Authors notes: Great news everyone I have updated my profile to show Jerry's Pokémon and nicknames just to help with the confusion. I will most likely not be going through the species names of most of Jerry's Pokémon after the first time because Jerry doesn't stop to think, "Yup he is a Umbreon," every time he throws out Loki. So if you ever feel confused you can fall back to this for a quick recap.

Chapter 3: An Evening on the Beach

As we left the little building containing a very thirsty guard that connects Pastoria City and Route 213, the smell of the ocean assaulted my nose and my shoes sank into the loose sand of the beach. This place looked amazing, well as great as it could look with giant boulders and a crappy wooden house on the beach. Amphy happily ran ahead and started leaving footprints into the sand and watching as the waves erased all traces of them. Lilly was floating behind me playing the role of a stalker like the pro she was. And Cole was walking just behind me talking up a storm about possible strategies to use against Azelf. They were pretty farfetched and most of them included psychic barriers and complicated timing that would be very hard to pull off. I wasn't really listening and considering how many times he had changed plans just in the process of leaving the town I assumed that this wouldn't be his last plan so what was the point in really listening.

Then someone burst from the house and ran towards Amphy. I panicked and started running after him to make sure he didn't do anything he might have regretted. As soon as he reached Amphy, he took out a magnifying glass, and stared at the footprints. After a few moments he produced a pencil and notepad from somewhere before scribbling something and then continued staring at the footprints. By this time we reached him he had tossed scribbled and flipped through a few pages. And seeing as to how he didn't seem to pose any real threat, I asked, "What are you doing?"

"Shh, I'm trying to concentrate." he said as he scribbled a bit more on the pad. It looked like he was writing words but the penmanship was so horrible that there was no way it could be considered legible. He stared at the footprints through his magnifying glass for a few more seconds before finally feeling satisfied and turning to us. "Jerry I assume?"

"That would be me," I said, then thought loudly, "How did you know my name?"

"Amphy told me," he said like it was the most obvious thing in the world and instantly making me distrust him, but knowing Amphy's very obvious nickname was something I had to admit was impressive.

"How do you know what he is trying to say?" I asked more than a little confused by this mans knowledge. "Amphy usually makes psychics run for the hills for some reason that they never tell me?"

"Well its a good thing I'm not a psychic then." He said laughing at the thought of psychics running from anything that's not a Poochyena. "I am Dr. Footstep and I am the one and only leader of research on communication through footprints." He said as he stood in a way that made it clear he was proud of his job.

"Hi Dr. Footstep, still reading every Pokémon in sight it seems?" Cole piqued up as he came up beside us. "So whats the verdict this time?" He seemed to trust the lunatic so I figured I could too.

"Ah this one was easy to read. I'll just go right into it." he said as he quickly read over the notes. Then said: "This adventure with Jerry is lots of fun. Amphy gets to go places where I can't go by myself. I get to battle Pokémon I have never ever seen before. I am going to get stronger and stronger for Jerry... And that just about sums it up." He said in a rather mater of fact way. From what I knew of Amphy's personality this seemed pretty sound, although it felt good to hear from someone else. Maybe he wasn't such a bad psycho after all.

"Thanks for the reading Dr. Footstep, but we have to be going now, you understand with night approaching and everything getting very dark. Hopefully we can get to Hotel Grand Lake before it gets too dark to see." Cole said already walking away. I jogged a bit to catch up.

"So how do you know that weird old man?" I asked more to pass the time than to know.

"Eh he pulled that same routine for Espeon when I came through here the first time."

"Yea?" I said a little more interested. "What did he say"

"Eh just something about absolute trust and all that stuff. I already knew it anyway since Espeon only evolves through great friendship and trust."

"So he has never been useful?" I stated not really expecting an answer.

"Well I got a ribbon, does that count?"

"What kind?" Ribbons are nice. Well if you cared for that kinda think. Which I didn't, I just liked how many of them my Pokémon had a habit of earning. And Hoenn offers a lot of chances for ribbons, not that I enjoy entering the contests its just that my Pokémon are so good at it that it feels like a waste not to pick up a ribbon or two, or four each.

"It's the footprint ribbon. And its shaped like a foot." Maybe I didn't need that one to add to my collection.

It was around this time that we were entering the resort area. It looked amazing in the dim light at this time of night with the stars just showing up and the moon barely in the sky. The buildings hadn't even turned on their street lamps yet.

"Mk. We have plenty of time for dinner." Cole said checking his Poketch just to make sure.

"Um I don't think I have the kind of Poke needed to visit this restaurant here." I said lying. The prize money for defeating the élite four for the first time was enough to feed a trainer for about a month even if you didn't spend it cautiously. But I didn't want to spend it all in one place.

"Well I wasn't planning on paying." He said in that way that made me know he was keeping something secret about this place and making me squirm for an answer.

"I am not going to steal food and I'm not paying for yours either.."

"Who said we were?" O.K. So we weren't stealing.

"Ugh. You win who is going to pay for the food?"

"Our opponent." he said while smiling at getting this one over me.

"Our opponent?" What was he talking about there weren't any rival trainers around at this time of night.

"Just come on you will see." Goodie.

As we approached the building a waiter standing at the front door stared at me with a greatly disapproving glare and then turned to do the same for Cole but after getting a good look at him his eyes widened and the started talking very quickly.

"Ah, master Cole, It has been a rather long time since I have seen you in these parts. How has your journey to conquer the élite four been going? Did you plan on Dining tonight? Your Eevee, or Espeon should I say put on such a spectacular show for us last time that we would love to have you any time."

Cole spoke up. "I finished that journey about a week ago, and you're in luck cause me and my friend, Jerry are passing through on our way to Veilstone City and would love to eat before heading through the night. We are in a hurry so we can't stay long but, who can say no to the food here?" Works for me.

"Alright then do you have a particular table you want to sit at are do you want us to decide for you?"

"Surprise us." Cole said and I could detect some excitement in his voice. Apparently things were about to get fun. And I was starting to think that this place wasn't just for food. He wrote our names in his little book with the neatest handwriting I have ever seen, or maybe it just looked that good compared to Dr. Footstep's unique writing style, and then led us into a room field with small tables separated so far out that It took almost a minute to walk to the table he had picked out for us. This place was so much bigger on the inside. Then he sat us across from an elderly couple who looked at us expectantly and handed us both a menu to which Cole opened and immediately said that he would have the chicken contadina and to prevent the waiter from coming back I scanned the menu and quickly ordered the lobster ravioli. The waiter nodded and took our menus then quickly walked off somewhere.

"Ah Rebecca, William has a good feeling about these two trainers." wow talking to himself in the third person. Real cool man.

"But Leonardo, William has a good feeling about all trainers their age" Who is Leonardo?

The man laughed and said, "I guess that William will always be one for children."

"Um I'm fifteen I can't really be called a child anymore." I said not liking this creepy old couple very much.

"How about we get started than?" Cole piqued up while already standing up and moving to an empty spot and fiddling with a poke ball. I stood up and went beside him. I could totally get behind a battle especially after that little kid comment. Cole sent out Espeon immediately and I almost sent out Apollo before considering that a flaming dragon would not be a very pleasant experience for the other diners who had all simultaneously turned to stare adoringly at Espeon. I sighed. I had three choices. One was Amphy, who I would not even let battle a wild Magikarp now. Choice two was Lilly who absolutely hated to fight and probably wouldn't talk to me for a week if I forced her to fight for money. I was almost tempted to do that over choice three which was Loki. I sighed as I pulled out Loki's Pokeball and tossed it getting ready for the response from the crowd, which wasn't the response I had expected. I had expected boos and hisses at using an Espeon and a Umbreon in a double battle which was about as cliché as you could get but it only served to make the crowd happier. Well at least Loki would be enjoying this. He couldn't get enough of the spotlight. Any time he caught on to the battle being recorded or watched, he went out of his way to do what Lilly informed me was something he called Swag.

He went over to Espeon and they started chatting between themselves. When Espeon rolled her eyes I asked, "Lilly what are they talking about?" Something stupid would happen if I didn't keep a close eye on him.

"He is currently 'showing off' his muscles and stating how he can take them all on by his self. He apparently doesn't want Espeon to get hurt so he is instructing her to just sit back and watch. Put that in the most sexist way you can imagine and that just about sums it up." Wow I had to give Loki a talk about being less of an a** to everyone. Hopefully it wouldn't ruin the fight too.

The old couple had finally gotten done discussing their strategy with William "the non-existent" and were preparing to throw their Pokeballs releasing a Chatot from Leonardo and a Purugly from Rebecca.

"Hello William," the Chatot said after looking around. Oh great they got their Pokémon in on it too. I sighed.

A waiter appeared next to the battle area with a couple of flags. "The battle between master Cole and his partner Jerry verses Master Leonardo, Master Rebecca, and their son Master William will begin shortly. We ask that no one interfere in this fight to make it as fair as possible." Great, somehow they managed to convince even the waiter that William was real. I heard Lilly laughing at that thought. At least she knew that William wasn't real. She laughed harder.

I couldn't focus on it because just then the flags went down and the waiter said, "Begin!"

"Loki run in and try to get a headbutt in on the Chatot." he was more than happy to agree to that after his 'I can take them' speech and went charging right in.

"Espeon stay back and give Loki some ranged support" She looked back at him with one of those 'why do you do this to me looks' but took a deep breath and stayed there. Her eyes started glowing in the way that tells everyone that she was preparing a powerful psychic attack.

"Chatot, William says that you should go over the Umbreon and hyper voice it from as close as you can safely get." Leonardo said. Amazing. The great William was the strategist of this battle too.

"Purugly. Faint attack past the Umbreon an hit that Espeon." Crap Espeon couldn't take a faint attack.

"Loki faint attack away from the Chatot and intercept that Purugly."

"Espeon psychic Chatot right out of the air. And brace yourself for the faint attack with a reflect.

"Good Idea with that faint attack, Rebecca, William loved it." said the old man instead of giving new orders to the Chatot. The results of which were that Chatot got off the hyper voice but Loki just disappeared around the same time that the Purugly did. Followed by Chatot being surrounded by a purple glow and being slammed into the ground. Hard. Then Umbreon and Purugly tumbled out of the dark plain, right on top of Chatot. Wow things could not be going any better. Well except that Espeon was not happy about the fact that Loki had actually saved her a pretty nasty hit. But hey she was healthy and that's all that matters.

"Espeon psybeam." Cole called.

"Umbreon dark pulse them both" I said as he almost beat me to it when he closed his eyes and slammed his front paws into the ground making a creepy black shock-wave come out around him knocking Purugly back and pushing Chatot into the ground a little harder. But that did release the psychic hold on him and he took the opportunity to use a U-turn to not only throw Umbreon across the field and onto a table, the table actually took the blow and it seemed to hurt Loki's back a little more because of that, but also got him away from the psybeam that Espeon had aimed at him.

"Thanks for the quick advice William" the Chatot said. Yes, because Chatot hadn't thought of this himself.

"Purugly shadow claw Espeon." Rebecca said as the cat started running towards Espeon and her claws burst into a gray fire that was eerily silent.

"Espeon psybeam." Cole commanded but as she fired the beam Purugly merely hoped to the left and kept running along the side of the attack. Her eyes opened in the way that would make you think a train was coming right at her in a narrow tunnel.

"Loki, quick, sucker punch Purugly, Espeon is in trouble." I yelled as he got up and shook the stars out of his head before looking at Purugly and quickly jumped off the table and did half a front flip before disappearing in a cloud of black smoke. Purugly continued charging at Espeon unhindered and then pounced to use those painfully sharp flaming claws on Espeon. Only inches away from reaching her Loki appeared in another black cloud of smoke and finished his flip driving his paws into Purugly's head sending it crashing to the floor with a very loud thud for a creature that had fur to suppress the blow and Loki simply hoped of behind the cat before turning to face Espeon and I swear he did the closest thing to a flex that a Umbreon is capable of for her. I am sure if she wasn't still so shaken up from the closeness of that attack she would have smacked him in the face but before they could ready themselves Chatot slammed into Umbreon again with the green bubble that indicated a U-turn throwing Loki into Espeon and sending them both flying where they skidded to a halt half way across the restaurant. On the bright side they didn't hit any tables. Espeon kicked Loki off of her and stood up to shake invisible dust off her fur. Loki just groaned and slowly got shakily back to his feet. He wouldn't be able to take another one of those.

"Purugly use a body slam on Umbreon" Rebecca quickly said also realizing how hurt he was. Well at least William hadn't been mentioned for a while I thought right before she turned around and looked at Leonardo who said,

"William thinks that move is a good idea too." Ugh when would it ever end. Well at least after a U-turn Chatot was too far away to get another attack off for at least a few seconds but that body slam would probably put Loki out of the battle. I had to think of something and fast. Luckily Cole was one step ahead of me.

"Espeon finish it with a psychic." Espeon's eyes once again began to glow that unnatural purple color and suddenly Purugly was no longer running but flailing its limbs as it floated above the ground, trapped in a purple bubble. The Purugly went up and up and up, and came crashing down on its side. I didn't need to be a Nurse Joy to know that it was out of the battle. I sighed in relief this battle was pretty much over now that it was a two on one match and that Espeon hadn't even been attacked, minus a tackle from Loki, and everyone else seemed to know it to.

"That's enough Chatot. William says we lost this one." the old man... Leonardo said in a disappointed voice but he got over it quickly as the waiter announced us as the winner. "That was some battle. I don't think I have seen William that excited in a long time." He said as we all walked back to our table and another waiter put our food down. My mouth started watering instantly at the sight and smells that the food made and the recent battle had done a great job in wetting my apatite. He even brought three trays of food for our Pokémon one for Espeon one for Loki and one for Chatot. Purugly wasn't in the best shape for eating right now.

"Since you two have won the battle it's all on us" said the elderly couple almost in unison in a way that seemed practiced. I figured that it was because they had eaten at this restaurant a few times. "I will just take the price of the meal out of your winnings and give you the rest after we eat." Wow the prize money was enough to pay for the meal with some left over these guys must have more money than they let on. We sat down and enjoyed the food as Cole told a story about how his Eevee had evolved here right in front of everyone's eyes. Describing in detail the looks on the faces of his opponents.

When we were all done we exchanged handshakes and Leonardo gave us envelopes with our prize money in it. I was tempted to rip into it but the fact that Cole just slid it into his backpack told me I shouldn't. I followed his example and we both walked out of the building. I for one was glad to be away from the two crazy old people. Then I noticed that Lilly was still laughing. "Will you please inform me as to what is so funny?" I said finally unable to suppress my curiosity since there was no longer a battle going on.

"Yes, that couple had the nicest Gengar named William and he just tells the best jokes. I love the way he mimicked your voice and attitude so well." I was quiet for a moment as this processed. Then I almost yelled at her for not telling me this earlier but found it hard to really be mad at Lilly especially after such a great meal.

"Next time could you please clue me in a little bit earlier." I pleaded and she didn't answer just
continued laughing as we walked out of the building and headed for the north entrance. Well at least we would be full when Azelf ripped us to shreds.

After thoughts: This chapter has the first real battle since Shaymin. And I promise there is more action to come. Also Faint attack and Sucker punch FTW. I don't see them used enough in fics. Anyway I think its refreshing for Jerry not to have a godlike opponent every once in a while.

Thoughts for the next chapter: press the chapter button and see for yourself.