Two steps forward. Wait. Wait.

One step forward. Wait.

With an exasperated sigh, Delaney looked down at Perry, who was looking to the front of the line eagerly. "Don't you think it's a little chilly out for ice cream?" she asked him with an eyebrow raise. The otter pokemon looked at her, equally riled. They both knew this was not Perry's fault. It was all Delaney's.

Whoever heard of an ice cream shop being this busy anyways?

Delaney and Perry had woken up early (if you count nine as early, anyways) to try to be one of the first in line to get a "Casteliacone". All of the locals raved about the ice cream, and they had been out of stock when Delaney had passed them the night before upon arriving in Castelia City. She hadn't expected that so many people (and most of them grown adults! Didn't they have jobs?) would be willing to wait in line for an ice cream shop that opened at eleven. The line had been insane when they had arrived two hours prior, but finally, there were only ten people ahead of them and it looked as if they would finally get their ice cream… Finally.

One step forward. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait.

"Why is this person taking so long?" Delaney groaned to nobody in particular. She kept her eye on the woman and her four children at the front of the line, each one seemingly more desperate for ice cream than the last, whining with a tone that only certainly reminded Delaney of her dislike for children. When finally they left, each with a Casteliacone in hand, the person handing them out to eager customers put a sign on the front that said 'closed'.

Closed?

"Are you kidding me?" Delaney cried out to Perry, who was looking irate at the thought of not getting ice cream as well.

The man in front of her in a business suit looked back at her. "Try again later, kid," was all he said as he pulled out a phone and walked off (probably back to an office that was certainly not happy that their employees were taking two hour breaks to go get ice cream).

"Well, maybe it's time to go exploring then," she said to Perry. The blue otter pokemon did not look particularly happy with the idea of exploring. "Maybe you should go back in your pokeball then, grumpy." Perry looked more than satisfied with the idea and with a sigh, Delaney recalled her pokemon. She briefly thought about letting out another one of her team to spend the day exploring with her, but remembering more than one incident where Charlie had bounded out in front of her to say hello and forcing Delaney to converse with people she didn't want to converse with, she decided against it, even though as a herdier, Charlie was probably less likely to do such a thing… Well, maybe. She would probably get a better spread of the city on foot by herself anyways.

There were goosebumps crawling all over Delaney as she took a step into Castelia, the good kind of goosebumps that she got only when she was in a city. Though she and her father had lived on the outskirts of route 212, she had been raised primarily in the big cities of Sinnoh (seeing as how she had gone to school in Jubilife and spent much of her free time in Hearthrome), and she thrived on the energy of big cities.

She snapped back to reality and began to glance around the streets. She turned down the closest one to her, and was thrilled by the amount of people rushing past her. She loved to look at them all, loved to try to figure out what their lives were like every moment that she wasn't seeing them. Delaney headed back down south, where there were several piers. Delaney walked down one of them to find a large ocean liner docked called the Royal Unova. Only older men and women in expensive clothing were boarding, so she guessed it really wasn't for trainers. Maybe after she was done with traveling she would take a ride on the boat, just for the hell of it.

She wandered away from the pier and back into the city. There were a few more docks worth exploring before she went to go challenge Burgh, and it was still early in the day anyways. A glance down the next harbor showed her that there was really nothing going on there, so perhaps it would be more beneficial to head down to the final pier, the one farthest west.

It was certainly busier than the middle pier, that was for sure. Taking place on the dock was a battle. Delaney casually observed a blonde girl decked out in orange and green, a small girl with cocoa-colored skin and billowing violet hair, a young man with wavy brown hair in green with a scarf curling in the wind, the Team Plasma member…

Wait.

There was certainly a Team Plasma member with a snarky grin on his face. Delaney wasn't sure who the girl with the purple hair was, but the blonde was Bianca, whose face was streaked with tears and the brown haired boy was Burgh.

Something was going on - something that definitely wasn't her problem.

She had helped Bianca before. She had also helped Burgh. She had gone toe to toe with Team Plasma. For ordinary girl Christa White, that was certainly enough. She refused for this new self of hers to become just like Delaney Caldwell. Delaney had never been able to say no. Maybe Christa would be able to.

Instead of waiting for one of the four to throw the attention on her, Delaney turned her back on the scene and ran. She ran all the way back to the Pokemon Center, where, huffing and puffing, she asked for a room key for the night as the nurse on duty took her pokemon. She would pick them up in an hour or so, when she went to challenge Burgh, who would hopefully be done with this Team Plasma nonsense by then.

Until then, Delaney would sit in the room by herself. Maybe she would call her father, or call Dax, or even call her mother back after the nice talk they had the night before. Whatever she was doing, it would not involve Team Plasma in any way, shape or form. That was for damn sure.

Hours later, Delaney walked back out the doors of the Pokemon Center, pokemon back in her possession and ready to rock her gym battle against Burgh. Where the gym was, she wasn't totally sure (seeing as how her exploring expedition had been aborted before she could find it). She glanced around at the unfamiliar faces rushing by her, hoping one of them would stop and ask her if she was lost, but they were all too self-involved to notice how confused she was. That was the one downfall about big cities - nobody really cared too much about your problems. She meandered down the street heading west (seeing as how she had mainly explored the east side of the city the evening before), inwardly hoping that she would stumble across one of the few people she knew so that she could ask for help. Even Cheren would wonderful to bump into about now, though she would certainly never admit that out loud.

As it turned out, though, she really didn't need help. As she reached the last block heading west, she noticed a brightly colored sign that marked the street as "Gym Street". She assumed that this was where the gym was (and if it wasn't, then they really needed to consider renaming their streets). Left on Gym Street led her to the pier where she had discovered Burgh, Bianca and Team Plasma earlier. Right led her down another crowded city block.

Right it was.

Delaney made a sharp right turn at the end of the sidewalk and made her way through the busy street. After a few minutes, she came across a sign that announced the gym and walked through the door. She expected something far more elaborate than Burgh sitting in the middle of a large room filled with elaborate paintings and bright green walls, but there he sat. He looked up at her, surprised. "Christa, how wonderful to see you," he said with a smile.

Delaney continued to glance around at the paintings. "I somehow expected something a lot… busier coming from you."

"I had an interesting little maze going on for awhile," he explained. "But too many trainers complained that the honey ruined their clothes, and it made it harder to battle, so I decided to simplify it for awhile."

"Honey?" Delaney asked, raising her eyebrows.

"In my defense, my gym had the most interesting set-up by far," he said, chuckling a bit to himself. "I'll come up with something to top it though. In the meantime, how about we battle?"

Delaney grinned. "Fantastic idea, Burgh."

"You know, I saw you back there," he stated as he threw a pokeball in the air. Released from it was a small hermit crab looking thing that Delaney's pokedex informed her was a dwebble, which was bug and rock typed. It seemed only logical to release Perry, who was more than willing to fight, finally awake and no longer grumpy.

"Saw me where?" Delaney asked casually as she pushed the button on Perry's pokeball, releasing the otter pokemon.

"At the pier. You showed up for a few seconds and then ran when you saw who was there. Why?" he asked. "Dwebble, use your sand attack!"

It took Delaney a second to focus on the battle ahead of her with Burgh's question on her mind. "Perry, dodge it!" But unfortunately, her lack of focus and Perry's puzzlement at her lack of focus resulted in a scattering of sand landing right in the otter's line of vision. "Damn."

Burgh raised his eyebrows at her. "I can't say I pegged you as a runner," he stated. "Okay, Dwebble, use your faint attack!" The small hermit crab pokemon disappeared briefly. Delaney knew that he would reappear within seconds to strike Perry, probably with a blow from behind.

"Perry, use your water gun!" Delaney said with a bit of a chuckle. Perry still couldn't see, but she would be damned if she let that stop them. "How'd you peg me then?"

Burgh cringed as a jet of water hit Dwebble dead on and forced the pokemon to scuttle backwards a few feet. Apparently Perry was nearly as accurate without sight as he was with perfect vision. The dwebble had still hit Perry, though not as hard as he would have without being hit himself. "As somebody who would always try to help people who needed it," he said.

"I'm pretty sure you had that nasty ol' patrat taken care of without me." And as she noticed Burgh's momentary distraction, she exploited it. "Perry, spray yourself in the face and get the sand out of your eyes, and then use tackle!" And as a relaxed stream of water cleared the dirt out of the dewott's eyes, Burgh stared at her with a bit of disbelief set in his eyes. "Now enough with the distractions, and let's actually have a battle please."

Perry charged forward and hit the dwebble with powerful force, though Dwebble's rocky shell scratched the otter a bit. "Dwebble, try using struggle bug!" Burgh paused as Dwebble began to lash out. "With the way you were in the forest, I never would've expected you to be afraid of Team Plasma."

"Perry, dodge the attack and spray that hermit crab… thing," Delaney called out. She gave Burgh a chilly look. "I'm not afraid of them," she stated. "I told you, you didn't need me."

"If I had needed you, would you have stayed?" Burgh challenged.

Delaney couldn't answer that.

She brought her focus back to the battle, where Dwebble was desperately trying to get close to Perry to attack without being hit by a gust of water. Perry, clearly getting bored with the back and forth movement, decided to get rid of the distance between the two and knock out Dwebble once and for all. Perry charged forward and jumped on the dwebble's shell, and then sprayed the bug directly in the face. Dwebble dropped within seconds.

Burgh raised his eyebrows. "Impressive. Your dewott is pretty crafty," he said, with a look on his face that Delaney couldn't quite place. Disappointment? Disgust? He recalled Dwebble, and Perry went to stand by Delaney, awaiting Burgh's next move. "Let's see if he can handle my next pokemon!"

With that, Burgh grabbed another pokeball, and released a green insect pokemon that stood about two feet taller than Perry, it's long antennae contributing greatly to the height. It's arms were two blade-like leaves. Delaney grabbed her pokedex out from her bag and pointed it towards the pokemon. The pokedex informed her that it was a leavanny, and it was bug/grass type, meaning that unless she became even more crafty, Perry would be down soon. The grass typing meant that Dibs wouldn't be particularly helpful in this situation either… Leaving Charlie, now a herdier thanks to their training in Pinwheel Forest. This could be interesting.

Not that she and Perry were giving up, of course. Delaney turned her head to Perry. "Okay, water isn't going to work, so we're going to have to get creative," she told him with a grin. Perry smirked at her in return, knowing full well that creativity was their strong suit. They still had two more pokemon to go if they wanted to win this thing.

Burgh took the opportunity to start the second round. "Okay, Leavanny, start off with a string shot. That dewott is a lot faster than it looks!" The mantis-like pokemon released a stream of white, sticky gunk from his mouth, but instead of shooting it directly at Perry, it sprayed the battlefield surrounding him, where Perry would be forced to step if he wanted to attack… Which made Delaney's current strategy almost completely ineffective.

She groaned in frustration. "Oh Burgh, you kill me," she said with a bit of a sarcastic chuckle. "Perry, let's just try to charge at it and tackle it. I know it won't be easy, but you can do it!"

"Leavanny, you know what to do when it gets close!" Burgh called with a grin at Delaney. Perry tried to run as fast as he could at the leavanny, but thanks to the string shot, by the time he could actually tackle his opponent, the blow was significantly less damaging than it should have been and Leavanny pretty much just scoffed at the attack. He released a flurry of sharp leaves that pierced the skin of his opponent. Perry collapsed, severely weakened by the attack.

Delaney ran to his side, though her shoes too got stuck in the string shot mess. "You did great, Perry! You get better with each battle!" The dewott smiled up at her as she recalled him back to his pokeball. This meant it was time to change things up. She grabbed Charlie's pokeball and after pushing the middle button to release him, she chucked the pokeball as hard as she could. It landed a couple feet behind Leavanny, in a spot where he had missed dousing with his string shot. In a flash of white light, Charlie was released in one of the few areas where he could still successfully run and charge at his opponent. The herdier let out a bark of excitement. He was more than ready for battle.

"Charlie, try what we practiced out in the forest! Retaliate!" she called. As soon as the puppy pokemon had evolved and gained strength, she had taught him to move like Lenora's herdier had, with the forceful charging and hard-hitting moves. Hopefully Charlie had mastered them.

The herdier moved faster than Delaney had ever seen him move as he slammed into Leavanny, who was sent flying back a couple feet. The bipedal pokemon was knocked off of his feet and landed in a pile of his own string shot. He tried to get up, but was not having an easy time of it. Leavanny had been seriously hurt by the hard tackle, and the sticky goo was not making life easy for him. "Try using razor leaf one last time!" Burgh yelled.

"Charlie, you may get stuck trying, but go bite Leavanny!" Delaney yelled. Charlie looked at her like she was insane for suggesting she go anywhere near the string shot, but he still complied. Because Leavanny, too, was stuck, there wasn't much he could do as Charlie bounded to him (though his run was becoming more of a walk) and chomped down. The combination of attacks and being stuck was all too much for Leavanny- he hadn't fainted, hadn't collapsed out of exhaustion, but it was clear to both Burgh and Delaney that he was done fighting.

Burgh looked a bit more upset at this loss than he had the last. "Well, we still have one more pokemon!" he said, faux cheeriness tinting his voice.

Leavanny was recalled and replaced with a lilac cocooned pokemon with one yellow eye that looked all too much like the bug that had been stalking her in her mother's house. Her pokedex, called out yet again, said it was a whirlipede. It was bug/poison and it had thorns that clearly could do some damage to her pokemon.

"Okay Charlie, we've got this!" she called out, though the herdier seemed less than cheerful at all of the gunk on his paws, courtesy of her last brilliant battle strategy. However, it did seem like he would have a tougher time charging and tackling due to his diminished speed, so it wasn't going to be quite so easy to win this match. "Take him down, Charlie!"

A take down, though, was not so easy with all of the string shot mess around, despite the move being Charlie's specialty. The dog bounded forward as quickly as he could towards the whirlipede, though not quickly enough to really do much damage. He still hit the whirlipede, though not as hard as he would've liked.

It was what came after the attack that concerned Delaney though. Charlie was still standing, but he had a sick look on his face. The area around his snout and mouth turned faintly purple. Delaney recognized the symptoms immediately. "Poisoned… Shit." With that, she grabbed his pokeball and recalled him. There was no way she was going to force him to battle like that.

It was officially down to the wire now. Delaney threw out one last pokeball, and Dibs emerged, ready to rock. He looked at his trainer expectantly, waiting for the go signal. "Okay, Dibs, this battlefield is a mess. There's no sense trying to accomplish anything standing up here," she said with a knowing look. "Let's try going underground!"

"Wait, what?" Burgh was definitely surprised, though Delaney wasn't quite sure why. Weren't drilbur known for digging? "Whirlipede, poison tail!"

Dibs was too quick for the bug though. By the time Whirlipede had even moved, Dibs had dove underground, where Delaney was certain he was tunneling, blades rotating at an incredible speed. When he popped back up, he had somehow managed to choose the exact spot where Whirlipede had situated itself after the failed attack launch. As Dibs came up from under the gym, Whirlipede flew up as well. He landed a couple feet away, on the end of the battlefield closest to Burgh- the end of the battlefield that was not covered in Leavanny's string shot.

"Okay, Dibs, you've got this! Fury swipes!" Delaney called.

"Whirlipede, avoid the attack and use struggle bug!" Burgh yelled desperately, but Dibs was too quick for the bug. He extended his claws and slashed into Whirlipede one… two… three… four times until the cocooned pokemon finally collapsed. Then, Dibs too collapsed, not only exhausted from tunneling under the gym, but poisoned as well. Delaney recalled him quickly, and Burgh did the same with his fallen pokemon. The two trainers looked at each other and finally, after a few moments, Burgh smiled.

"You're just as tough as Lenora said," he said, pulling out a small piece of metal. "This is the Insect Badge. You really earned it."

"Thank you," Delaney said curtly. Her pokemon were poisoned and exhausted. It was time to get them all healed up.

"Wait, Christa," Burgh said. The brunette turned around to look at the gym leader. "I'm sorry. I didn't need your help. I take pride in this city as the gym leader, so I make it my job to go after thugs like those Team Plasma punks. You're just a trainer. It's not your job to help me out. I guess I didn't realize while we were in Pinwheel Forest that you had issues with Team Plasma."

"I don't have… issues." Well, yes she did. "I mean, I'm not afraid of them, if that's what you're implying. I just refuse to become that trainer. You know, the one that keeps getting dragged into things that have nothing to do with them. Like Red and Team Rocket, you know?"

"Or like Delaney Caldwell and Team Galactic?" Burgh's voice was knowing.

Delaney fought to keep a straight face. "Yeah, like her, I guess."

"You can cut the bullshit now. You've all but confirmed it," Burgh said with a small smirk.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," the brunette said, though her flaming cheeks were certainly betraying her.

"Of course you don't." Burgh's smirk had grown to gargantuan proportions by this point. "Cheren filled me in on what happened in the forest, you know. I'm pretty sure that kid just can't resist complaining about things. But he did mention an interesting little blow-up you two had right before we all met up again."

"I don't know what he possibly could've said."

"I think you do," Burgh said. "It's okay if you don't want to talk about it. Really, it's none of my business. You can rest safe knowing that I won't tell anybody." Delaney stayed silent and glaring for a moment before turning on her heel to head out of the gym.

"Delaney!" Burgh called. Before she could catch herself, she paused, though she didn't turn around. "I knew you'd respond to that," he said with a wide grin. "If you find yourself stuck as that trainer again… Just know we have your back. All the gym leaders, I mean. Whether you fight them or not, this isn't just your problem. You don't have to do anything alone."

And with that, for the second time that day, Delaney ran all the way back to the Pokemon Center, and she didn't stop running until she reached the front counter. She refused to be that trainer. She was not getting involved with Team Galactic, not again.

No, ugh, not Galactic. Plasma.

She waited in the front lobby for her pokemon this time- she didn't want leave her pokemon with the nurses for an extended rest, even though they definitely deserved it.

Burgh's words still floated around inside of her head. Delaney knew she had disappointed, and that made her feel bad, yes, but she couldn't just become that trainer again because she was expected to, could she? She had promised herself that as Christa, she wouldn't let herself become the same kind of trainer that Delaney had let herself become in Sinnoh. Wasn't that how she had come to be so burned out on the very idea of battling to begin with? The expectations, the insane pressure- they had all led to her cracking in the end. Was it worth her sanity? Her happiness? Part of her (likely the Delaney talking) said that it wasn't worth it, that here, there were gym leaders who could take care of the problem without ever involving her. Another part of her said that still, people depended on her, and she couldn't let them down. What if they needed her?

She was beginning to think Delaney and Christa really were different people, despite her father's claim that she was just Delaney Caldwell, and always would be.

And now someone knew that Delaney Caldwell was in Unova. Sweet Arceus this was turning into a mess.

"Christa?" The nurse's pleasant voice rang through the lobby. Delaney didn't even think twice before getting up and going to the counter to claim her three pokemon. Call her selfish, but there was nobody she wanted to spend the evening with more than Perry, Charlie and Dibs.

Author's Note (8/10/14): So the combination of me not hearing from my beta and starting two new jobs meant that this chapter took awhile longer than anticipated to get out, so my apologies. Considering this was very similar to the original, it probably shouldn't have taken so long. Those of you who read the original TCatG (if there are any of you) will recognize a new element brought into the fray- Burgh being the first to know just who "Christa" is.

See y'all soon for chapter 11- it's a brand new chapter, yay! (As in, this is probably the first chapter that has no obvious roots in the original story, as I bypassed Route 4 and the Desort Resort in the original.)

Thank you as always for reading! I so appreciate it. :)

~DAT