urged her to leave her home?

Arceus, her life sounded like a truly horrible soap opera. Days of Our Lives had nothing on Delaney Caldwell.

However, Christa White was a lot more boring than her platinum-haired counterpart. She also needed to think of something to say to her chatty neighbor before the girl thought she was crazy. "A friend of mine picked him up when he was passing through the area," she said with a falsely chipper smile. "He thought I might get lonely moving to a new town, so he gave Perry to me."

"How cute!" Bianca squealed. "Is this friend your booooooyfriend? Is he cute? What's his name?"

"That's a really long story," Delaney responded through gritted teeth. And none of your damn business. Delaney needed an out- she needed to find something to distract Bianca before she began asking questions that Delaney didn't have answers for. Where was Christa from? Delaney had no fucking clue. Why had she never lived with her mother before? Before the bubbly blonde would even know it, she would have gotten herself into a mess that was way too deep to get out of. "So tell me about your pokemon. What is it?"

Yes, it was a lame cop-out but the brunette was desperate- she just needed to get the blonde aimlessly chattering about something that was not Christa White. Bianca seemed pleased enough just to have a chance to talk (Cheren probably would have shut her up by this point, Delaney figured). "It's a tepig!" she announced, eyes wide with surprise. Then she giggled, though the airy laugh was more part of the conversation than it was a reaction to something funny. "Sorry, Christa, I keep forgetting you're not from Unova. Professor Juniper received three pokemon a long time ago to study- a fire-type, a water-type and a grass-type. She always said Cheren and I would get one each to go traveling, but it took us awhile to get out on our journeys because my dad didn't like the idea of me leaving home… But anyways, Bacon is the fire-type pokemon. I think Professor Juniper said he'll also be a fighting-type when he evolves." She glanced at her pokemon with a glowing smile on her face. The small pig pokemon was playing with Perry, both of them sporting bright grins. Charlie had lost interest in trying to butt in on the reunion, and had found a very interesting leaf in the street gutter that he was trying to pick up. "They probably remember each other from Professor Juniper's lab. They're friends!"

"Yeah, look at that," Delaney said weakly. She was almost sad for a moment that she hadn't gotten that pokemon instead- training another fire/fighting type would've almost been like training Blitzkrieg again. "Almost" was the key word in that sentence, though- she had loved running with Blitzkrieg back in Sinnoh and Tepig's lack of speed and portly build nearly guaranteed that Delaney would have gotten annoyed fast.

"Yeah, I'm so excited to start battling the gyms! I know Bacon and I are going to do great! That's actually where we were headed when we ran into you!" she said enthusiastically. Delaney mentally cursed Perry (and to some extent, Charlie, though this one was mostly the otter's fault) for dragging her into this conversation- it was seriously marring the carefree afternoon of exploring that Delaney had planned. "Hey, I've got an idea! We should totally battle! It'll help me get ready for the gym leader, and I'm sure you're going to start battling gyms soon too, right? It's a win-win situation!"

"Um…" What Delaney really wanted to say was no and shut up. Christa White was not challenging the gyms. That was something Delaney Caldwell did, and something Delaney Caldwell had grown to hate- no way would she put herself through the same torture.

"Hey Christa!" Bianca shouted, bringing Delaney back into focus. Delaney snapped her head back and met Bianca's eyes. "Now you can't say no to me anyways- our eyes met! I officially challenge you! Go, Bacon! It's time to prove to everyone how much stronger we've gotten!"

Oh… Sneaky. That's how we're playing it, is it? I'll show you sneaky.

There was no doubt in the minds of Striaton pedestrians that the obnoxious wailing that could be heard blocks away was that of an ill-behaving child being punished. Those pedestrians had obviously never met Bianca.

Delaney was blown away by not just Bianca's tears, but the indescribable noise that accompanied them. People casually walking by turned their heads as they passed the two, most of them probably thinking that Delaney had done something unspeakable to the poor girl, rather than just defeating her in battle. The brunette didn't know exactly what to do- did she abandon the idea of prize money and just run? Did she try to comfort this girl she hardly knew and really didn't like? Laugh? Tell her to stop crying?

Okay, it was a bit more than Delaney winning- it was the fact that Delaney had absolutely trumped her.

As soon as Delaney had realized that the match was going to be a quick one, she had tried to slow down, tried to let Bianca's pokemon get in a few hits, but Perry hadn't liked her compassion one bit- the memories of losing to that N guy and his purrloin were obviously still fresh in his mind. Charlie hadn't paid attention to her subtle cues to slow down whatsoever. The result of the two's lack of cooperation meant that Bianca's own lillipup (obviously the runt of its mother's litter, it was rather small- way smaller than Charlie- and it had been trained very little) and Bacon (who had an obvious type disadvantage to Perry, especially after Perry had learned to use water gun and trained somewhat how to shoot small, moderately powerful jets of water out) were knocked down, pushed aside and rolled flat in battle. And while Perry and Charlie were absolutely ecstatic, Bianca was on the other end of that spectrum. Delaney had never seen somebody quite so devastated at a loss.

"Um… Bianca?" Delaney began hesitantly. "That was a good battle." Immediately after speaking, Delaney just wanted to facepalm herself. She dared anyone to find something more awkward for her to say. Open mouth, insert foot.

"For you, maybe!" Bianca wailed. "Why would you do that to my poor pokemon? WHY? Maybe my dad was right. Maybe I'm not tough enough to do this! I should've just let Cheren leave without me!"

Okay, there was something more awkward.

This definitely made Delaney's conversation with Lydia the night before look like a breezy conversation. Delaney wasn't sure what Bianca was looking for- guidance? Reassurance? Agreement? Arceus, this girl had 99 problems and then some.

Delaney cleared her throat. "Can I just say something? You don't have to prove anything to anyone. Not your dad, or Cheren, or anybody else. Trust me. If you end up doing things just because other people expect you to, you'll only end up disappointed with yourself, on top of hating everybody for pushing you too hard." Isn't that the truth.

"I already am disappointed with myself!" she howled, completely missing the point in all that Delaney had just said. "Christa, you just don't understand! Nobody does!"

Ugh, what did one say to that? "You can't win every battle?" Delaney said, hopelessly fishing for the right words to say to end Bianca's tears. "Everybody loses sometimes. I'm sure even Cynthia loses."

"The champion of Sinnoh?" Bianca asked, puzzled.

"Yeah, even champions need to train!" Delaney said with renewed zeal. Bianca had been so confused by her seemingly random analogy that she had stopped sobbing.

"I guess you're right…" Bianca said thoughtfully, her voice trailing off. "But you're a big meany for being so tough on Bacon and Ruffles! We need to go to the Pokemon Center and heal." With that, she turned on her heel and began to run in the direction of the Pokemon Center, though she was running just as awkwardly away from Delaney as she had run towards her, nearly tripping with each step (though Bacon was now in his pokeball).

That girl has more mood swings than Dax, Delaney thought to herself with a slight smile (because of Dax, of course, not because of Bianca's hysterics). Once Bianca was out of sight, she grabbed the pokèballs of both of her pokemon and released them once again. "Sorry about that, you guys," she muttered. "Not quite the relaxing day we were hoping for."

"Excuse me! Miss!" A man with dirty blonde hair and a goatee was running towards her, spectacles nearly falling off his nose each time his feet hit the ground.

"I will kick that man in the shin if he tries to battle me," she muttered towards Perry and Charlie, though she wasn't sure if they would understand, or care for that matter. Charlie, naturally, cared not even a little about Delaney's desire to avoid talking to this man and bounded up to him happily, weaving himself around the man's ankles until he discovered the stranger's shoelaces.

"I'm sorry to bother you, but I couldn't help but watch your battle earlier. Can we say wow?" Despite the fact that he was panting from running to catch up with her, his voice was full of excitement.

"Um, I guess we can?" Delaney said apprehensively. "

"Listen, I work in the Striaton Gym as a host on the more busy nights. I book reservations for any events, as well as entertainment, and I think that you might be just what we're looking for!"

"Pardon?" she asked, confused. "Entertainment?"

"Sorry, I forget sometimes that not everybody knows this. The Striaton City Gym doubles as a restaurant run by our three leaders, Cilan, Chili and Cress and-"

"There are three gym leaders?" Delaney interrupted. She had heard of a pair of twin gym leaders in Hoenn, but three? That was just plain ridiculous!

"You only fight one of them," he said quickly. "But anyways, tonight there's a rather large business dinner being held in our restaurant for a big surveying firm in Castelia. During large gatherings like this, the three leaders like to entertain their guests with some particularly hot battles, and the trainer that was supposed to come by tonight had a bad run-in with some stairs, so we're looking for another hot trainer to fill their place. What do you say?"

"I'm not challenging gyms." Her voice was flat and firm. She was not going to budge, absolutely not.

"Oh, please miss! I've never seen a trainer here that battles quite like you do, and this is an important dinner for our restaurant! We really want our guests to be satisfied!" He was begging now.

"I'm sorry, but that's not my problem."

"What can I offer you to have you say yes? I can double your prize money, maybe offer you a complimentary meal… name what you want!"

"Listen, there are plenty of trainers around that I'm sure would really like this opportunity-"

"Do you really think that some adolescent with a purrloin is going to impress anyone?" the man asked with a grimace. "I'm gonna level with you, missy- this is a big event and if these businessmen aren't impressed with every aspect of their meal, then I might just get canned. I'm on my last strike with the gym leaders after I brought in some youngster that Chili thrashed in less than five minutes. You wouldn't do that to me, would you?"

Delaney sighed exasperatedly and judging by the grin that came across the man's face, he knew what that meant. As much as she wanted to punch him in his smug little face, she couldn't bear the thought of this weird little man losing his job and probably then his house all because Delaney wouldn't battle a gym leader. "Okay, okay, I'll do it."

Good thing Bianca didn't listen to a damn word Delaney said. She didn't take her own advice either apparently. So much for not doing things because people expected it of her. Although on some degree she was still right- she totally did hate this guy for talking her into it and if she lost in front of a bunch of strangers, she would be bitter as hell.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" he cried, all but kissing her in his excitement. "Can I have your name so I can let all of the staff know who to expect?"

"Christa. Christa White."

"Okay, Christa, be there by six. Your battle should start by six-fifteen!" he said, and he began to jog off. "And thank you!" he called behind him.

Delaney couldn't shake the grimace off her face. Something was telling her that this couldn't possibly end well.

After five jogs around the room in the Pokemon Center, Delaney was no less nervous than she was before, and it was only two. She still had four hours before she had to be at the gym, and though any normal trainer would be sneaking in some last-minute power training with their pokemon, Delaney was too nervous to do much else than fidget.

Why, oh why, had she agreed to this?

Perry was for some reason in a grumpy mood as he sat in the small armchair by the door. Why he was grumpy, Delaney had no clue. Charlie, naturally, was bouncing around like a small child who had gotten into the ice cream and eaten far too much, nearly tripping Delaney each time she made a lap around the small room. It took nearly falling on her face for the third time for Delaney to realize precisely how ridiculous she looked doing laps around the room that was literally as big as her closet back in Sinnoh.

Yeah, this was serious. Pow-wow time.

With what little dignity she still retained, Delaney took a seat at the foot of her bed and faced Perry. "Charlie!" she called. "Come here! We all need to have a talk!" The small puppy scampered to where his trainer and fellow pokemon were sitting, though he didn't pick up on their serious attitudes. "You guys, today is a very big and important day that I didn't think was going to happen quite yet, at least not for a couple days. In a few hours, we're going to fight hopefully just one of the gym leaders of Striaton. Gym leaders are leaders for a reason- they're tough. It's not going to be easy."

Perry was staring at Delaney wide-eyed, growing a bit more nervous as Delaney continued to talk. Charlie was a different story. He found a loose thread in the carpet and prodded it curiously with his paw. When it didn't fight back, he pawed at it again. "But not all battles are easy," Delaney continued. "In fact, the best battles are actually really tough. I have a feeling this battle is going to be one of- Fuck, Charlie, what did you just do?" she yelled, jumping up from the bed. The small puppy had somehow yanked the thread out of the carpet completely, pulling out several more with it. The missing carpet threads had left a small, but noticeable hole in the flooring, one that could easily be reported and that Delaney could be fined over. Both Charlie and Perry looked at her with wide eyes and with a small yelp, Charlie dove under the bed.

"Charlie, I'm sorry!" Delaney begged. "Please come out!" The lillipup would not budge, though- Delaney had scared him by raising her voice. She sighed. "Maybe I'm not cut out for this anymore," she muttered to herself. "Perry, do you want to finish talking?" His small otter glare as he turned his back towards her said volumes even if he didn't verbally respond. "Great."

Delaney said back down on the small full-sized bed, dismayed and discouraged. If she couldn't get her own pokemon to listen to her, how were they going to win? Were they about to make enormous fools of themselves in front of a bunch of strangers?

The brunette sighed as she grabbed her trainer's bag and reached inside to grab her crosstransceiver. She dialed her number one on speed dial and waited for him to pick up.

Dax's face filling the screen was enough to make Delaney feel tons better, though her glee was interrupted by Dax's message system, indicating that they weren't about to have a long, bizarre conversation about boys, pokemon and other random things (as Dax was prone to going off on tangents). He was probably out training with his pokemon that enjoyed his company and didn't hide under a bed to get away from him because he was an enormous bitch.

Or you know, he was just ignoring the call because the last time they had seen each other in Sinnoh had been weird and tense and awkward and he was quite possibly sick of her shit. Either were a distinct possibility.

"Dax, it's me, Delly. I haven't heard from you since I've been out here and I wanted to say hi," she said, trying not to cry as she recorded the message. "I'm going to battle the first gym leader of Unova tonight and I just wanted… to say hi, I guess. I miss you. Call me back when you're not busy." And with that, she hung up and placed the crosstransceiver in her bag.

"Remember, honey, if you need to, you can always come home."

Author's Note (6/15/14): While originally I didn't feel the need to post an author's note, because you all know how much I love you (hint: it's a lot) for reading and/or throwing me some constructive criticism and I actually got this chapter up in a relatively short amount of time, I now feel the need to as I am reposting this chapter with a few edits.

So thanks Shadow Serenity 57, for pointing out some edits that needed to be made after posting it originally, because I forgot to take out a note from my beta when I got her edits and notes back.

Chapter 6 will be posted within the next 24 hours. Thanks all!