I stared at the red door for a long moment thinking on what I was about to do. Part of me wasn't entirely comfortable associating with a group claiming to be a PokeTeam, despite all the benefits they seemed to offer. The Calvin that left Pewter wouldn't have done it. But that decision already seemed so long ago… and I'd changed since. If taking that risk hadn't yet led to an early demise, surely this one wouldn't either. I breathed deeply, and knocked.

A voice yelled "Come in!", and I stepped into the reception area. The fat man from last time sat behind his desk, seemingly happy to see me. "Mr. Stone! Good to have you back."

"Thanks, uh…" I said, realizing I didn't know the man's name. He raised an eyebrow, then chuckled.

"It's Desmond. Take a seat, I'll call and let 'em know you're here."

I did, and a few button presses followed by some hushed conversation later there was the sound of footsteps, and Johnny emerged from around the corner that led to the hallway. He gave me a small nod, and a smile. "You made the right choice. Follow me, let's go meet the other initiates."

I stood, and Johnny walked right towards me… then past me, then out the door. I followed, a bit puzzled, as we headed down the street and took a few turns. It wasn't long before we stood in front of a black door on the side of a different warehouse, this one looking slightly nicer. Johnny opened it and gestured for me to go in, then stepped inside himself and closed it behind him. Electric lighting flickered on, and I was greeted by a bare room with three empty door frames.

"Which way?" I asked, and Johnny laughed. He strolled over to the center of the room and pulled up on a string I hadn't noticed before, opening a trapdoor in the carpet and revealing a ladder. I began to get suspicious. "Why all the secrecy? I thought you said this was all legal."

"It is. But Rocket has a large research and development division; we make and store some very important and dangerous products, and we've had competitors try to steal from us before." Johnny grinned, and began to climb down. "You're about to get the grand tour!"

That seemed to make sense, but I double-checked that I had my pokemon on me before I headed down after him, closing the trapdoor behind me. It was a very, very long ladder. Even with my recent improvement in physical fitness I was still left a bit winded by the time I got to the bottom… or maybe it was fatigue leftover from my ordeal earlier. While I caught my breath, Johnny typed a code into a nearby metal door, and it opened on its own, causing a gust of cold air and the distant sound of clanking metal, as well as a kind of insect-like chittering, to fill the small room. "Congratulations, you've passed the physical!" he chuckled, and I groaned. "Welcome to Team Rocket, Calvin. Let's go see the sights."

\-/-\-/-\-/

An hour later I, along with several other 'initiates' that we met up with during our walkthrough, finally sat down together to fill out paperwork and officially become a part of Rocket. My mind was reeling at all the things I'd seen; the place was incredible! Dozens of men in lab coats worked at creating who-knows-what, messing around with contained bursts of electricity and strange purple energies, pressing buttons on huge walls full of flashing lights, keeping enormous herds of paras in specially lit enclosures to harvest rapidly-growing mushroom, maintaining a strange room in which gravity seemed reversed so that water clung to the ceiling and, my favorite, sending oddly friendly rattata swooping around on robotic wings like weird mutant zubat. All those wonders, and Johnny hinted that I'd barely scratched the surface. Briefly skimming the papers I left my mark wherever applicable, filled in all the information I could, and passed them up to the front where a cheery fellow in a nice suit filed them away.

Johnny had stepped out, claiming he had to grab some things. After we'd all finished signing our lives away and were busy chatting excitedly among ourselves about the rest of the facility he strolled back in, holding several large bundles. He placed one in front of each of us, and smiled. "Let this be your official welcome to our family. In this bundle you'll find a jacket with our logo on it, to be worn if you're on official business, as well as a keycard that'll give you access to some of our facilities, shown on the map also included. These facilities can serve as a place to stay, if you grow bored of pokecenters, or a place to contact us directly if you need to. You'll find these keycards also serve as a rudimentary license, with which you'll be able to carry up to two pokemon, but we'll only be giving out one." He paused, noticing most of the room had perked up. "Speaking of, if you'll come up to the front desk here, we have a paper detailing all the species you can choose from."

There was a mad rush almost instantly. Thankfully there were only six of us, else it could have been much more chaotic than it was. Even so, some jostling did occur. I hung back a bit. I already had pokemon, after all, so the concept of another, while exciting, wasn't quite as big a deal as for someone who'd never been allowed to own a proper battler. Johnny and the suited man watched with resigned looks in their eyes as my fellows started to debate the merits of each, one man insisting the poison types were the way to go, another pointing out the versatility of normal types, and the only woman started professing her love of flying types. It was almost funny how these rough, downtrodden looking folks were acting almost like children when faced with the prospect of their first pokemon. I suppressed a laugh.
One by one they walked up to Johnny and told him what they wanted, to which he nodded and marked something down on a clipboard. A drawer in the desk was opened, and the pokeballs were handed out, though everyone was told not to release them under any circumstances until their training, which was to begin in a few hours. Finally, after the mob had cleared, I walked up and looked down at the list.

Zubat, grimer, koffing, rattata, pidgey, spearow, paras, geodude, voltorb, magnemite, ekans, sandshrew, meowth… there were a few interesting ones, but no growlithe. I frowned, and walked up to Johnny and the man. "Is there any chance I can get a pokemon not on the list?"
Johnny grinned. "What we have isn't good enough for you? Maybe. What'd you have in mind, Mr. Stone?"
"Do you have any growlithe?"
Johnny's grin faded a bit, and the pleasant suited guy's demeanor changed instantly. He sneered. "That's a league cop pokemon, kid. We don't got none of those."

I raised my hands up. "Just asking, didn't mean to offend."

"No worries, Calvin. I'm sure you didn't know." Johnny forced a laugh. "Let me see what I can do, though… maybe we can get you something similar?"

"Alright, thanks." I said, a bit shaken. I headed back to my seat, noticing Johnny's harsh whispers to the man, and his answering glare. The suited man stood and left the room, and Johnny pulled out his phone and made a call. He was talking a bit too low for me to hear, but I made out 'growlithe' and 'I'm sure'. Everyone else in the room was glancing between us, and I began to feel a bit exposed. Johnny stood, announced that he'd be right back, and stepped out. Poison-loving guy looked over to me. "What'd you do?"
I shrugged.

\-/-\-/-\-/

True to his word, Johnny returned quickly, an ordinary pokeball in his hand. He gave us all a big grin, like nothing had happened, then spoke. "Alright! Like I said, training's in a few hours; I'm sure you're all eager to meet your new companion. There's a cafeteria down the hall in which you can wait. Just head straight, through the double doors. By the way, the coffee and vending machines… are free." He winked, and a couple guys cheered. "Head on out. Calvin Stone, stay back a minute, please."

My new sort-of-coworkers got up and quickly left, though a couple gave me sympathetic glances. As the door closed, Johnny placed the pokeball down on the front desk and beckoned me up. I walked over. I must have looked nervous, because Johnny chuckled. "Don't worry, you're not in any trouble. Mind if I call you Cal?"

"Yeah, that's fine."

"Cool. Alright, Cal. We don't have any growlithe, but we do have a bit of a challenge for you, if you're willing. We wouldn't have offered it to any of the others, but since you're a trainer already, you might be able to handle it."

"A challenge?" I asked. "What sort?"
"In this pokeball," Johnny tapped it with his finger, "Is a houndour. I'm sure you've heard lots of stories about them."
I certainly had, as had anyone on the continent Kanto and Johto share. Vicious pack creatures that breathe fire and are almost undetectable in darkness, houndour and the rare houndoom are true terrors during long nights in the wilds. Many trainers and even entire towns have been lost to their cursed flame and unending hunger. Happily for all of us, they were quite rare, but… I gulped.
"I guess that is pretty similar to a growlithe." I said, trying to play it cool. Johnny, of course, saw right through me.
"If you'd like, you may have this pokemon. Though it will grow to be incredibly dangerous, that's kind of the point, isn't it? Besides, canine pokemon are often very loyal to the one who raised them. You control that machop of yours very well, it can help you keep the puppy in line until it realizes who's boss." He pushed the ball towards me. "We actually have a trainer on staff today who exclusively uses fire types. If you'd like, I can call him in and he can give a few pointers. He has a houndoom of his own."

I nodded, and touched the ball. It was warm, though whether that was because of the type of pokemon inside or Johnny's tight grip, I didn't know. He left to get the fire trainer, and I had a few minutes to think on what I was about to do. Not accepting the beast was out of the question, of course. They'd obviously gone through some trouble to find it for me, and I couldn't deny the allure of having such a devastating creature on my team. I'd seen Gym Leader Blaine's houndoom in battle once, before the man stopped allowing his title gym matches to be filmed. It almost crushed the challenger's team single handedly before being taken down by a powerful poliwrath, and even then after severely wounding it. Yes, if I was to become truly strong, I needed that kind of power on my side.

The door opened and in walked Johnny, followed by an older, well tanned gentleman wearing a white jumpsuit, who gave me a scrutinizing look. I stood and walked up, meeting his eyes and trying to exude confidence. I offered my hand. He took it and shook roughly, though not anywhere near as rough as Liam could. His eyes had a strange orange hue, and as he stared back they widened, as if surprised, but he recovered so quickly I couldn't be sure I'd seen it, let go, and smiled. "Calvin. A pleasure to meet you, son."
"Nice to meet you too, sir."

The man laughed. "None of that sir business. Call me Greg. Now Johnny-boy here tells me you're to train a houndour?" I nodded, and noticed Johnny briefly grimace at the nickname. "Well, you're in for a treat! Great pokemon. I've had my Betsy for… oh, must've been fifteen years now. She was my second friend, ah we've done some crazy things together…" Greg seemed to be lost in thought. Johnny cleared his throat and he started, then gave me a sheepish grin. "Sorry about that, mind wanders from time to time. So! You ever met a dog pokemon before, son?"
I nodded. "I had a friend whose family had a Snubbull. It liked me alright."
"Well, that's a good sign, but it doesn't help much with general knowledge!" Greg chuckled. "So, the first thing you've got to realize is though it's smart and powerful, this is a dog. It likes to be scratched behind the ears, chew toys, it'll fetch for you if you teach it to, though using anything you want to keep is ill-advised due to all the fire… You should train it like you would any dog, after you've established dominance. I'll give you a list of books you might want to buy. It'll help. Second, this is a 'dark' type, primarily. The fire is a close second. Your houndour will be most comfortable at night, and it will be tempermental, prone to rage over the smallest of things. You can head this off by training it right, but keep it on a short leash around unfamiliar pokemon or trainers. Is it male or female?"
"Female." Johnny said. Greg winced.
"Ooh, in the houndour line the females are the worst. Well, when you first release her, make sure you're well away from civilization, and your other pokemon are out. She is going to attack you. You might also want some protective gear, and stock up on burn heal. They're vicious little things but there's a trick to gaining some initial trust. Buy some bacon and cook it real good, 'till it's nice and crunchy. When she's tired out, toss her a few pieces, then hold one out for her. If she comes up to grab it, that's a hell of a first step. Repeat that for a few nights and soon she'll be beggin' for treats and tummy rubs." Greg chuckled loudly then gazed into space with a fond smile. Before Johnny could clear his throat again, though, Greg recovered and reached into his pocket, pulling out a bright red dog treat. He held it out to me, and I took it. "Throw this as well. Betsy loves cinnamon, and this here is full of it. Now let me write down those books…"
A few scribbles on a nearby paper and a bit of reminiscing later, I had thanked Greg and Johnny had hurried him out the door, as apparently he was supposed to be doing something important. After we were alone again, Johnny slumped against a wall and sighed. "Well, now that that's over. You ready to get out of here, Cal? I assume you don't want to wait around for the class, it's really very basic."
"I think I'm good, yeah." I took a few deep breaths. "Let's get this ladder over with."
"Ha! No, no," Johnny laughed. "We're not going up that, it'd kill us! We're taking the elevator."
"There's an elevator?" I gaped. "Why didn't we take it coming down?!"
"Remember," Johnny said, chuckling. "You had to pass the physical!" I groaned.
A short walk and an elevator ride later, Johnny and I stood outside the building, on the dark street. He shook my hand. "Again, welcome. Glad to have you, Calvin. You'll be hearing from us soon; we've got your pokedex number, and I think I know a job that you'd be perfect for. Have fun with the houndour." He winked, and I grimaced, then laughed.
"Yeah, I'll do my best. Thanks for all this, Johnny."
"Not a problem. Safe travels."
And they were. I got back to the center with no problems, crawled into bed, and passed out.

\-/-\-/-\-/

Due to my nap I woke up very early. The sun hadn't even risen. And so, after doing morning exercises and meditation to make up for my lack of it the day before, I headed out to run a few preparatory errands. First I picked up some burn heals at the pokemart, which was thankfully open. I then waited outside a local grocery store for a while, walking in as soon as the doors unlocked and purchasing some oven mitts, a thick apron, and some bacon. A few words with the chef back at the pokecenter and I got that bacon nice and crispy. I was as ready as I'd ever be.

It was a cloudy day. Nice and shady, which was a plus when dealing with creatures that preferred the dark, but I sincerely hoped it wouldn't rain. I knew the walk to the city limits well by now, and soon I found myself standing in the same field that my team had torn up training the other day. I figured the less grass the better when it came to letting loose a fire type. Two quick flashes later, Machop and Destro stood in front of me. Machop looked oddly eager, his eyes bright. Destro looked… like a rock.

"Alright guys, we've got a new team member." Machop nodded excitedly, and I wondered how he knew. Surely pokemon couldn't hear from their pokeballs? Destro remained motionless, though his gaze was focused on me now. "She's going to be a little troublesome at first, so I want you to subdue her if she attacks. Try not to hurt her too badly. Both of your 'types' are strong against her, so it shouldn't be too hard. Got it?" Destro grunted. Machop practically danced with anticipation. I raised my new pokeball, pointed it at a spot fifteen or so feet in front of me, and released our new teammate.
The houndour materialized, and almost immediately fell over, as if unused to suddenly appearing on uneven ground. She scrambled about for a moment, yipping, then got up and shook herself off, hard, pitch black fur expelling clouds of dust around the bony external ribs on her back. It was adorable, and I couldn't help but let loose a quiet "Aww."
She heard and immediately whipped around to face me and my team. Her hackles rose and she bared her teeth, a truly ferocious growl ripping across the clearing towards us. The bone plate on her head was angled towards us as she charged, much quicker than I was expecting. Thankfully Machop was ready for her.
With a swift karate chop the houndour was thrown sideways across the clearing, rolling a few times after she landed. She recovered quickly, through, and let loose a roar that, though not nearly the equal of her evolved form, was still quite loud. A short burst of fire shot from her mouth which Machop sidestepped. Destro, it seemed, had been paying less attention, and was hit head on. Happily, being a rock, he was more or less unaffected. He did respond with a well-thrown clod of dirt, though, knocking the houndour back over and re-dirtying her fur. While she was down Machop rushed up and punted her straight up in the air. She came down hard, and I winced as I heard the impact. "Alright, enough! Enough!" I yelled, and Machop backed off. Destro dropped the new ball of dirt he had formed up and grumbled.
I hurried over to see my houndour still breathing, still conscious, but obviously in pain. She growled at me, tried to get up, then winced and fell back down. Looking closely I saw that there was a nasty gash on her hind leg. I didn't feel like going back to the pokecenter and delaying our proper introduction, so, pulling out my oven mitts, a potion, and a piece of bacon, I took a chance.
The bacon was tossed at her face, and though still in pain and obviously suspicious, my houndour couldn't help but sniff at it. As she craned forward to taste it, I rushed her from the side and sprayed the potion right on the wound. My aim was good, and the gash began to close immediately; unfortunately, I also received a gout of flame to my stomach, knocking the wind out of me and knocking me straight backwards. Who knew fire could pack such a punch!
My pokemon saw me hit, of course, and didn't take it well. Machop screeched in anger and leapt at my houndour, Destro did his grindy-rock roar. My breath came back just in time for me to yell "STOP!" Machop paused just above houndour, who was cowering at this point, obviously exhausted. "Enough, I said. I'm fine. Leave her be for now." He backed off, but still shot the puppy several threatening glares. I fished out some more bacon and knelt down.
"Hey there, buddy." I said in the most soothing tone I could. My houndour growled and eyed me warily. "I'm your new trainer. We're going to do great things together. But first you have to trust me." I punctuated my statement by throwing another piece of bacon, which was snapped up instantly. I continued. "These are Machop and Destro. They'll be your teammates, and family. We're all going to train together, me included, and get much stronger. You want to be stronger, right?" Another piece of bacon, thrown and snapped up, this time slightly closer. "I know it's scary, but we're your pack now. I'm going to care for you. You'll see." Bacon. Shuffle. Crunch. "Maybe we can even pick a name for you, would you like that? Something big and scary and tough-sounding, like you'll be once you've accepted that you're mine and, in a way, I'm yours." I held out the second-to-last piece of bacon, and my houndour inched towards me, stretching her neck out as far as she could and never taking her eyes off of me. I stared back as she finally got close enough to reach and snatch the bacon, immediately retreating and crunching on it, then looking at me expectantly. I laughed and tossed her the last one, which disappeared in a single snap of her jaws, then returned her.
She got close enough to take food from my hand, without burning me to death. I count that as a success.

\-/-\-/-\-/

Another tough training session with Machop and Destro later we found ourselves sitting beneath a battered looking oak tree, having some well deserved lunch. The sky remained overcast but it hadn't rained yet. I found the break from the sunlight rather pleasant. Not for the first time I wondered how a family like mine, which has supposedly lived in hot bright Hoenn for many generations, had retained such pale skin. I'd gotten quite a few burns over the years from working in the Pewter fields, yet unlike many of my old coworkers, never seemed to tan.

I was also surprised at just how quiet it had been, training in this hilltop field. There were many pokemon in the surrounding forest, but not one had come out to battle us. Perhaps they'd heard what happened to the raticate, or all the zubat. We'd certainly done a number on them… which reminded me. It'd been a very long time since I checked my team's levels. I fished out the pokedex from my bag, pointed it at Destro, and scanned.

'Geodude/Destro. The Rock Pokemon. Height: 2'4". Weight: 67lbs'
I stared at the results, shocked. He'd over doubled in height, and I hadn't even noticed! Then again, two feet is still pretty short. I continued reading.
'This geodude is level 10. It knows Tackle, Defense Curl, Pound, Rock Throw, Rollout, and a rudimentary Magnitude.'
Level 10. Not bad at all, considering last I remembered checking, he was at 4. I turned the device on Machop, and scanned him. I was pleasantly surprised to see his level at 24, and that he'd gained yet another move I couldn't remember teaching him: Revenge. The text listing it was in bold, and so I poked it; a short description of the move popped up. Apparently, if Revenge is used immediately after the user is damaged, it becomes very powerful. Interesting. I'll have to find some way to practice this, I thought, ideally without getting Machop too hurt in the process. Machop had also had a growth spurt. He was approaching five feet. From what I'd read, this meant he was getting close to evolution. I was very excited about that. I'd never seen a pokemon evolve in person before, least of all one of mine. It's supposed to be an intense experience, and I felt Machop certainly deserved it.

I'd been reading up on the leveling system after Professor Oak explained them to me. It wasn't unusual for a newly caught pokemon to gain levels quickly, especially if they were training with someone experienced, as we were with Liam. Unfortunately once they reach level 30 or so progress tends to slow way down, every level after an increasingly difficult grind. That's why, apparently, though there isn't too much difference between a level 11 and a level 13, there can be quite a large one between a level 45 and a level 47. Trainers are advised to train until they hit that level-30 wall before properly taking on the gym challenge. I'd thought I knew quite a bit about pokemon from pop culture and reading my book but apparently I was wrong, as this information seemed very basic and important. Thank goodness for the pokedex.

I had to wonder, though… if such objective ways to rank pokemon exist, why aren't levels shown on high-caliber conference or league matches? I decided to ask the next time I spoke to Brock or Liam or whoever might know.

As I lay there, lost in thought, my pokedex began to buzz and emit a shrill beep. I flipped it open and saw a little window labeled 'unknown caller'. I clicked accept call and picked up. "Hello?"

"Calvin!" a slightly robotic sounding Johnny exclaimed from the other end. "How's the houndour?"

"Oh hey! Not bad, Johnny. She took the bacon at least."

"That's great." I could hear the grin through the phone. "Glad you're getting along so fast. But we have business to discuss. Do you remember that job I mentioned?"

"Yeah, sort of," I said. "You never really went into detail. Just said I was perfect for it."

"Exactly! And you will be. We want you to act as a registered trainer escort for a courier job we have heading towards Lavender."

Well, that was fast. But an escort job didn't sound too difficult. Just down to Saffron and across the way to Lavender, easy peasy, and I told Johnny as such.

"Ah, I'm afraid our package is a bit too sensitive to take past all those Saffron psychics. They're nosy, you see. That's why we need you! You'll be heading down route 5 then cutting through the wilderness to reach route 7. We'd normally send you through Rock Tunnel but I'm afraid it's against the interests of the company to go that way at the moment."

"So you'd rather we go off-route?" I asked, relatively concerned. While the wilderness around Pewter was far from safe, and the Viridian forest full of dangers, it was nothing compared to the wild depths of the interior. Pokemon trainer routes were regularly patrolled and cleared of significant dangers by various levels of League personnel, which was why the local police were so concerned about a Golbat on the surface level of Mt. Moon. The wilderness was not patrolled, so anything could be out there, and I was a trainer without a single badge.

"Don't worry about it! You're not going alone. We'll have two other seasoned Rocket members along with you, plus the actual package handler."

"Ah…" Well, experienced Rockets should be enough. If a company had extensive underground research facilities it should have capable agents. "Sure thing, man. Where and when am I meeting up with them?"

"I knew I could count on you. You're meeting just east of Cerulean, the day after tomorrow at around noon. We'll keep you posted."

Awesome, that'd leave me enough time to challenge a gym trainer or two, which had been my plan in Cerulean in the first place. I agreed, not quite enthusiastically but with more excitement than it seemed Johnny was used to seeing.

"Well… great! I'm thrilled that you're so committed so soon. Your new contacts will have your number, so if worse comes to worst they'll be able to reach out, but we'll be getting you some new communication methods soon. Have a good one, Cal!"

"You too!", I said, and hung up.

Alright. One day. I recalled both Machop and Destro and headed back towards the city. I had a gym to properly visit.

\-/-\-/-\-/

As I walked towards the Cerulean gym I couldn't help but appreciate the beautiful sights. The clouds had cleared up and it was the golden hour, which certainly lived up to its name. The entire area was bathed in glimmering gold light. The bustle of the city was lessened, most having already returned home from work, and what few people remained roamed about at a leisurely pace. Before I knew it I was in front of the ornate gym doors. I strolled into the reception room. This time, instead of a single bored receptionist, there were two unreasonably attractive women with brightly colored hair lecturing a ginger kid.

"-don't care if you think you can make it, until you're old enough to get a license you're not leaving Cerulean by yourself!" The blue-haired one ranted, waving her arms, while the blonde one had hers crossed with a sour expression. "When we bought you that bike we were expecting you to ride it to the store or the cinema, not across the damn region!"

"I told you I'll be fine! Staryu will keep me safe, he's strong!"

"Compared to a wild pokemon, maybe," The blonde one said. "You know full well that isn't the only threat out there! Especially for a young girl traveling alone."

"Exactly! If you asked Lily she'd say the same damn thing. It's three to one, kiddo, and w-" the blue haired bombshell stopped mid-word, having finally noticed me standing there. "Oh, hello! Sorry, we're closing up for today, but there'll be more shows tomorrow."

I opened my mouth to reply, but the blonde woman cut me off. "That's a Pewter City ranger belt." She glared, the harsh expression somehow still adorable on her soft features. "What business do you have with the Cerulean Gym, pebble?"

"Ah, I'm not a ranger." I let out an awkward chuckle. "You know, you're not the first one to assume that. I should really get a different belt."

The blonde's glare melted away and was replaced by a sweet smile, which seemed much more natural. "My mistake. Why are you here, then? Like Violet said, we're already finished up."

"I wanted to schedule a spar with one of the gym trainers, actually. I'm not quite ready for the first badge challenge so I'd like to get some practice in."

"Ah, I see!" the blue-haired Violet said. "I'm afraid they've gone home for the night. Leader Lily is still here but you said you're not ready for her yet, and if you're not ready for her you're definitely not ready for us. I wonder…" she glanced down at the ginger kid and her gaze turned calculating. "Tell you what, kiddo. If you make a good showing against this pre-badge trainer we'll consider letting you explore just outside the cape. If that goes well we can talk more about your trip to Viridian. Deal?"

"Deal! You're on, stranger, Staryu and I are going to take you down!" The little girl made what I'm sure she thought was a very fierce expression towards me, pointing dramatically. I couldn't help but grin back at her.

"Sure, kid. I'm Calvin. What's your name?"

"Oh, how rude of us!" The blonde girl interjected. "I'm Daisy, that's Violet, and the small one is Misty. Together we're the Sensational Sisters!" Daisy did a little pose and waggled her hands. Misty snorted. "Well, almost. Lily is also a sister, though she's in the back wrangling the seel. They've been unruly lately for some reason."

"Oh it's simply awful," Violet moaned. "We use them to cast Auroras during the show but yesterday the timing was all off and one of them almost hit poor Cloyster!"

"Who cares about your bratty seel? It's time to battle!" Misty grabbed my wrist and began to drag me towards the door to the arenas.

"Woah there, kiddo." Violet stepped in front of us. "Gym business is over for today, and you can't battle without a referee. Calvin, would you mind coming in tomorrow? Around noon?" She gave me a smile just as sweet as her sister's.

"Sure thing," I said. "We need to rest up anyway, it's been a long day."

Misty let out a dramatic sigh and let me go. "Fine, but we'll be ready for you! Bring your A game! Two on two!"

Two on two at a water gym when all I had to work with after Machop was a rock or a decidedly unfriendly fire dog? Tough matchup. I decided to cross that bridge when I came to it. "Sounds good, 'small one'. See you then."

Misty scoffed and strode away, her strange orange side-ponytail flopping around in her haste. I smirked, and Daisy giggled. "Big attitude, that kid. Takes after our mom. Don't go too hard on her tomorrow, alright? She's been training for a few months now but she's still pretty inexperienced."

"I won't, but I'm pretty new too. She'll probably kick my ass." I winked, and was rewarded with another cute giggle. "Guess I'll get going, then. See you girls at noon?"

"Probably! Unless something comes up. It's not every day you get to see your kid sister beat down a handsome stranger." Violet leaned close, giving me a heavy-lidded look that left me feeling flustered. "Let me know if you need someone to help patch you up after."

Daisy smiled at her. "Violet, you tease. Let the poor guy go." Violet stuck her tongue out in response. After a couple pleasant goodbyes I found myself wandering towards the Pokecenter, strategizing.

Misty had seemingly revealed her most powerful card, a staryu, in the argument she was having when I arrived. I knew about staryu of course but decided to look them up anyway when I got to my room. At least it wasn't evolved into starmie, those gained a psychic typing which would be a nightmare to Machop. But still, it was a two-on-two. I wondered what the other pokemon could be. Krabby? Tentacool? One of those goldeen? It was useless to speculate, there were too many options. Better to prepare for the threat I knew about.

\-/-\-/-\-/

The room was exactly as I'd left it. I released Machop by the bed and Destro into the corner, on top of a mat I'd laid out for him. I was unsure it was necessary, because for all I knew he'd be perfectly happy on a bare rock floor, but it seemed like the right thing to do. Then I put Houndour's pokeball on the dresser and undid my belt. I decided I wouldn't wear that belt tomorrow. It kept getting me into trouble. Though why the sisters had been so hostile to someone they thought was a Pewter ranger was beyond me… I knew relations between cities weren't the best, but I felt like there was more to it.

On a similarly distressing note, staryu, as it turns out, were amazing. Incredible regenerative abilities, camouflage so good it could successfully imitate elements that weren't its own, the capability to learn some truly devastating moves via TM… their only vulnerabilities, it seemed, were general physical weakness and a fragile gem in the center of their body that somehow housed their consciousness. One solid hit to it could knock them out or even kill them, which was why their evolved form, Starmie, psychically specialized in things like Light Screen and Reflect. A staryu, on the other hand, would focus on Harden and Minimize. Each Harden would increase the effectiveness of their Rapid Spin, which would raise their speed and, combined with Minimize, made them extremely hard to hit. I spent a long while trying to puzzle out how to counter that strategy. Machop seemed to have good accuracy and he was tough, so Rapid Spin wouldn't hurt him much, but if the staryu got set up it'd be near-impossible to stop. If only I had some way to reduce its speed.

I checked what moves Machop could learn naturally around his level on the Pokedex and found it: Scary Face. Despite how terrified I was of him at first I couldn't imagine Machop making an expression frightening enough to cause his opponent to falter, he was too good-natured, but we had to try. Then, one good (but not TOO good, I did agree to go easy) hit on that gem and I'd win. It was too late to start training again, though, so I decided to pass out early and try in the morning. Hopefully we'd have it down before noon, I couldn't think of any other counters.

No matter what, though, I was going to give it my best shot.