Disclaimer: I do not own anything, I make no money or profit from this.

Chapter 34: A Rest Stop and Seeing a Familiar Face

[Route 12]

The group were almost at Lavender Town, so they were taking a break for lunch. Lynn was cooking lunch, Clyde was caring for his egg, and Ronnie Anne was trying to work with Poochyena. All their Pokemon were out and doing their own thing. "Come on Poochyena! Will it kill you to work with me?!" Ronnie Anne shouted in frustration. Said Pokemon just barked a few times before walking away from her. Letting out a heavy sigh, she went to join her fellow trainers.

"Still no luck?" Clyde asked, knowing the answer.

"I don't know what more I can do?!" Ronnie Anne shouted to the heavens. "I tried being friendly, I tried being strict, I've done pretty much everything except getting on my knees and begging!"

"Yeah don't do that" Lynn commented, focused on cooking. "Poochyena will never listen if she loses respect for you."

"Does she have respect for me?" The younger girl grumbled sarcastically.

"Of course she does," the older girl replied, still not looking at her. "If she didn't, she wouldn't even listen to you say anything. The second you let her out, she would've ignored everything you say. The fact that she even listens to what you have to say before ignoring you, means she has some respect for you."

"Really?" Ronnie Anne asked, shocked by this fact.

"By the way" Clyde said, entering the conversation. "What's going to happen to that Ghastly?"

Lynn let out a sigh and took a break from cooking, to talk with her tagalongs. The day after dealing with Ghastly at Maiden's Peak, they went to the police station to report what happened. They along with the police contacted Professor Juniper and informed her what was going on. They managed to get Ghastly to tell police what happened to all the bodies he killed, after using some forceful methods. Turns out he moved the dead bodies to a hidden cave, that's why nothing was ever found. They didn't tell Lynn how many they found, but it was a worrying number. Professor Juniper was going to hang on to Ghastly and talk to other Professors about what should happen to him.

"Right now he's currently Professor Juniper's Pokemon, until she knows what to do with him" Lynn said tiredly. "If she and the other Professors she talks to decide he's too dangerous, they'll dispose of him."

This got wide eyes, shocked expression from the 2 younger trainers. "D-D-Dispose?!" Clyde stuttered with fear and shock. "You mean kill?!"

"Are things really that bad?" Ronnie Anne asked with the same tone.

"Yes and I'm afraid so" the older girl replied to both their questions. "While I was never told how many bodies they found, they told me it was an alarming number. Don't forget we only know the eight he told us, even that's too many for me. So Professor Juniper will let me know when she comes to a decision. I'll either be able to keep him, although I don't know if I want to. Or she'll give me back my Dusk Ball when he's been dealt with."

Both trainers looked down depressed, they didn't expect to hear that. "What about the money he made selling those fake talismans?" Clyde asked, hoping to lighten the mood.

"It's going to the loved ones of the deceased" Lynn replied somberly. "Also, turns out the talismans weren't fake. If we bought them and had them that night. They would've put us to sleep the second we entered the illusion area. I guess it was his way of keeping people from finding the truth."

Just as they were feeling even more depressed, Clyde's egg started to glow. "What's happening to the egg?!" Ronnie Anne cried out in alarm.

"His egg is hatching," Lynn replied. All three watched in anticipation, wanting to know what was going to hatch. Soon the light died down and the Pokemon was revealed. It was a trio of honeycombs with faces and small wings. "So it was a Combee," she said, looking at the Pokemon.

"A Combee?" Ronnie Anne asked, confused.

"Yeah, they are normally found in Sinnoh," Clyde answered. "Not only that, but it's a female too."

"How can you tell?" The younger girl asked. She looked the Pokemon up and down, but couldn't see how he could tell.

"It's because of the red mark on the one's face" their teacher replied, pointing to said mark. "Only female Combees have that mark. Not only that, only female Combees can evolve into Vespiquen. So McBride here really lucked out."

"Cool, Congratulations Clyde" Ronnie Anne said, giving Clyde a pat on the back.

"Thanks guys" Clyde said to them gratefully, as he hugged his new Pokemon.

"Hey it's you guys!" A voice called out to them. They all looked to see the familiar face of A.J. running up to them. "It's been awhile since I last saw you guys" he said with a smile.

"A.J.?!" The 2 younger trainers shouted in surprise.

"Long time no see, how have you been?" Lynn asked with a smile.

"Good, and check it out" he replied, pulling a Cascade Badge from his pocket. "I got my first badge!" He said with a large smile.

"I see," Lynn said, before remembering their lunch. "How about you stay for lunch and we can catch up?"

"Sure, sounds great," the young trainer agreed.

So he joined the trio of trainers for lunch. As they ate, they talked about what happened to them since they parted ways. Ronnie Anne, Clyde, and Lynn showed him their Thunder Badge, and Lynn's Marsh Badge. They also told him about the places they had been, and what happened at Maiden's Peak.

A.J. then told them about his win in Cerulean. He then told them how he attempted to win against Sabrina in Saffron City. However he was crushed by her and her team. He was taking a detour to train before going to Vermilion to try that gym.

"Wow, sounds like you guys had some adventure a couple days ago" A.J. said in awe.

"Yeah it was," Clyde replied with a nervous chuckle.

"I still can't believe you challenged Sabrina with only one badge" Ronnie Anne said in disbelief. "Sure we challenged her with only two, but that was a mistake on our part. Even now I'm not sure if we're ready to take her on again."

"Well, it sounds like you've gotten stronger," Lynn commented. "So tell me, have you faced any stronger trainers since we've battled?"

"Yeah I have" he replied, looking down a little dishearten. "I actually battled several of them actually and many of them heard of my gym." This got a wide eyed expression from the two younger trainers. "They all stomped me and my Pokemon. It was like you said, they all avoided my gym because they felt it wasn't worth their time. All of them came from other regions or have traveled to other regions. The difference in skill was like night and day."

"I see, did you learn anything from them?" Lynn asked with a small smile.

"Yeah, I did" looking up at her. "I learned that all the training I did won't matter without experience. Even if I did make it to 100 wins back then, it wouldn't have mattered while out journeying. I needed experience with my training."

Lynn just smiles at the boy, seeing that he changed from their last meeting. A.J. then showed them some of his new Pokemon and he talked with her 2 students. They finished eating and cleaned everything up.

"Well I should be going" A.J. said after everything was cleared up. "I'm still behind and need to catch up to you guys."

"It was awesome seeing you again," Clyde said, giving him a handshake.

"No doubt we'll see each other again" Ronnie Anne said with a fist bump.

"Make it to the seasonal tournament so we can have a rematch" Lynn told him with a simple wave.

A.J. nodded and walked off continuing his journey. The 3 other worldly trainers packed things up and continued their journey to Lavender Town and eventually Saffron City.