"We're here at last," Gina said softly as she and her companions stood outside of a building with the large 'P' that marked it as the local Pokémon Center. They had finally, finally made it to Fuchsia City after many trials and tribulations over the last few weeks. And there had been a lot of them after the P1 Grand Prix.

For Gina, she focused on earning her Rainbow Badge from Erika. She hadn't wanted to fall any further behind Ash and thus opted to take her most suitable team, given that the Gym Leader had shown a fair variety of her tricks against him. That gave her a leg up on how to construct her team to deal with the plethora of Grass-Types and the various powders they could use to cripple and debilitate her team.

Rattata, Nidorina, and Fearow had fought hard. It been a little close when she sent out a Parasect, a hybrid of Bug and Grass Type that used its gigantic mushroom to produce a variety of powders. But they had earned her one more badge thanks to their hard work.

Then they paid a visit to Caesar Street, a section of the city that covered Pokémon aesthetics. It was a lot more upper-class than Gina had expected, including massage parlors for Pokémon. There they met with the woman who Brock had been having correspondence with for the last year.

Her name was Suzie, which was apparently also the name of one of Brock's sisters. Given that Brock was an active Gym Leader at the time, he couldn't go through the normal means of schooling in order to become a Breeder. So, he enrolled in a correspondence course that she was acting as an instructor for, which led to them knowing one another remotely.

In the end, she had decided to have Brock take care of a Vulpix as part of his education. He was supposed to take care of her for a set period of time, and Suzie would receive reports on her growth until the end, when Suzie would reclaim her. Considering how rare Fox Pokémon tended to be that said a lot, but knowing what she did of him Gina was sure that the vulpine would be in good hands.

Then on their way out of the city Gina started getting headaches. Bad ones. Enough that she had nearly passed out. It was within that local Pokémon Center they became aware that recently some people and Pokémon were starting to exhibit signs of severe drowsiness or headaches, with a Psyduck that was in the center's care being one such case.

The moment Misty pointed out that Psyduck had leanings in learning psychic abilities, Sabrina's words flashed into Gina's mind about her being a nascent psychic. She called out Kadabra, who picked up that there were hypnotic waves present, and Ash responded with having Haunter mitigate the waves before they tracked it down to a group of people recklessly using poorly trained Hypno and Drowzee to deal with their insomnia.

Given that the problem was having a detrimental effect on the local Pokémon and some people, they had to put that to an end. Brock suggested having a Pokémon learn Sing instead, given that sound waves were a lot more manageable to deal with than rampant use of Hypnosis. Then when the topic of Gina being seemingly more susceptible to the hypnotic waves came up in passing, she claimed it was probably a side-effect due to prolonged exposure to Sabrina.

The truth that she might be developing into a Psychic was something she had no intention of spreading around when she had too much to deal with already. Only Kadabra knew and that was because he tended to linger in her mind too much. She didn't need Ash or the others to know—at least not yet.

Misty had also taken Psyduck with her. It had apparently been raised from birth as a household pet, so Nurse Joy hadn't been able to release it into the wild since it didn't have necessary survival skills. So, the Water-Type Specialist offered to take care of it since that was her dominion of expertise.

And after that was the mess with the Grimer and Muk when they were closer to Cycling Road, passing through a city that was nicknamed Gringey City. Based on what Misty and Brock heard of the place, it seemed that the city had over-expanded and ended up with a massive pollution problem. So they were in the process of a huge city-wide restoration program, which involved using Sludge Pokémon in the cleanup effort.

Unfortunately, due to the fact that whoever was in charge of the effort failed to take into account the proper procedure for housing them, as they can easily corrode certain kinds of metal, they managed to get into the local power plant's water channels and clogged it. And considering the fact that the local Pokémon Center was also affected by the resulting power outage, their group had to deal with that in a hurry.

Then a swarm of Magnemite and Magneton showed up to make the situation worse. Ash had been studying up on Electric Pokémon after the Vermillion Gym and suggested that they had been passively feeding off the electricity generated within the plant. Once that food supply was cut off, they grew agitated and lashed out at the threat of the foreign Pokémon intruding into their territory, which meant it ended up resulting in a three-way battle.

That had been a long and stressful night by the time they were done. Brock's Zubat had ended up evolving by the end of it. Rattata purposefully stopped herself from evolving, since she hadn't finished mastering her techniques yet.

"You'd think there would be more people in place to handle those sorts of things," Gina said as they passed through the doorway. "I mean, some of those things wouldn't have been easy to deal with if we weren't relatively skilled trainers."

"Most Pokémon-related incidents tend to be left up to professionals," Misty explained. "If there are no Gyms then the Nurse Joys are in charge of reporting it, and that goes out to either capable professional trainers or a Pokémon Inspector depending on if it involves things related to League-related cases. And if the situation is dire enough or involves criminal activity that the local police force is unable to deal with, then you get the G-Men or the Elite Four involved. That's why Auntie Prima showed up after the issue with Tentacruel and why Bruno was at the P1 Grand Prix."

While most of the structures within the town ringed by woodlands and silence were rustic, the Pokémon Center maintained the standard modern aesthetic found in other places. Misty broke from the group in order to go call her sisters up, while Brock handled getting their rooms for the duration of their stay. That left Ash and Gina alone once they had left their Pokémon in the care of the local Joy.

"So…" Ash began, having taken the seat across from her at a window-side table that afforded them a view of the city. "What are you planning to do for this Gym?"

A hum bubbled up in her throat as she thought for a moment. "Koga uses Poison-Type Pokémon. The straightforward counters are Psychic and Ground Pokémon under normal circumstances, but we've got more than enough badges for him to not let that hinder him. In addition to that, a good portion of the Poison-Types have dual typing that directly lets them counter those weaknesses."

She pulled out her Pokédex and pulled up a list of Pokémon based on their known Types. A good deal of the Poison-Types in Kanto had secondary-typing that directly counteracted the ones that worked best against them. She then set the index on the table for Ash to see.

He leaned forward as he read it. "Wow that's a lot more than I expected. Even Haunter and Bulbasaur would both be options for him to use against us. And considering how strong ours are, I can only imagine how strong ones trained by a Gym Leader would be."

"You probably won't need to worry about any Grass-Types," Brock chimed in as he returned. "There's always some overlap between the Gyms, but you also have to keep in mind that we take a look at what badges you've earned so we don't overlap twice since it'd just make things easier for you. Erika's Badge being the last one you earned pretty much ensures he won't use any of them."

Gina hadn't known that. But it made sense. "We can expect at least one pure Poison-Type like Muk, but everything else is a gamble. Tentacruel, Beedrill, Venomoth, Nidoking or Nidoqueen, Golbat, Haunter… he'll probably pick whatever second-or-third stage Pokémon is a solid counter to whoever I register to use. And since we have so many badges, he'll definitely have at least a few tricks up his sleeves, so I'm having trouble deciding who to have participate."

Ash rubbed his chin in thought upon hearing her opinion. Then he shrugged. "Haunter probably will want to participate. And Pikachu too. And I think Squirtle will be happy to give it a go since he didn't get a chance to challenge a Gym in a while."

It wasn't so much of a plan as he was going to send out who he thought wanted to participate and then wing it. But Gina held her tongue. He had more badges than her and clearly it was working for him. If she preferred strategy to gain the overwhelming advantage beforehand then he operated using on-the-fly tactics when they showed themselves. "Suit yourself. I think I'll go call Gramps up to have him get Geodude ready for me."

She slid out of her seat and went over to the videophones where she saw Misty nodding along to something being said into the receiver with one of her sisters on the other end. Then she hung up and sighed. "Did something happen?"

Misty's gaze turned to her. A faint smile came across her face even as she shook her head. "No, I just finished hashing out some of the details with my sisters. I've decided to send Horsea and Goldeen back to them so they can stay in the Gym."

"I thought you were still taking care of them?" Gina asked.

"Horsea has reached the point where he doesn't need me to constantly watch over him, but for him to fully recover he needs time and the ability to swim freely. That can't happen while we're constantly traveling. But I know that Horsea might be nervous in a place without a familiar face, so sending Goldeen with him should make it so that he'll be able to adapt to living there."

It was the same situation with Spearow when he was growing out his new coat. The Pokémon were locked into an energy state while inside of the balls, stuck in stasis to preserve their current condition. To grow they needed more time to be active, and Horsea needed to be submerged in water constantly to live, so the only way for him to make a full recovery was if she left him in the Gym.

"What about the Tentacool?" Gina remembered the reason Misty was caring for it was because it was in a much worse condition. "Are you sending him too?"

She shook her head. "My sisters and the other pokémon will be more than glad to pamper Horsea, but Tentacool's behavior would likely cause issues. I'll use the time spent normally with Horsea to work with Psyduck… poor thing doesn't even know how to swim."

"Wartortle might be able to help in that regard," Gina offered. They both had the relatively same form and were both Water-Type Pokémon, so she and Ash's Squirtle were probably the best teachers for it to learn to swim. At least until Wartortle eventually evolved and became much bigger.

Misty responded with a grateful smile. "Thanks for that."

That said, the Water-Type Specialist proceeded to make her way back to the table. As she watched her go, Gina couldn't help but feel that Misty was taking on a lot more of a burden than people their age normally did. Even for Pokémon Trainers things like the incident with the Tentacool and taking in sickly, unfriendly, and unwanted pokémon were well-above what was expected of her.

Knowing that she and her sisters had been abandoned by their parents, Gina wondered if that explained part of why Misty did so. Few their age truly knew the pain of abandonment. Perhaps that was why she wanted to fill in the void left behind in the hearts of those pokémon.

Pushing those thoughts aside for the moment, Gina turned her attention to the videophone and dialed her Grandfather's laboratory. The line rang four times before the screen displayed the visage of Professor Oak. "Hi Gramps. We made it to Fuchsia City."

"What impeccable timing," he began with a note of cheer in his voice. "I was just thinking about you and Ash. Thanks to the information from the both of you, I managed to improve the database for the Pokédexes—including a list of potential Abilities for the majority of pokémon within Kanto."

Before she had realized it, a smile had cut across her face. She had been wondering how his research into that was going, given the pokémon she had been collecting prior to joining Ash's group had been geared towards that end. The other three trainers were supposed to help with that, but if their catch rate were anything like Ash's they weren't helping things along much. "How soon can you update them?"

"I've already got the driver updates ready to go. All you and Ash have to do is simply connect a data transfer cord to them and I'll start the download."

"Ash, bring me your Pokédex so I can update it," Gina called out towards him even as she pulled out her own. By the time he rose from the table, she had already begun the download process. "By the way, Gramps, can you get ready to send me Geodude?"

"Oh right. That's the second thing I wanted to mention. It seems that your Geodude had been training while here because it evolved a short while ago."

The fact that he had evolved should open up more options for her when it came to the battles ahead. "Tell him I'm happy to hear that. I'll be using him for the next two Gyms while I leave Eevee in your care for a while."

"Certainly." The clicking of keys on the keyboard followed as Professor Oak typed something off-screen before looking back up as the other trainer from Pallet arrived next to Gina. "Good to see you, Ash."

"Nice to see you too, Professor," Ash greeted him with a slight nod, even as Gina took his Pokédex to get it set up. "How is Charmeleon doing?"

"He's doing fine," Professor Oak assured him. "In fact, now that I've finished the initial update, you're free to recall him whenever you wish. I'm sure that he'll be happy to see you again."

Hearing the Flame Pokémon was doing well brought a smile to his face that Gina thought suited him. The two then made small talk as Gina gave them the luxury of not listening very hard as they discussed things like what was happening back home. She continued overseeing the unpacking of the files until the installation was complete.

"Now, let's see what sort of information you have on file…" Her finger pressed on the directional pad to sift through the catalogue of pokémon, searching for one of her own that she was the most curious about. "Here we go. Kadabra's Ability is either: 'Synchronize' or 'Inner Focus'?"

"Those are the two more prevalent abilities that I have seen while consulting historical data and observation, partly contributed by the Saffron City Gym and Agatha due to her constant contest against them. 'Inner Focus' simply means the pokémon in question maintains enough resilience that they are unlikely to lose their concentration in a battle upon being stricken."

"Not sure that Kadabra has that one," Gina mused. Indeed, she was still trying to help him when it came to battling given that he still contained a bit of timidness from his time as an Abra. "What's this other one do?"

"Ah, 'Synchronize' is what I call the ability to induce psychosomatic afflictions that are suffered in battle to their opponent. Basically, if you were to poison Kadabra then he would transmit the symptoms of the poisoning to the opponent as well. So far, it's an ability that only the Psi Pokémon line seem to possess in Kanto, and I believe it to be due to their prolific inherent psychic capabilities."

"Would it work on a Poison-Type Pokémon?" Gina asked. If it did then she could already see a method of using it to deal with Koga by turning his own poison against him. Not that she wanted Kadabra to suffer in the first place, but she was considering all options.

Unfortunately, her grandfather shook his head. "No. Even if it is psychosomatically induced, a pokémon naturally immune to such afflictions wouldn't be affected. I can't tell if its due to their inherent biology or some sort of mental limit on the part of the victim as of yet."

"I guess it would be too hopeful if that was the case." Though catching and raising an Abra was hard enough that few trainers actually did have them. "That being said, Kadabra is probably going to find out one way or the other since I intend to bring him into battle against this Gym Leader."

"Incidentally, if neither one of those abilities fit your Kadabra's capabilities, there is potentially a third ability similar to a trait typically only found in the Clefairy species—'Magic Guard'."

She pulled up the glossary. It was apparently capable of shutting down the damage caused by all but direct means. Against a Poison-Type Gym Leader it would be excellent. "I wonder if it works on a similar principle to how both of the other abilities work, something like a hybrid where they mentally shut out the pain, so it doesn't allow it to affect them in battle."

"That is an interesting theory, but I have found so few cases in the historical data that I can only hypothesize such being the case. However, as I said, possessing it is exceedingly rare and hence why I have labeled it a Hidden Ability for the species in contrast to the other two. If, by some chance, your Kadabra does possess it please record the battle data if you get a chance."

"Sure thing, Gramps."

He then turned his attention to the boy next to her. "Incidentally, Ash, that condition I mentioned that afflicted the other Charmander is also a Hidden Ability due to its rarity. I've labeled it 'Solar Power' given it is reliant on harsh sunlight. Your Charmeleon possesses 'Blaze', which enhances its firepower as part of its fight-or-flight instinct. It can be of benefit in a pinch, but you shouldn't try to force it."

"I won't," Ash promised. In all honesty, he would rather not need it than to leave Charmeleon in a critical condition to enforce it. Especially considering his past. "Thank you for everything, Professor."