A/N: Hello readers. First of all, I want to apologize for how late this chapter is. Between holiday events and other fanfics, I have been really busy. Unfortunately, updates on this story are going to be a little less frequent.

On another note, I am really happy to hear all of the great feedback and suggestions everyone is giving me for this story. I am happy to see how excited you all are to see this story progress.

"Alright trainers, it's time for another match!" the announcer yelled out into the crowd. "Let's give a round of applause to our two trainers! First up is the genius trainer that has had three perfect victories already! Give it up for Ren!"

I walked out onto the battlefield as the crowd roared with excitement. I could see Misaki and Clair up by the front row, cheering me on.

"And now for his opponent" the announcer continued as the mystery trainer emerged onto the field. As I looked at her face I suddenly remembered where I had seen her before. I didn't even need the announcer to reveal her identity. "The mystery trainer who has had no trouble getting here either, it's Caitlyn!"

After the announcer called out her name, Caitlyn unwrapped the cloth covering her face and tossed it to the wind. "I was wondering if we'd meet here Ren." The blonde girl told me.

Out of all the people I had met in PWO, Caitlyn was one of the last people I expected to meet here. She obviously had the skills in battle, being a former Team Reaper admin. However, I thought she'd still be in hiding after the PK group was taken down.

"I'll admit, I didn't expect to see you here Caitlyn." I said.

"I owe you for helping me before. But I don't plan on letting you win." Caitlyn said. "I've been training hard ever since we last met. I always cowered before my brother and let him control me. But this time I'm gonna fight for myself."

'She's really grown up a lot in the past few weeks.' I thought to myself. "Bring it on. Show me what you've got."

"It looks like our two trainers are ready! Just like the other rounds this will be a three on three battle. Switching out is allowed. Battle begin!" Caitlyn and I threw our pokeballs simultaneously. Her pokeball opened up, revealing a Vespiquen. The bug type pokemon let out a buzz-like cry to its opponent, Rotom, who was in its wash form.

Caitlyn was the first to call out a move. "Vespiquen, use bug bite!" Her pokemon charged towards Rotom.

"Counter with shadow ball!" I ordered. Rotom charged up an orb of dark energy and fired it towards the bug pokemon. Vespiquen quickly avoided the attack, closing in towards the ghost type. Vespiquen bit its fangs on Rotom, causing its opponent to cry out in pain. The bug type threw it into the air.

"Power gem!" Caitlyn followed up. Vespiquen manifested several diamond shaped stones at launched them at the midair Rotom.

"Discharge!" I countered. Rotom released a field of electricity around its body, colliding with the stones and shattering them. The electricity continued on its path towards Vespiquen.

"Evade it, Vespiquen." Caitlyn calmly ordered. Much to my surprise, Vespiquen danced around the streams of electricity, dodging the attack completely.

'She really has gotten better.' I realized. I couldn't let this continue. It was time to get serious. "Rotom, hydro pump!" Rotom aimed its hose at the bug type and fired a powerful blast of water. Vespiquen was barely able to evade the attack, but Rotom refused to give up as it maneuvered its hose to chase the bug type with the hydro pump.

"Power gem once again!" Caitlyn commanded. Her pokemon fired another series of rocks at Rotom, this time hitting their target. The hydro pump attack canceled out and Rotom fell onto the field. Caitlyn cracked a grin on her face. "Finish with bug bite!" Vespiquen sped at Rotom with the same attack it began the battle with. It got dangerously close to Rotom. Unfortunately for Caitlyn, that was just what I wanted.

"Discharge!" I called out. A wide field of electricity emerged from the ghost type. Vespiquen quickly reacted and pulled back, only getting hit by a small amount of the attack. However, the pokemon's eyes widened in shock as the electricity seemed to spread around the whole field, trapping it in the attack.

"Vespiquen!" Caitlyn called out in worry. "How did… no way."

"Looks like you figured it out." I smirked. "That hydro pump was never intended to damage Vespiquen." Caitlyn stared at the field, covered with water from Rotom's earlier hydro pump. The water conducted the discharge attack's electricity, making it wider and impossible to dodge. Electricity covered the bug type as it struggled to move. Now was my chance.

"Shadow ball!" I ordered. Rotom fired the attack at Vespiquen. Shockingly however, Caitlyn wasn't planning on going down easy.

"Signal beam!"

Vespiquen fired the attack at Rotom, passing by the shadow ball attack. The two attacks hit simultaneously, knocking out both pokemon.

"Vespiquen and Rotom are both unable to battle!" the referee declared. Caitlyn and I looked at the big screen monitor, shading in a pokeball for both of us. We each only had two left. We grabbed our next pokeballs and tossed them out. This time the matchup was Starraptor vs Flareon.

I wasted no time in starting things off this time. "Starraptor, use areal ace!" The bird pokemon did a barrel roll in the air and dived down at the ground, turning at the last second and speeding at Flareon.

"Flamethrower!" Caitlyn ordered. The fire type spit out a powerful stream of flames at its incoming opponent.

"Get out of the Starrapor!" I quickly ordered, but it was too late. Starraptor was moving too fast and wasn't able to change direction in time. The fire attack sent it back, making it crash along the field. Starraptor quickly recovered its balance and flew back into the air. "Close combat!"

"Flamethrower!" Caitlyn ordered once again. Flareon repeated the attack, but this time Starraptor evaded the stream of fire and charged at its foe. The flying type unleashed a barraged of attacks on Flareon. The fire type could only endure the hits as Starraptor continued to attack. When it finished, Starraptor flew back towards me, putting some distance between them. With its now lowered defenses, Starraptor had to be careful. I needed to end this quickly.

"Brave bird!" I called out. A thick blue aura covered the bird pokemon as it charged at Flareon.

"Flare blitz!" Caitlyn ordered. Flareon sped at Starraptor with its own veil, this one made of fire.

Neither pokemon backed down from the challenge and collided with each other, creating a huge explosion. The audience waited with anticipation of the outcome, until Starraptor flew out of the smoke triumphantly. Flareon laid on the battlefield unconscious.

"Flareon is unable to battle! Starraptor is the winner!" the referee declared. The crowd roared with excitement at the suspenseful battle in front of them. While I still had more pokemon than her now, Starraptor was nearing its limit from the attacks and the recoil from brave bird. Caitlyn returned Flareon and held the pokeball containing her last pokemon in her hand. I didn't even need to guess what my final opponent would be.

"Gardevoir, let's end this!" Caitlyn yelled as she tossed out the ball. Gardevoir elegantly stood beside its trainer with a determined look on its face.

"Don't give them a chance to attack Starraptor! Use areal ace!" My pokemon quickly sped at the psychic type.

"Thunderbolt!" Caitlyn countered. Gardevoir unleashed the powerful electric type attack, which hit Starraptor hard. The bird pokemon cried out in pain as it crashed onto the ground. Its health bar hit zero and it returned to tis pokeball. Now we each had one pokemon left.

"I've gottta give you credit Caitlyn" I told the girl as I grabbed my last pokeball. "You've definitely gotten stronger. You're the first to push me this far in this tournament."

"I trained tirelessly for this battle." Caitlyn said. "I wanted to face you in a one on one battle to see how far I've come."

"Well you can definitely be proud of yourself." I complimented. "But I don't plan on losing this." I threw my pokeball into the air. "Infernape, time to shine!" My energetic partner emerged onto the battlefield and hopped up and down, ready to fight. Some of the crowd seemed bewildered by my choice of picking a fighting type to go up against a psychic type, but it didn't matter to me. Infernape was the first pokemon I got in PWO. It always came through for me when I needed it, and that wouldn't stop now. "Let's do this Infernape! Use fire spin!"

A spiral of flames emerged from Infernape's palm and flew towards Gardevoir. The psychic type didn't even try to evade it, becoming trapped in the fiery vortex.

"Psychic!" Caitlyn ordered. A faint blue light was seen from inside the fire spin attack and in an instant, the attack was blown away with a powerful force. The crowd gasped in awe.

"Folks I have never seen anything like this!" The announcer yelled to the excited audience. "This is by far, the greatest battle we have seen so far in this tournament!"

'Increadible' I thought as I stared at them. 'It's hard to believe how far she's come in such a short time.' I couldn't let this throw me off though. I had to keep fighting.

Caitlyn didn't give us a chance to recover. "Shadow ball!" Gardevoir spread out its two hands and formed a pair of shadowy orbs, throwing both at Infernape.

"Dodge and then use thunder punch!" I yelled. Infernape jumped over the two orbs and charged towards its opponent with its fist veiled in an electric aura.

"Don't stop Gardevoir! Nonstop shadow ball!" Caitlyn called out. The blonde girl's partner continued to form shadow ball after shadow ball and fire them at Infernape. The fire type stopped moving towards Gardevoir, having to focus everything just to avoid the relentless assault.

"Hang in there Infernape!" I called out to my partner. Infernape did its best to keep dodging the attacks, but one of them finally connected, creating an opening for a series of others to hit.

"Thunderbolt!" Caitlyn continued. The psychic type released a stream of thunder from its hand and flew towards Infernape.

"Get out of there Infernape!" I quickly ordered. Infernape leaped into the air, barely evading the attack.

'I need to end this now.' I told myself. 'Put everything into one last assault.'

"Infernape, thunder punch into the ground!" I ordered. The crowd looked confused at by seemingly bizarre command, but Infernape didn't even hesitate to do it. We had been together for this entire time. Infernape trusted me and I trusted Infernape. The fire type's fist became cloaked in electricity and it slammed its fist into the ground, creating a huge dust cloud, shielding it from view.

"Close combat!" I followed up. Gardevoir didn't even have a chance to react as Infernape sped out of the dust cloud and began a relentless barrage of attacks on the psychic type. Gardevoir's health gradually decreased bit by bit and it couldn't even dodge or block the incoming hits. Infernape was just too fast.

"Time to finish this Infernape!" I yelled. "Mega punch!"

Infernape's fist became veiled in a shining blue aura. It brought the shining fist back and swung it forward with a powerful impact. Gardevoir was sent rocketing back, flying past Caitlyn and crashing into the wall.

"Gardevoir!" Caitlyn cried out. The young girl watched as her partner struggled to keep itself standing. The blow was too powerful however and it fell over, returning to its pokeball.

"Gardevoir is unable to battle! The winner of the match is Ren!" the referee declared. Following the ref's words, the crowd roared in applause at the incredible battle that had happened in front of them.

"And there you have it everyone!" The announcer yelled. "This battle was a relentless game of push and shove, but Ren has emerged victorious!"

The rest of the battles that day were all exciting to watch, but the battle I had with Caitlyn was all people could talk about the rest of the day. Misaki and Ryota made it through their battles as well. Once it became night, several trainers gathered in the pokemon center to see what the matchups for the top eight would be. The monitor turned on at six thirty pm while Misaki, Clair, and I were eating at a table booth. The screen showed the pictures eight trainers who had made it this far as well as their names next to the pictures. It then shuffled the pictures and showed them facedown on the screen in a tournament bracket. It then turned them over and revealed the matchups. Looking at my picture, I saw my opponent.

"So I'm facing Riley." I grinned. "That should be fun." When I looked over at Misaki however, I saw her face trapped in a trance of shock. "Misaki? What's wrong?"

Stunned speechless, the black haired girl could only point at her picture on the monitor. Following her finger, I looked at who her opponent was and I realized why she was stunned into shock.

Third match in the top eight of the Sinnoh Pokemon League: Misaki vs Ryota.

A/N: Time for a battle that has been LONG in the making. I hope you are all excited to see the outcome of this next match.

Also, for any RWBY fans out there, I have recently started a RWBY fanfic with fellow writer, Deviljho's Hatred. It is called Roar of the LION. If you like RWBY, please be sure to check it out.