Roy and Antonia

by Besprizornye

Roy and Antonia are two new pokémon trainers who have found themselves traveling through the Kanto region together. Roy is impulsive and excitable while Antonia prefers to do everything by the book. Their personalities and approaches to pokémon training often clash, but they will need to learn from each other if they want to beat their common rival, Roy's brother Jesse.

23. Chapter 23

After the two battered charmeleon were returned to their respective poké balls, Roy and Antonia let AJ lead them to the nearest pokémon center. The nurse working at the front desk recognized the older trainer right away and fawned over him as if she were his cousin or his aunt. She was so starstruck that she only looked disgruntled for a moment when AJ told her about the fire that he and Roy had started with their battle, and the nurse quickly assured them that she would notify the proper people about checking out the site of their battle.

"Sorry, I'm a little bit of a hometown hero," AJ apologized after they had dropped off their pokémon and he had fended off more of the pretty young nurse's compliments. "It comes with the territory." His comments and the easygoing way he delivered them made Roy frown, but AJ gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder and asked, "So, how about we get you two some food?"

Having already visited Saffron City, Roy and Antonia were expecting the same pretentious menus and ornate dishes that they had experienced at the pokémon center in the northern edge of the city. As a result, it was a bit of a shock when the food which was offered was hearty fare of meat, potatoes, and locally-grown vegetables. "Not all of us are strict city folk," AJ said with an affected twang. "There's a lot of farms around Saffron City, and we know what we're doing, too."

"It looks great!" Antonia said before diving into her heaping plate of food.

"Tastes great, too," Roy admitted around a mouthful of mashed potatoes.

The three trainers ate in silence for a while until AJ broke the ice by asking, "So, what brings you two to Saffron City? Are you thinking of challenging the gym leader here for the Marsh Badge?"

Roy's mouth was still bulging with food, but Antonia was happy to answer, "Yes, actually. That's why I was trying to train my magikarp, well, my gyarados now. I'm hoping it will help me beat Sabrina."

"Interesting strategy," said AJ in a measured tone. He shifted backwards on his chair and scratched his chin before he asked, "Roy said that you already have some badges, Antonia, does that mean you two took the Diglett Tunnel route after your journey started? I'm assuming you and Roy got your first pokémon in Pallet Town from Professor Oak, since you have a charmeleon and a bulbasaur."

"No, actually," Antonia started to explain, which made Roy halt his own attempt at speaking, "we went over Mount Moon. I have the Boulder, Cascade, and Thunder Badges."

Roy piped up, "And I only have the Thunder Badge so far, but I'm going to go back for those other badges later." When he noticed that Antonia was looking at him curiously, Roy shrugged and said, "Just want to make that clear from the beginning."

AJ listened to both of the younger trainers intently and then said, "Well, I bet you two have a lot of interesting stories to tell. If you'd like any advice, I can tell you about Sabrina. She's not like any other gym leader in the pokémon league."

Before AJ could go on, Antonia said, "We know." She followed up the blunt sentence by adding, "I've, ah, challenged Sabrina before, and I lost. I thought a lot about what she said, though, and I think that I know how to beat her."

"I didn't challenge her after she beat Toni, but I think I'm ready now," Roy added when AJ's eyes fell upon him next.

"Well, if you want any help, let me know," AJ offered again. "Even if you don't, I'd like to watch both of you battle her. Is that all right?"

Roy and Antonia looked over at each other before answering. After a short silent exchange, both of them nodded and said, "Okay," to AJ.

The next day, Roy woke up to find Antonia and AJ eating breakfast outside of the pokémon center and watching their pokémon alternate between eating and playing with each other. Antonia's bulbasaur was especially interested in AJ's machamp and was examining the muscular pokémon from every angle while the machamp flexed and posed for its admirer. Her beedrill was playing some game with the older boy's dratini that bore a resemblance to hide-and-seek, while AJ's charmeleon ate its breakfast next to its trainer. When Roy came outside, the red pokémon stood up and looked at him expectantly.

"Sorry, no rematch today," Roy told AJ's pokémon as he let out his own charmeleon. He repeated himself to Charmeleon when the new arrival looked as intent on a battle as his older counterpart. "We've got to keep you ready for our battle with Sabrina!" he explained when Charmeleon looked annoyed.

"Well, good morning, Roy!" AJ called to the other boy while, beside him, Antonia offered a small nod of acknowledgement. "Ready to get your next badge?"

"You know it!" answered Roy at once. He only belated remembered how sullenly he had acted towards AJ the day before, but the feeling seemed foolish now that he was enjoying the comforts of a pokémon center again and, more importantly, there was a big battle on the horizon. "When do we get going?"

Antonia stretched the arm that wasn't holding her bowl of cereal to the north and said, "AJ said there's a station not far from here. We can catch a tram there and get to the other end of the city pretty quickly that way." She smiled at Roy and said, "But you should probably eat breakfast before we go. I don't think it'd be good to battle the gym leader on an empty stomach."

AJ added, "Good advice, Antonia. There's plenty of food, Roy. Maybe even more than you can eat!"

"We'll see about that," Roy said and, after he let out his nidoran to join the other pokémon, he ducked back inside and came back with a plate overloaded with a bit of everything that the pokémon center had to offer. "I can see why you hang out here instead of going on another journey, AJ," Roy told the other boy. "I don't think I would ever get sick of eating like this."

Their group finished their meal and then, after they returned their pokémon to their poké balls, AJ led Roy and Antonia to the station where they could grab a ride to the part of Saffron City which held the city's pokémon league gym. As traveling trainers, Roy and Antonia were entitled to free passage on the tram, but AJ had to hand over a few coins to the driver before he could board. Then they were off. Since he and Antonia had been in such a hurry to get moving after her loss to Sabrina, Roy hadn't been able to take in all of the sights of Saffron City on their last journey through the largest city in the region. Now he was almost pressing his face against the glass to see everything, at least when he wasn't craning his neck to try and glimpse the top of the buildings that towered overhead.

Roy's observations only came to an end when he noticed that Antonia and AJ were huddled together, deep in conversation. "What are you two talking about?" Roy asked as he turned around in his seat to face the other two trainers.

"Well, AJ was just asking me if I was planning to use my gyarados in my battle with Sabrina," Antonia said with a small frown. "I didn't let it out since I didn't want to get in trouble at the pokémon center, but now AJ's telling me that it might have been a good idea to try and work with Gyarados more before having it battle, especially against a gym leader."

"But that was your whole plan, Toni," Roy said, trying to keep from sounding too annoyed. "You were going to try and surprise Sabrina with a new pokémon, remember?"

Antonia shifted in the tram's stiff seat and said, "That's true, but I was trying to work out some alternate strategies with AJ in case that doesn't turn out to be a good idea."

"I just thought it might be a good idea for Antonia not to put all of her eggs in one basket," AJ told Roy smoothly. "I'm sure you could be a big help if you'd like to join us, Roy."

"What's your plan again?" Antonia asked Roy. "Do you think you could surprise Sabrina with your nidoran's water gun technique like you did with Surge?"

Roy's hand found the back of his blonde head and he admitted, "I actually, uh, haven't thought much about what we're going to do. I guess I should start coming up with something though, huh?"

AJ eyes widened and wondered aloud, "You were just planning to wing it? How in the world did you beat Surge?" When he saw Roy's face darkening, AJ quickly said, "I'm just saying that Surge and Sabrina are two of the strongest gym leaders in the region. Take it from a guy who's battled them both plenty of times over the last couple of years, you need to have a plan, Roy."

"Maybe," Roy said. The lone word came out more sullenly than he had intended it, but instead of saying more he turned halfway so that he could look out the window again and watch the world of concrete, glass, and steel through which the tram was speeding. His show of indifference meant that soon Antonia and AJ were back to speaking in hushed tones.

Roy did his best to ignore his fellow passengers and tried to work out how he was going to beat Sabrina and her psychic pokémon. But although he toyed around with a few half-formed ideas, Roy had nothing concrete by the time that the tram came to a stop and AJ ushered Roy and Antonia off, saying, "This is our stop." After their feet were on the dull gray sidewalk, AJ helped orient the younger trainers by pointing out the path to the nearest pokémon center and the gym.

"Then the park where they held that pokémon martial arts tournament must be that way," Antonia offered. That got a laugh from AJ and Roy and Antonia filled him in on what had happened when they and Roy's brother Jesse had competed in that strange competition as they walked towards the Saffron City Pokémon Gym.

The conversation grew strained as the trio of trainers drew nearer to Sabrina. It was as if the weight of her previous loss was exerting a physical pressure on Antonia that made her pace slow and her face pale. Roy wasn't entirely immune from the weight of the challenge ahead, but his response was not to hesitate but to push through whatever anxiety he had without affording it much thought. He was able to help Antonia do the same by grabbing her by the hand and pulling her after him through the front doors of the imposing obelisk of a building where they would try to win their next badges.

In contrast to their last visit to the Saffron City Pokémon Gym, there were no trainers working with their pokémon on any of the half-dozen battlefields which took up the bulk of the polished wooden floor. The only other person in the gym besides Roy, Antonia, and AJ appeared to be one boy who was sitting behind the front desk and resting his head on his arms while he dozed. As the pair of heavy double doors closed behind the new arrivals, he sat up at once and rubbed sleep from his eyes. "Wake up, Cameron," Roy said with a grin, "we're here to challenge Sabrina."

"Roy? Antonia?" Cameron asked groggily. His sleepy expression was matched by the yawning yellow face on his gray t-shirt, at least until he saw AJ. Then Cameron's entire body seemed to come to life and he bounced around the desk to greet the three trainers. "AJ! What are you doing back here? I thought you weren't doing the whole gym challenge thing this year!"

"Hey, Cameron," AJ said, matching the younger boy grin for grin, "no, you don't need to worry about me. I'm just here to watch and support these two challengers."

Cameron's eagerness faded somewhat when he turned to look at Roy and Antonia. "So, you're back, and both of you want to challenge Sabrina this time?" When they both nodded, Cameron said, "Well, I better let her know that you're here." He closed his eyes and put a hand on his forehead before humming deeply in his throat. Then, while Roy and Antonia were watching his display, Cameron reached behind the desk and picked up the desk phone and pressed a button on it with the same hand. "Hey, Sabrina," he said into the receiver with a smile to his bemused audience, "we've got two challengers for you down here. Yeah, okay, I'll get things set up."

After hanging up the phone, Cameron gestured for Roy, Antonia, and AJ to follow him to one of the centermost battlefields. "So, which one of you is going first? Antonia?"

"Actually, is it okay if I battle Sabrina first?" Roy asked Antonia. "I've been looking forward to this since I got the badge from Surge, and I want to get my battle in while I'm still fired up!"

"Well, okay," said Antonia, "it'd probably be helpful for me to sit back and observe for a while anyway."

Roy stepped up to the battlefield and first stretched one arm then the other across his chest, then he pulled his poké balls out of the pockets of his shorts and let out Charmeleon and Nidoran in twin bursts of red light. While his pokémon performed their own warm-ups, Roy smiled at Antonia and flashed her a thumbs-up. Antonia started to return the gesture, but stopped when the door in the back of the gym opened and Sabrina walked into the room.

"What a pleasant surprise," the gym leader said with a slight purr in her voice. "Antonia and Roy, welcome back to my gym." The dark-haired woman turned her attention to AJ and her smile for the older trainer was more friendly, though it still bore the imprint of a predator. "Hello, AJ. You just couldn't stay away, could you?"

"I'm only here to support these two," replied AJ with an uneasy smile of his own.

Ignoring the tension in the air around them, Roy said loudly, "I'm here to challenge you, Sabrina. I'm Roy of Pallet Town and my pokémon and I are going to beat you!"

Sabrina's gaze returned to Roy and her green eyes sparkled with mirth. "So confident, even after what you saw last time you and your little friend came to my gym? It'll be fun humbling you." The gym leader strode towards the middle of the battlefield and waited for Roy to join her there. "What's the matter? Nervous?" she asked with more than a hint of teasing. Roy just looked up and met Sabrina's eyes steadily as she said, "Remember, you'll be picking which of my pokémon you'll be fighting. You can use as many pokémon as you'd like to try and beat my one." Sabrina's eyes flickered over to where Charmeleon and Nidoran were watching her and Roy. "I hope you have more pokémon than just those two."

"That's all we need to beat you," Roy shot back. For a moment, Sabrina's mouth thinned but then she smiled again as she waved her hand and three red and white poké balls came out of her handbag to circle slowly in the air between the gym leader and her challenger.

"Choose carefully," Sabrina started to say, but before she could say anything more, or try any tricks with the levitating poké balls, Roy reached out and decisively grabbed one of them. "Well, looks like you trust your instincts, Roy. Surge would be proud of you."

Roy ignored the comment and handed Sabrina the poké ball he had selected. When she opened it, the creature that took shape was a familiar sleeping pokémon with short gold fur and thin brown armor on its upper torso. "An abra," Roy said, "we've met one of those before."

Sabrina seemed amused by Roy's reaction to her pokémon. As she started walking back to her end of the battlefield, the gym leader said offhandedly, "Show me the trust between you and your pokémon and you might be able to beat me." Then, just as she reached her destination and turned around to face Roy, her abra vanished with a crack and reappeared in front of its trainer, its eyes still closed and its body still relaxed.

"Good luck, Roy!" AJ called from the sidelines, and Roy waved to him and Antonia, who looked concerned.

Next to them, Cameron was putting on a pair of cheap sunglasses before announcing, "A match between the gym leader Sabrina and the challenger Roy! The leader will be allowed one pokémon while the challenger will be able to use two pokémon, with substitutions!" Then, to Roy, Cameron echoed AJ, "Good luck, Roy!"

"We don't need luck, do we Nidoran?" Roy asked his purple pokémon, which sprang nimbly into the battlefield and squeaked his enthusiasm for the battle ahead.

"The challenger has chosen Nidoran to face the gym leader's abra! Trainers, pokémon, begin!" called out Cameron and almost immediately his words were followed by a blinding flash of light that made Roy take a step back.

Even as he was rubbing his eyes, Roy asked, "What was that? Did your pokémon do that?" Instead of an answer from Sabrina, Roy heard a crack as her abra vanished again and reappeared somewhere else on the battlefield, though he couldn't be sure without his eyes. "Nidoran!" he cried. "Use your ears to keep track of Abra! It has to be making some kind of noise, right?" Although he couldn't see it, Roy imagined that his little pokémon was nodding his head in acknowledgment of his trainer's order.

Between the two trainers, Nidoran stood, as blinded as his trainer, but his large ears were twitching and swiveling this way and that to detect the telltale sound of his foe's breathing. When he heard Sabrina's abra, Nidoran turned to the sound and fired off a burst of water which struck the vulpine pokémon square in its thin chest. With another crack, the abra teleported away to another location.

"No bad," Sabrina said coolly. "But now it's our turn." Roy's vision was just coming back when he saw a cool blue glow escaping from between the gym leader's abra's closed eyelids. His nidoran was turning towards the other pokémon when the abra brought its two spindly arms and then drew a ring of blue energy in the air in front of it. With a thrust of its arms, Sabrina's pokémon sent the circle bobbing erratically towards Nidoran. Unnervingly, the projectile wasn't accompanied by any sound, but Roy's pokémon managed to leap out of the way so that he wouldn't be caught in the middle of the attack. Still, the edge of the ring still clipped one of Nidoran's tiny paws.

Roy's pokémon let out a squeal of equal parts pain and surprise and hopped awkwardly around to face his opponent. Nidoran found Sabrina's abra floating in the air and tracking the smaller pokémon's movements with its forearms. The same telltale glow of blue flickered through the abra's closed eyes and Sabrina's pokémon produced another ring of energy in front of its spindly body. Nidoran's eyes were still watering from the earlier flash of light, but he managed to spot the incoming attack and darted to one side to avoid it. Unfortunately for Roy and his pokémon, the shape of the blue projectile warped awkwardly in midflight and reangled itself towards Nidoran, without hardly losing any of its speed. This time the attack was an unqualified success, and the bulk of Nidoran's body passed through the ring of blue energy while the rest of the attack broke against his paws and large ears.

Without knowing anything about the technique besides what he could observe through his bleary eyes, Roy wasn't able to predict what kind of effects a direct hit would have on his pokémon. He quickly learned as he watched Nidoran sway around dizzily on the gym's polished wooden floor. The pokémon shook his head futilely to try and ward off the nausea and disorientation that he was feeling, but even that small bit of motion proved to be too much for Nidoran's disrupted sense of balance and the purple pokémon stumbled and fell to the ground. While Nidoran tried to regain his footing, Sabrina's abra repositioned itself with another crack which split the still air in the gym and reappeared hovering over its struggling foe.

"Those big ears are such a ripe target for a psywave attack," Sabrina remarked to Roy with a patronizing smile. "Attacking pokémon's senses is child's play, and if you haven't trained them properly, they won't be able to fight back."

"Nidoran, poison sting attack!" Roy shouted, yearning to try and prove the gym leader wrong.

From where he was lying on the ground, Roy's nidoran whipped his head around too quickly and had to halt his attack to wait for the room to quit spinning. While Nidoran was recovering, there was another crack as Sabrina's abra took up a new position over the battlefield and unleashed another psywave attack. Gritting his teeth to try and ward off the aches in his head and body, Nidoran tried to leap over the ring of blue energy but was clipped again and landed awkwardly on his side.

"You certainly have a large ego for such a novice, Roy," Sabrina said mockingly. "I can hardly believe that you really got the Thunder Badge from Surge. How could you have beaten him in a battle if this is the best you can do?"

Roy's face flushed and he ground his teeth together as his fingers dug into the palms of his curled hands. But he didn't look at Sabrina, or even her pokémon. Instead, his blue eyes were fixed on Nidoran. "Come on," he said forcefully. "One good hit, you can land one good hit, Nidoran!"

His pokémon's ears twitched at the sound of his trainer's voice, and Nidoran staggered to his feet. The small purple pokémon swayed back and forth on his feet, but he didn't fall and glared defiantly up at the abra floating nonchalantly overhead.

Sabrina smiled indulgently at Roy and Nidoran's defiance. "You're thinking your pokémon will be able to dodge the next attack and strike back before Abra can teleport away, aren't you, Roy?" When her opponent's only response was a barely audible swallow, Sabrina laughed. "Don't count on it. Psywave, Abra! Finish him!"

Her pokémon held out its thin arms again and drew another circle of blue energy in the air in front of it. Then Abra hesitated for the briefest moment before launching the attack at Roy's nidoran. This time, instead of trying to avoid it, Nidoran stood his ground and watched the incoming psychic attack intently before lowering his head and launching a thin poisonous barb from the horn atop his head. The poisonous missile sailed through the hole in the middle of the ring and struck Abra right in the center of its thin chest. The alarmed pokémon vanished with a sudden crack, shortly before its psywave attack struck Nidoran and Roy's pokémon crumpled to the ground.

When Abra reappeared, its movements were nervous and erratic. Without waiting for Sabrina's command, it started to draw forth another attack, only for Roy's charmeleon to leap onto the battlefield and shield Nidoran with his larger body. Cameron shouted over Charmeleon's growls, "Nidoran is unable to battle! The winner is Abra! The challenger will send out his next pokémon, or, already did, I guess." Cameron laughed nervously to himself in sharp contrast to the matching fierce looks etched on Roy and Charmeleon's faces. "Is Charmeleon your next pokémon, Roy?" he asked quickly.

"That's right," Roy said. His face softened as he held out Nidoran's poké ball and returned his fallen pokémon in a flash of red light, but hardened again after that. "Charmeleon and I are going to win this."

Sabrina's eyes narrowed and she snorted. "One lucky shot doesn't mean a thing, Roy. I hope your charmeleon got a good look at what happened to your last pokémon, because he's about to suffer the same fate."

Cameron's eyes darted between the gym leader and the challenger before he said, "Um, the challenger has chosen Charmeleon to face the gym leader's abra! This one's for all the marbles, so, begin!"

"Move!" Sabrina barked at her abra the same instant that Roy's charmeleon started towards the levitating pokémon. Abra drifted through the air, careful to stay out of reach of Charmeleon's claws. As the two pokémon squared off, Sabrina mused aloud, "I can read you like a book, Roy. Your pokémon's fairly strong, but it's easy for Abra to stay out of reach of his claws. Your nidoran took us by surprise once, but that won't happen again." The gym leader punctuated her sentence with a snap of her fingers, and then the still air of the gym was filled with a sequence of cracks, each starting before the echo of the last one had died, as Abra teleported rapidly around the battlefield.

Charmeleon's head swiveled around the battlefield, watching Abra's erratic display through eyes narrowed to thin slits. As his pokémon waited, Roy told him, "Get ready to attack with your fire, Charmeleon!" Without ceasing tracking his foe, a fire built up in Charmeleon's throat and grew until small flames escaped from his mouth and licked at his lips. When Abra finally stopped and prepared its psywave attack, Charmeleon spun his head and launched a string of fireballs at the floating pokémon.

Sabrina's abra abandoned its attack and vanished before Charmeleon's attack could land. The fiery missiles hammered the ceiling high above the battlefield and sent a shower of sparks and dust drifting to the ground below. Roy and Charmeleon had already looked for and found Abra by then and Charmeleon was preparing to gather another mouthful of fire for his next attack.

"So that's your strategy," Sabrina said contemptuously, "but it won't work. Your pokémon can't hit what it can't see!" With that, the gym leader's abra appeared in front of Roy's charmeleon with its thin hands held to its forehead. There was a blinding flash of light and Roy barely got his arm up to shield his eyes from the worst of it. Charmeleon, on the other hand, was stunned by the suddenness of Abra's attack and had closed his eyes too late to save himself from being blinded.

But losing his sight didn't stop Charmeleon from launching himself at the nearby abra, and he managed to scratch three painful lines in the frail pokémon's chest before it teleported away to safety. When it rematerialized floating above the corner of the battlefield furthest away from Roy's charmeleon, Abra was breathing hard enough that the rising and falling of its shallow chest would have been visible to Roy and the match's spectators had their eyes been working properly.

In the stillness of the battle, Roy's laugh was a shock to the other trainers. "You really shouldn't have gotten so close to my charmeleon," he said merrily even as he tried to alleviate the effects of Abra's blinding attack, "I might want him to stick to his fire attacks, but he's never liked doing that. Charmeleon would rather use his claws."

"Then reading your thoughts is even more useless than I expected," snapped Sabrina. "Your pokémon is so poorly trained that you just let him do whatever he wants? What kind of a trainer does that make you?"

"You tell me, but it sounds like your abra isn't doing so hot!" Roy shot back with another laugh.

Sabrina's eyes narrowed at Roy, but her glare did nothing to dissuade the boy's good cheer. "We'll just end this quickly then," she said coldly, "a psywave attack or two will have your pokémon on the ground and then another one will finish him off."

That put an end to Roy's laughter and his face grew somber as he finally blinked away the worst of his blindness. He looked over to his pokémon and found that Charmeleon was still struggling, having been much closer to Abra than Roy when its opponent had attacked their senses. "Remember what Nidoran did with Surge's voltorb?" Roy called to his weary pokémon. "Keep moving until you can see again! Don't stay still long enough for Abra to attack you!"

Charmeleon grunted his acknowledgment and then began to lumber around the battlefield. He didn't move nearly as quickly as Nidoran did, and the speed which he usually used in his attacks was noticeably lacking.

"What is this?" Sabrina asked callously. "Running a few laps won't save you or your pokémon from losing to me. Abra," she called, but instead of giving the order that was on the tip of her tongue, the gym leader paused.

Roy was looking at her intensely, a small smile playing on his face. "What's the matter, Sabrina?" he asked. "Not sure what we're going to do? Am I going to try and have Charmeleon attack your abra with his fire or with his claws? Is he going to listen to me? To be honest, I'm not sure myself! You talked about the trust between a pokémon and trainer, well, this is our trust! I trust Charmeleon to beat your abra, and you don't even trust yourself to give a command unless you already know what your opponent is thinking!"

Sabrina was about to respond when Roy's charmeleon suddenly opened his mouth and sent a spray of flaming projectiles at the gym leader's abra. "Move!" she shouted and her pokémon frantically disappeared with its telltale sound, only for Charmeleon to lock onto its new position scant moments after Abra's reappearance.

Another fiery salvo followed, which Abra teleported out of the way of, but the attack was closer this time.

"Getting tired?" asked Roy.

Sabrina's eyes shifted uneasily between Roy and his pokémon, weighing a decision that she made too late for it to save her pokémon. "Psywave!" Sabrina ordered, but even as her pokémon started to draw its ring of blue energy in front of it, Charmeleon looked straight up and launched his biggest fireball yet right through the center of the unfinished ring. The blast struck Abra's head and the pokémon jerked violently and then plummeted to the ground.

"Abra is unable to battle, the winner is the challenger's charmeleon, and the winner of the match is Roy!" Cameron announced as soon as Abra's body had hit the ground.

Sabrina made no move to correct him, and she returned her pokémon to its poké ball with a sour look on her face. Then, the young woman straightened her back and walked over to Roy to shake his hand. Both of them, gym leader and challenger, ignored Antonia and AJ's stares and unspoken questions as they locked eyes. Their mutually harsh expressions lasted only for a moment before Roy grinned and Sabrina responded with a smaller smile of her own. "Well done, Roy," she said and pressed something into his hand. "I didn't think that I was going to give up the Marsh Badge to you, but that just shows that I still have a lot to learn. Perhaps I've grown too cocky, too reliant on my abilities, and, yes, not trusting enough in myself and my pokémon."

Roy didn't say anything, but something that flashed through his mind made Sabrina shake her head and she said, "I can hardly believe that mine is only the second badge that you've earned, Roy. Your style of raising your pokémon is, well, unusual, to put it lightly, and as far as commanding them, you hardly even bother to do so, but it has gotten you this far. I imagine it will get you further still." Sabrina's purse opened without her touching its clasps and a small cube with a number forty-six emblazoned on its side drifted into the gym leader's open palm. "This is for you, as well, a technical machine that can teach a pokémon the psywave technique. It's a select few pokémon that can learn it."

"Thank you," Roy said finally. He shook Sabrina's hand again and then walked back to where Antonia and AJ were still standing dumbfounded. Though he was trying not to show his happiness, Roy's body was almost vibrating with excitement. "Did you see that, Toni?" he asked. "I beat Sabrina!"

"And on your first try, too," AJ said approvingly.

Antonia didn't say anything. She looked like she was going to be sick.