Chapter 5 – Burning Ambitions

Back in their room at the pokémon center, Alex lay awake in bed, his mind swarmed with memories of the day's events, though one in particular continued to push the others aside. He still had an odd feeling about the gym leaders Phobos and Deimos, despite Diamond's easy acceptance and Kimiko's indifference.

"They're gym leaders," she had said when Alex voiced his concerns. "Sure, it was weird and they were creepy as fuck, but they train ghosts, what would you expect?"

"What about the fact that they singled us out of everyone in that park?" Alex asked.

"You were the only one with a ghost, or at least, a visible one," she replied with a shrug.

"And they appeared like right after I let him out, as if they were expecting and waiting for it," he said.

"I don't have all the answers," Kimiko replied, her boredom with the subject evident in her voice. Though she agreed that the whole situation was strange, any concern Alex expressed to her was dismissed with a shrug and, usually, a plausible excuse.

Alex tried to push that event from his mind and focus on the other events of the day. After the odd encounter and the capture of the two water-types, the pair had struggled to find proper names for the new arrivals. Alex settled on Koyomi for his new staryu, simply for the reason that he read it somewhere and liked it. The rather quiet staryu had flashed its core once at the suggestion – the only motion it made since its capture. Unable to decipher if that motion was an approval or not, Alex decided to stick with it until the pokémon showed some sign of dissatisfaction.

Kimiko's new clamperl, for the time being named Ariel in the hopes of eventually evolving her into a gorebyss, was even less cooperative. As soon as she was released, she had closed her shell and refused to emerge for the rest of the afternoon, even when offered food. Feeling a little disappointed, Kimiko then turned her attention to naming the unexpected gastly, who unlike the other two, was a floating bundle of energy. Diamond was not amused at the other ghost's attempts to play with him, but the energy blasts of the dark-type's night shade only served to cause a fit of manic cackling from the gastly. Kimiko eventually settled on the name of Fantomé for the strange spirit.

The pair quit fishing after that, satisfied with their catches, and instead attempted to train up their teams instead of heading right back to the gym, figuring it had been rather foolish of them to march right into the gym less than twenty-four hours after leaving home. Alex figured he wouldn't really be using his new staryu, so he focused on raising his own grass-type. Kimiko, on the other hand, knew she'd need all the help she could get, with two water-types in her party, so she had Radar practice avoiding attacks that Thorn threw at them.

A sudden thump to his right broke Alex from his trance. He turned sharply to see two large, glowing gems that seemed to be floating in midair in the darkness, aimed in his direction.

"Couldn't sleep either, huh?" he asked in a low voice.

"Eye," Diamond grunted by means of reply. The sableye stood from where he'd fallen to his knees, kicked the item – Alex's backpack – that he had apparently tripped over, and waddled back to the chair in the corner where he had, supposedly, been asleep next to Thorn and Radar. Alex mentally shrugged and rolled over, threw an arm lightly around his girlfriend's sleeping form, and attempted to drift away as well. Sleep was difficult, however, as now Alex couldn't help but wonder why his sableye was walking around the room at night.

When Alex awoke the next morning, he found Kimiko curled up close, her head resting on his chest. He reached up and stroked her long, golden hair. She stirred at his touch, adjusting her position so she could see him without having to move too much.

"Finally awake," she whispered, sounding as though she'd only just woken up herself.

"Were you?" he asked.

"About an hour ago, I guess."

Alex tilted his head to the side to see the rest of the room. Though the open door, he could see Koyomi settled in the bathroom, still poking out of the tub full of water where she and Ariel spent the night. Not far from the door, up in a corner of the ceiling, Fantomé mercifully also remained asleep, somehow still afloat. Over in the chair, Thorn and Diamond also rested peacefully, his own ghost-type having settled down for real after being caught roaming. He saw no sign of Radar. Only then did he look back at Kimiko and notice the reason she hadn't moved when he disturbed her; the blue shape on her back moved slightly as he breathed deeply in his sleep. After noting everyone's position, he posed a question.

"Why are you up so early?"

"Why are you?" Kimiko replied with a sleepy grin.

"Just didn't sleep well," he answered.

"Oh, well fine, you can sleep alone tonight." Kimiko pouted, laying her head back down.

"Not what I meant…"

"I know…"

A moment of silence passed as Alex resumed stroking his girlfriend's hair, while she seemingly fell asleep again. However, she soon spoke again.

"So, what's the plan for today?"

"Training," Alex sighed. "Water pokémon or not, Koyomi would need training before a gym battle anyway. Besides, Thorn and Diamond could use some practice also."

"True enough... why don't we just go find something else? You don't have to get rid of Koyomi, but sending a water pokémon against a grass-type expert is just asking for a loss. You know better than that."

"That's funny, coming from you. I only have one. You've got two."

"We'll be fine," she replied.

Alex rolled his eyes, but answered her: "I may… but I don't know. Three may be more than enough this early on."

"That's the whole point of the rule. Besides, you worked with more than that back at the lab every day."

"Yeah, but not training them, just caring for them."

"Your funeral," Kimiko said, laying her head back down, and silence fell once more.

Training proved to be less difficult than Alex anticipated. Kimiko agreed to help, wanting to train her own team, too. They decided first to try having some practice battles in the local park with their full, relatively new teams, to get a feel for how they worked against an opponent cleverer than a wild pokémon. Alex started off with Koyomi, hoping to coax her out of her apparent shyness and get a feel for how she fought. Kimiko sent in Radar, her logic being the same, though Radar at least showed some emotion.

Koyomi proved to be a rather capable battler, able to land attacks swiftly and accurately. Radar, meanwhile, continued to struggle performing water gun on command, though eventually he was able to conjure at least some water with each try, occasionally succeeding in launching a full-on attack. He was getting faster with all the running around avoiding the staryu's water blasts, though. In the end, however, Radar's inexperience led to his defeat, Koyomi having no problems executing orders; the little mudkip just didn't really stand a chance.

Thorn faced off against Fantomé in the next battle. Just like Koyomi, Fantomé proved to be quite capable in battle, despite his rather carefree attitude, although Kimiko found it slightly difficult keeping the gastly focused on the fight. Thorn fought loyally back against her type disadvantage (Alex was low-key thankful that Fantomé appeared to know no poison-type attacks), until Fantomé surprised everyone by pulling off a successful destiny bond just before being struck by a barrage of leaves, taking both pokémon down together.

Finally, Diamond took on Ariel. At first, neither pokémon appeared interested in battling, though after being reminded he needed to obey if he was going to stick around, Diamond at least attacked when ordered. Meanwhile, Ariel simply remained inside her tightly closed shell, heedless of the commands of her trainer. Eventually, whether it was from Kimiko's pleading or Diamond's relentless offence, Ariel emerged and finally began to obey orders. And then, in another surprise to the group, Ariel turned out to be the strongest teammate so far, able to land endless blows on a desperately evasive Diamond even though she was unable to move herself very well. In the final surprise of the battle, Diamond surrendered, ending the battle in a draw.

Alex spent the remainder of the day rotating his team in between hour long practice sessions to perfect their moves. To his disappointment, he discovered that Koyomi knew no ice-type attacks and really had no way to teach her any, as Ariel stubbornly retreated back into her shell as soon as her battle had concluded, and would not emerge for the rest of the afternoon.

Instead, Alex altered his battle plan, focusing on Koyomi's non-water-type moves, perfecting their power and accuracy. Being the only pokémon without a disadvantage against Nyra's grass-types, Diamond's training sessions were focused on throwing a much power into his moves as possible, the goal being to use him as the team's heavy hitter. Finally, Thorn was focused on defensive tactics. Within only a few hours, she had mastered both leech seed and reflect techniques, as well as showing signs of learning how to properly perform synthesis. Excited by the thought, Alex spent an extra hour with Thorn trying to perfect the move, but by that time the sun had started to go down, making further progress difficult. Alex hoped, but doubted, that she could somehow learn it before his gym battle; either that or that none of Nyra's pokémon were able to use it. If they could heal themselves, they were at a disadvantage no matter what types he used against them.

Meanwhile, Kimiko attempted a training session of her own, but by comparison, her team made little progress. Radar did his best and was finally learning to perform water gun on command, though still not without the occasional failure. Ariel refused to come out of her shell, however, and Fantomé seemed more interested in practicing his moves by terrorizing the other pokémon with them rather than on inanimate targets, usually without Kimiko's command. She eventually gave up with a sigh, withdrew Ariel and Fantomé to their balls, and fell asleep in the grass with Radar nestled in her hair.

The two left the park in the late evening, as the sun was almost completely hidden behind the horizon. After a quick dinner at a local sit-down diner, they retreated back to their room at the pokémon center to relax. Intending to put on a movie before falling asleep, they left their pokémon with the nurse until the morning. Halfway through, Kimiko's pokédex rang, signaling an incoming message from another trainer.

"That's Lillia's ring tone!" Kimiko exclaimed with excitement. An old school friend of Alex's, she and Kimiko had become close friends after Alex began dating Kimiko and introduced the two to each other. She had left on her journey as soon as she was ten; Alex tried to convince her to put it off until he and Kimiko were ready to go, but she wouldn't be held down. Since then, she tried to keep in regular contact up until her last call, which had been several months ago.

"Oh my god!" Kimiko screamed into the phone after putting it on speakers. "It's about time! Where are you? Are you okay?!"

"I'm fine!" came a female voice from the other end of the line. "I'd only just replaced my pokédex today! Last time I ever let Etna near it again, I swear. She'd destroyed it not long after the last time I spoke with you. By accident, I think, but I just couldn't afford to get a new one until now. But anyways, I'm sorry I haven't called, but that's why. Anyways, where are you guys?! I was in the area so I stopped by the lab to say hi, and Luke said you two had taken off finally!"

"Yeah, we did," Alex answered. "We're in the pokémon center in Blossom Town."

"Oh, Alex! It's great to hear your voice again; I thought I'd called Kimiko! Anyway, did you guys beat the gym there yet?! Ooh! What starters did you guys pick? How long have you been on the road, exactly? Have you caught anything else yet? Oh! You guys have to–"

"Breathe, Lillia…" Alex said loudly over the voice from the other end of the phone. "You're on speaker."

"Sorry!" Lillia exclaimed. "Oh! You guys totally have to check out my match tonight!"

"What match?" Kimiko asked.

"I was in the final round of the last mono-type tournament down in Pebble Town! Televised! They're airing it again tonight. You have to see it! And wait till you see who I crushed! An all-water team!" Lillia prided herself in her mono-fire-type party, so both Alex and Kimiko were impressed. "Oh! And wait until you see my star player in action!" Lillia pressed on, until Kimiko interrupted her.

"Calm down, Lillia! When is this on?"

"In like twenty minutes, on the repeat of the latest episode of 'Today's Trainers'! Oh my god, tell me you're near a TV?"

"Yeah, there's one in our room, calm down. We'll watch it!"

"Sorry!" Lillia cried again. "I just never expected to actually be on TV, you know, nevermind being on such a top-rated show, and as the highlight of the episode! Dude, they said I have gym leader potential, do you even know how sweet that would be?!"

"I could see it, too," Alex said. "I don't think there's a fire-type gym in Vidiva, is there?"

"No, but then I'll open one! Oh man, I would love to run a gym of my own, how awesome would that be, to be just like Flannery?! I'd be the new hero of Lavaridge!"

"Well, I don't know about you two," Kimiko said with a giggle, "but I have trouble seeing you in the gym leader role, having to settle down and sit still for a long while."

"I can too!" Lillia shot back. "You just watch! I'll be the hottest gym leader in the region!"

"Okay, smart ass, what about the fact that there are already eight gyms in Vidiva?"

"That doesn't really matter," Alex interrupted. "Kanto has, at the very least, ten pokémon gyms, and all of them are official. Gary Oak had collected ten badges once upon a time."

"HA!" Lillia cried. "I could so be a legend here! Not only the first fire-type gym around, but the official ninth gym, the first official gym beyond the standard eight! And not even a water expert will be able to beat me!"

"Maybe you should come down here yourself and prove it," Kimiko taunted. "I've got two water types ready to soak you."

"Oh come on, Kimiko, don't tell me you're going to be a water specialist!" Lillia sounded genuinely disappointed, but Kimiko was quick to correct her.

"Never crossed my mind. Kinda the opposite actually, I don't want to specialize in a specific type, and if I had to it would be psychics. I just… happened to collect two water types so far."

"So what did you catch?! And you still haven't told me who your starters were!"

"Well at first I had no idea… but I ended up picking a cute little mudkip. Or, well, I guess he picked me, really. And then we were fishing and I caught a clamperl. Oh, and also accidentally captured a gastly…"

"How in the hell do you accidentally capture a pokémon?" Lillia asked.

"Long story," Alex cut in, hoping to avoid the subject. "I ended up starting with a chikorita that I'd been working with in the lab for a few months. You remember that egg I'd been taking care of when you last called? That was her. So far I've also got a sableye and a staryu."

"Wow, you two must really hate being traditional," Lillia said, her voice sounding amused. "Not one of those ones you've captured are very common beginner's pokémon."

"Hey, I did try to catch a taillow, just didn't get it. Anyway, we're not complete beginners, after all, are we?"

Lillia laughed. "I guess not when it comes to caring for your pokémon, but actually training them is a whole different story, and I don't think you two know what you're getting into."

"Oh, believe me, we know exactly what we've gotten into," Kimiko said dejectedly. Between the always-energetic gastly, and the completely unresponsive clamperl, Alex couldn't blame her.

"We'll be fine," Alex said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "We just need some experience. And when we do, you're going down, Lillia."

"Bring it on, Alex!" Lillia challenged. "Maybe I'll wander out that way and see if you guys are still in town or maybe I'll just call and find out where you are and we can meet up one of these days, it's been way too long since we've all been together in person. Oh! And then we can all finally go travel together!"

"Wait a minute… what about all the badges you have? You'd be wasting so much time re-visiting places you've already been to while we play catch up. And after ten years, I'm sure your pokémon don't really need the beginner's training we're going to be doing."

"I guess not," Lillia said. "But then, I could train up some babies I've had sitting at the lab. Oh! And then I could help you guys get stronger faster! And then we can all complete in the league together!"

"We'd love to have you along, Lillia, really," Kimiko added. "We just don't want to slow you down."

"Since when has anyone ever been able to slow me down?" Lillia countered.

"Touché," Alex laughed.

"Oh, okay, I gotta go," Lillia shouted suddenly, sounding panicked. "Etna is setting fire to someone's tent again! I'll call you tomorrow to see what's going on. Don't forget to watch my battle tonight! Bye!" And with that, she hung up.

"She's as lively as ever," Alex said as Kimiko shut her dex.

"I'm just relieved she's okay after all this time," Kimiko sighed, leaning back in the chair. "Anyway, there's still ten minutes until her battle is on, do you mind if we…?"

"Not at all. In fact, I was hoping you'd let me put it on, I'd like to see what she's been up to."

"Well then, I'll go downstairs and find us some snacks."

A/N: Yeah, I'm basically going with the "pokédex is a universal tool" option. Phone, pokémon storage, pokédex options, etc.