Part 2 of a surprisingly fun Gym Leader.
Juliana took a flying taxi back to Cascaraffa. It was much easier than trying to navigate the desert again.
By the time she got back to the Gym on Thursday morning, Hassel was standing there, waiting for her with a person Juliana had never seen before.
"Miss Juliana!" Hassel seemed happy to see her, at least. Juliana nodded, her attention on the stranger. She was tall, with very long hair kept in a ponytail. The feminine face was the only real clue to her gender, and she was studying Juliana with just as much curiosity.
"So you're the one ol' Hass has been talking about," she said, before breaking into a grin. "Nice to meet you!"
"You know Mr. Hassel?" The last person who knew Hassel crossed Juliana's mind. "Are you an artist, too?"
The young woman shook her head. "I can barely write, I can't draw," she said with a laugh.
"Rika here is a fellow member of the Elite Four," Hassel explained. "I came here because Brassie said you had three badges already, and she insisted on tagging along."
"Brassie?" Juliana repeated, having not processed anything past that word, and Hassel shook his head in mild disappointment.
"Nicknames are a thing, Miss Juliana," Hassel said, and Juliana looked back at him.
"So why are you here?"
"Kofu is usually the Gym Leader that causes challengers to drop out. I came to wish you good luck."
"And I came to meet you," Rika cut in. "And it looks like you've got what it takes. We'll be cheering for you, kid."
"I see you reunited Mr. Kofu with his wallet," said the receptionist, and Juliana nodded along. "He's been waiting for you. Juliana, was it?"
"That's right."
"Then he's waiting for you. Let me show you the battlefield."
Juliana followed along, occasionally getting distracted by the smell of food (she was starting to get tired of sandwiches for every meal) or by cute things in shop windows, but she eventually made it to the battlefield. There was a crowd gathered, but Kofu was nowhere in sight.
She didn't notice when he arrived, not processing the crowd going to greet their local celebrity. She didn't process Kofu coming to the battlefield until he spoke.
"Looks like you made it, Juliana!" Kofu was just as enthusiastic as ever, and laughed when Juliana jumped at the sound of her name. "Gotta admit, I feel like I owe you one with what happened yesterday."
"So you're going to go easy on me?" Juliana asked, and Kofu laughed again.
"Just the opposite! You deserve a full-course battle! But, given your skill level, I'll just go all-out with my challenger team." He tossed a ball. "Come out, Veluza!"
Juliana stared at the Veluza for a few seconds. "So that's a Veluza," she said to herself, before she shook her head to focus. She tossed a ball of her own. "Jumpluff, front and center!"
Florian felt like someone was watching him.
He'd taken the chance to train his Pokémon on the path he'd taken to the Titan Bombirdier, but something was different. He looked to the skies, but couldn't see a giant bird dropping boulders. He couldn't even see a regular-sized Bombirdier.
His freshly-evolved Gardevoir was just as alert, and just as confused. He patted her arm reassuringly. "I'm sure it's just Roxanne," he said.
Gardevoir didn't believe him, but she had other things on her mind. "I can't believe you name Pokémon that you haven't captured. Come to think of it, why do you only name half of the ones you did capture?"
Florian blinked, catching the emotion behind Gardevoir's thoughts - the telepathic bond all Gardevoir trainers get finally activating. He couldn't hear what she was thinking, but he could sense the confusion and annoyance. "You really cherry-picked what you wanted out of that, didn't you?"
Gardevoir hummed, sending a wave of quiet amusement to his brain. Then fear - she'd spotted something.
Something had spotted Florian, too.
The Charcadet was small for its species. Smaller than Charlos, at least. But it rushed the boy with the confidence of a Pokémon twice its size, knocking him down and proudly scorching his tie.
"Let me guess," said Florian, looking up at the Pokémon in irritation. "You're a girl?"
"Wow, sexist," Gardevoir said, but her emotions were nothing but amusement.
"How could he tell?" asked the Charcadet.
"He has a hard time with female Pokémon. I kept teleporting away, his Cyclizar dragged him around through the grass for half an hour, let's not mention what happened with the Oricorio..."
The Charcadet broke down laughing. "So what you're saying is, your human will never find a mate."
"I'm saying he may need help."
Florian groaned, getting the gist of it.
"Girls," he said, looking at Gardevoir with a smile. "Always giving me too much trouble, and yet I love them anyway." He gestured to Charcadet. "Help me catch her, will you?"
Gardevoir hummed again, taking her place in front of her trainer. Charcadet did some karate moves and a backflip.
Once Charcadet was in her brand-new ball, Florian decided to make a point to hang out with Arven more.
He loved the girls, but he and Lloyd and Mudbray could use a guy's night now and then.
"By the way, Gardevoir," said Florian, and his Pokémon looked up from where she'd been admiring the windmills. "I'm naming this one Scarlet."
Gardevoir's amusement wasn't silent this time.
Despite Jumpluff defeating Kofu's assistant all by himself, he stood no chance against Veluza's Pluck attack despite the use of Mega Drain. Webby was called out to help, and an Air Slash defeated Veluza. Then three Air Slash attacks took out Wugtrio.
Juliana called Webby back after that, as Kofu sent out a Crabominable. Forgetting that it was Ice-type and not Water-type, Juliana sent out Tinkatuff for a super-effective Fairy hit on the Fighting.
She realized her mistake when Kofu Terastallized his Crabominable. She was unable to correct it, as before Tinkatuff could get a hit in, she was taken out by a single Crabhammer.
"Maybe I should've thought that one through," she said to herself, and selected another Pokémon. This time, she wasted no time in Terastallizing Pawmo, and won after a Thunder Shock and a Spark.
Kofu was surprised to realize that he'd lost the match. Once it sank in, however, he was the first one to applaud, the citizens of Cascaraffa joining in.
"Excellent battle, Juliana!" He handed her a badge and a TM, but his attention was elsewhere. She understood. "Say, you have a Rotom phone, don't ya?"
"Yeah," said Juliana, not sure where he was going with that.
"There's a pose I've wanted to try, but I need someone else. Will you take a picture with me?"
Juliana grinned. "I've done it with the last three. Why not make it a tradition?"
So the photo was taken - Kofu in the distance, standing on one foot, while Juliana pretended to blow on the tiny man in the palm of her hand. Then she sent it to the Gym Leader instead of simply saving it, to Kofu's approval.
He was fun, Juliana decided. She wondered if she could have fun with the other Gym Leaders.
Once she actually became a Champion and could focus on her art again, she would pester Brassius to teach her sculpting. After all, he thought she was "avant-garde" enough to talk to. Maybe they could be friends.