A/N: Hey pokemon fans! As I promised last chapter, this one will focus away from Ren and the others. Time for a look at everyone's favorite soloist in PWO.

The harsh dessert winds blew across the dessert between Lumiose City and Coumarine City. Sand was whipped around in the air by the powerful gusts. If someone were to describe the area in one word, it would be horrible.

Even still, there were a small handful of players that made the journey from Lumiose to Coumarine through the dessert with the allure of finding strong pokemon. One of those few trainers was Ryota. He wore a pair of goggles he had bought back in Lumiose City as he braced himself against the powerful dessert winds that seemed determined to bury him in sand.

'I can't let this stop me' Ryota told himself. 'If I can't even make it through this stupid dessert, then I have no hope of defeating Kagutsuchi when the time comes. I need to get stronger'

Ryota couldn't stand the fact that he had let himself become brainwashed by his father. No, Kagutsuchi was not his father! He had given up that right when he abandoned Ryota and his mother and trapped everyone in this game. All he was now to Ryota was the person he needed to kill no matter what. And if he was to do that, he would need more power.

Splitting up from Ren had partially been because of that search for power. He needed to be able to rely on his own strength more, not piggyback off of others. He was grateful for Ren freeing him of Kagutsuchi's brain control, but that only showed the gap in their power. A gap that he needed to close.

Suddenly Ryota stopped in his tracks. He looked around where he was standing. For a moment he thought he heard something. Was it just the wind? The answer to that was shown to be no as a large eruption of sand appeared in front of him. When the sand fell back down, Ryota found himself staring a Drapion in the face.

Ryota leaped back just in time to avoid Drapion's tail that came for him. The sheer force from the tail crashing into the sand told Ryota that one hit from it would be enough to kill him.

"If you want a fight bring it on" Ryota said as he removed a pokeball from his belt. "Magmortar, take it down!"

The capsule device opened up and Magmortar appeared on the dessert sand. It aimed its cannon-like arm at Drapion and stared the wild pokemon down.

"Flamethrower" Ryota ordered. A powerful stream of fire was blasted from Magmortar's arm and hit Drapion with scorching heat.

Drapion quickly countered as it fired a pin missile attack. The barrage attack slammed into Magmortar, making it grunt in pain. The blast sent sand flying at Ryota, who used his arm to shield his eyes as best he could. A few grains still made their way through, blinding the trainer.

"Damnit! I can't see!" Ryota cursed as he tried to wipe the sand out of his eyes. His vision cleared up just in time to see Drapion grab Magmortar with its two arms and tail. It lifted the fire type pokemon into the air and threw it towards Ryota. Magmortar crashed into Ryota and the two of them fell onto the sand.

'This thing's powerful' Ryota thought to himself. 'It's got incredible strength to be able to lift Magmortar like that'. He knew he needed to end this battle fast or he was finished. "Magmortar use-"

"Wait!"

The sudden shout cut Ryota off and he looked over to where the shout had come from. He saw another player running over to him and Drapion. When she finally reached them, she took a moment to catch her breath. From what Ryota could tell, she was a teenager with blonde hair that fell down to her waist. She wore a sleeveless black shirt that seemed a little tight on her with a yellow belt hanging around her waist. She had cargo pants and shoes that were both the same color as her shirt, except for the very end of the pants, which had a green flame pattern. On her hands were bright green fingerless gloves.

'Who the heck is this girl?' Ryota asked himself.

The female player finally finished catching her breath and looked back up towards Drapion. Her emerald green eyes sparkled with excitement. "You're not getting away from me! You and me Drapion, let's go!"

"Hold on. I was fighting this one" Ryota argued.

"But I was fighting it first. It got away when… wait, how did it get away again? I know I can remember. Come on Kaitlyn, think!" Ryota watched as the girl began pounding her head for the memory. As they stood there in the awkward moment, both of them felt the sand beneath their feet shift slightly, quickly giving way and becoming a sand trap. Drapion became spooked by the sand trap and fled.

"Carp! We're getting sucked in!" Ryota exclaimed as his body slid towards the center where several Trapinch were waiting for him.

"Oh that's right! It was those Trapinch" the female trainer realized as she snapped her fingers. "They did this same thing while I was battling Drapion. Dirty little sneakers."

"This isn't the time for that! We need to get out of this before we're buried alive!" Ryota shouted.

The girl simply winked at him in response. "Leave that to me." She grabbed a pokeball from her belt and tossed it into the air. It opened up and a gigantic Mamoswine appeared, crashing into the sand pit. "Use blizzard!"

Mamoswine quickly whipped up a powerful blizzard attack, getting rid of the sandstorm. The icy cold wind also froze the sand trap as well as the Trapinch in solid ice. The female trainer grinned with a victorious smile. "See, I told you I could do it"

"Great, now how do we get ourselves free?" Ryota asked.

"Huh?" Kaitlyn looked down below her to see that her legs were incased in the ice since they had sunken a bit from the sand trap. Ryota was in the same situation as he gave her an annoyed look. Kaitlyn laughed as she rubbed the back of her head. "Oops. Guess I didn't think this through all the way."

"You think?!" Ryota shouted.

Kaitlyn shrugged in response. "Hey, at least we're not getting sucked into the sand anymore."

Ryota sighed as he threw out another of his pokemon. "Garchomp, use dig to get us out of here"

Garchomp came out of its pokeball and tunneled into the ice. Ryota soon felt the sandy ground beneath him crumble away along with the ice and he fell into the hole that the dragon and ground type made. Garchomp grabbed its trainer and leapt out of the hole.

"Hey, not bad" Kaitlyn grinned.

"Garchomp, help her out too" Ryota ordered.

"Don't worry. I can handle this" Kaitlyn assured him as she brought out one of her other pokemon. When the device opened up, an Umbreon appeared on the icy ground. "Use psychic"

Umbreon's eyes lit up with an azure blue glow. Kaitlyn soon found the ice around her slowly crumble away and she was levitated into the air. Umbreon brought its trainer back onto the ground and Kaitlyn gave an appreciative smile as she returned it and Mamoswine to their pokeballs. "Thanks for the help you two"

Ryota returned Magmortar and Garchomp to their pokeballs as well. After they climbed out from the pit, Ryota looked around the area. The Drapion he had been fighting was nowhere to be seen.

"Argh, no fair! I nearly had that stupid Drapion!" Kaitlyn complained as she stomped her foot onto the sand. "Now I gotta go looking for it again!"

"Why bother? Do you really need to fight it that badly?" Ryota asked.

Kaitlyn crossed her arms and pouted. "Well I was going to try and catch it, but more importantly than that I wanted to finish our fight. We got interrupted midway."

"Whatever. I'm leaving" Ryota sighed as he began to walk away.

"Hold on. Why don't we work together?!" Kaitlyn suggested. "We can take down that Drapion easily if we fight together"

"No thanks. I'm not the teaming up type." As Ryota tried to walk away, he found Kaitlyn grabbing onto his arm. Her eyes seemed to be pleading with him.

"Come on! Please!"

"Get off me! I already told you no!" Ryota said loudly as he tried to free his arm. 'Geez, this girl's more annoying than Misaki!' The girl's grip didn't seem to weaken no matter what he did. Finally he gave up and sighed. "Fine. But only until we take down that Drapion. After that you leave me alone"

"Really?! Yay!" Kaitlyn said with an ecstatic cheer as she jumped up and down. She grabbed Ryota's hand and dragged him along as she ran. "This way! Let's get moving!"

"W-Woah! Slow down!" Ryota exclaimed as he tried to keep himself from losing his balance. As he ran with her, he asked the main question that came to mind. "How do you know we're going the right way in the first place?"

"I don't" Kaitlyn replied with a simple grin. "I'm just following my instincts"

'What have I gotten myself into?' Ryota asked himself as he followed, or rather got dragged by Kaitlyn.

"Oh that's right! I forgot to introduce myself. My name's Kaitlyn. What about you?"

"It's Ryota"

"Ok Ryo, I hope we can be friends"

"Don't call me Ryo! And we aren't friends, got that?!"

"Whatever you say Ryo"

'It's official. This girl is DEFFINITELY more annoying than Misaki.' Ryota thought.

Ryota and Kaitlyn continued moving through the dessert for several minutes. The harsh sandstorms made it hard to move, let alone see. Kaitlyn was eager to find the wild Drapion, while Ryota on the other hand was more interested in getting his partnership with Kaitlyn over with. Eventually Ryota sighed and called out to Kaitlyn. "Let's face it. Drapion's gone. Finding it in this dessert is going to be impossible."

"No way! I wasn't finished with our fight and there's no way I'm letting it be considered a tie! That's too boring!"

"Who cares?! It's just one wild pokemon!"

Suddenly, the two of them felt the ground around them shake. An eruption of sand came up near them and the Drapion from before let out a roar.

"You just HAD to show up, didn't you?" Ryota moaned.

Kaitlyn didn't feel the same annoyance that Ryota did. Instead she had an eager grin on her face. "Alright Drapion. Let's settle this"

"Whatever. You found it, so I'm out of-"

"You're gonna get a taste of what the Johto champion can do!"

Ryota stopped in his tracks as he heard that last part. He turned around with his eyes widened and his jaw hanging. "Time out! YOU'RE the Johto champion?!"

"Of course" Kaitlyn replied as she turned towards Ryota and showed the black bracelet around her wrist. "Didn't you notice my champion bracelet?"

Ryota stared in utter shock. He hadn't really been looking at the female trainer in too much detail, plus the sandstorm reduced visibility by a considerable amount so he hadn't really noticed the accessory. But the main reason he hadn't even suspected her was the odd personality. She seemed too… dense.

"Anyway, you can go if you want to now. I've got this" Kaitlyn told him as she turned back to face her opponent. She grabbed a pokeball from her belt and tossed it into the air. "Tyrantiar, time to shine!"

Ryota watched as a Tyrantiar emerged from the pokeball and crashed onto the sandy battlefield. It let out a powerful roar. Instead of leaving like he intended, Ryota decided to stay and watch. He was interested to see if she was really champion material, or if Johto had just been filled with amateurs.

"Tyrantiar, use rock slide!" Kaitlyn commanded. The large pokemon did as its trainer commanded and assaulted Drapion with a series of rocks that manifested in the air. Drapion blasted a few of them away with a pin missile attack, but it wasn't able to block the attack entirely. Once it recovered from the attack, Drapion fired off a sludge bomb attack towards Tyranitar.

"Use focus punch on the ground!" Kaitlyn quickly ordered. Tyranitar smashed its fist into the sand. The sheer force of it brought up a wall of sand that blocked the attack from Drapion.

'She's better than I thought. Her battle instincts are impressive'

Kaitlyn didn't waste any time calling out her next attack. "Hyper beam!"

Drapion watched as Tranitar prepared to blast it away with the powerful attack. It charged up a hyper beam attack of its own as well. The two pokemon fired their attacks simultaneously and the blasts collided with each other. It was a battle of tug and war as the two hyper beam attacks pushed each other back and forth, neither one seeming to give an inch. The shock waves being generated from the clash kicked up sand wildly and blew it in all directions.

Ryota found himself being pushed back slightly from the intense shockwaves. If this kept up, the damage to their surroundings would be devastating. Finally a break in the tie was seen as Tyranitar's hyper beam pushed forward gradually, finally beating Drapion in the battle of power. The attack hit Drapion full force and shaved off a large portion of its health. As Drapion picked itself back up, it could see the odds of it winning were poor. It prepared to escape under the sand.

"Oh no you don't" Ryota said as he threw out a pokeball. "Torterra, use frenzy plant!"

Ryota's Torterra roared as it slammed its two front feet onto the ground. Two massive thorny vines emerged from the ground and made their way to Drapion. The attack hit Drapion before it could escape.

"Now's my chance!" Kaitlyn smirked. She grabbed a pokeball from her bag and chucked it at Drapion. The ball tapped the poison type and sealed it inside. After wobbling for a few seconds, the pokeball clicked. Kaitlyn's face turned into a large grin as she jumped into the air. "Alright, I did it!" She ran over to the pokeball and grabbed it. "A new addition to the team. Welcome aboard Dra-"

Kaitlyn was cut off as Drapion's pokeball became veiled in a white light and disappeared. The blonde trainer widened her eyes in shock. "What? Where'd it go?!"

"Let me guess. You have six pokemon in your party right now, don't you?" Ryota asked.

Kaitlyn paused for a moment, realizing that he was right. She laughed as she bonked herself on the head. "Right. The six pokemon in a party rule. I completely forgot about that. Oops"

Ryota sighed as he shook his head. "Seriously, how did someone like you become a champion?"

"Well let's not sweat the small stuff. Come on, let's get going"

Ryota raised an eyebrow at this. "I thought we were only doing this until you got Drapion?"

"I change my mind. I wanna travel with you for a little" Kaitlyn said. "Come on, it'll be fun!

"How many times do I have to tell you? I go solo" Ryota told her.

Kaitlyn ignored him and grabbed his arm. "You know, you should really stop lying to yourself. You want friends. I can see it in your eyes"

"What are you- W-Woah!" Ryota soon found himself being dragged once again as Kaitlyn ran while holding his hand.

"Come on Ryo. Coumarine City isn't far from here. We can make it by nightfall if we run"

"I thought I told you to stop calling me Ryo!"

Kaitlyn didn't seem to listen as she free spiritedly ran across the sand with her newfound friend.

A/N: So what do you guys think of Kaitlyn. Now four of the five champions have been revealed. Here's a list in case you've forgotten.

Kanto- ?

Johto- Kaitlyn

Hoen- Akio

Sinnoh- Ren

Unova- Kirito