Leroy woke up, stretching his limbs and yawning loudly as he welcomed his new normal two days later. Only weeks before he was used to day in and day out of having the territory to himself and fending off rivals, eating whoever he wanted or throwing out any humans. Lizzie was the first to blow his life up, exposing him to a far bigger world than he had in his little bubble. Now, after getting Jackal and Blade off his territory once and for all, Leroy had a chance to start over. He stood up on his feet, looking over and seeing surely enough that this Storm was dutifully patrolling the gate. They had a conversation of ensuring that any opponents to the territory were peacefully handled unless they attacked first, then Storm was more than welcome to fight back then. Though, as he saw her glance over and smile widely at him, Leroy knew today was the day they would have a sparring match. Not to fight over the territory, no, but to test each other's level of skill and know how to fight together in the future as a team. Sure, it was one heck of a trust exercise to assume the Pikachu wouldn't just throw him out or kill him should he lose, but the energy he felt from Storm's pep in her step and bright smile dashed away any sense of doubt.

Storm turned to face Leroy and bounded over to him, running on all fours before standing on her hindlegs and meeting him face-to-face.

"Morning, Leroy!" Storm grinned. "How did your sleep go? Doing okay?"

Leroy's heart warmed at her eagerness, and her readiness to be a teammate towards him. He was certain to a great extent that her cooperation was mostly in part due to her extensive gratitude over having a territory to stay at and someone to help her keep it. Though having someone so kind to share the territory with was an added bonus.

"Oh, my sleep went great," Leroy laughed. "It's a lot easier to get a full sleep without worrying about being jumped by someone. So you still haven't had to fight anyone off the territory still?"

"Nope!" Storm grinned. "There's a few Pidgey who have given me berries and asked me how you were, but no Pokémon has tried to fight me. Say…how have you gotten the Pidgey to get along with you so well? I'm surprised you don't hunt them."

"Yeah, uh, about that," Leroy rubbed the back of his head with his paw. "I used to hunt them, but then I met a Pokémon who was best friends with a Pidgey. I talked to the Pidgey a lot, and she even helped me get this territory back from those Ninetales I told you about. Needless to say, I only eat Magikarp, the occasional Rattata, and some of the berries the Pidgey give me. It's a bit harder to walk to the lake than to hunt all the Pidgey around here, but I owe that much to Lizzie and Mimi."

"Lizzie is that shiny Charizard you mentioned, right?" Storm asked, and Leroy nodded fast as the Pikachu grinned. "No wonder no one can take this territory from us for long! With her stopping by all the time, I'm sure they're too scared to even try!"

"I'm glad you like her so far," Leroy replied. "I'm looking forward to when you meet the both of them! Anything else you need to do to get ready for this mock battle?"

"No, I think I'm ready," Storm leaped in the air before landing on all fours, wiggling her tail side to side as electricity sparked from her cheeks. "I've got a few Sitrus berries and a Cheri berry for afterwards, so that you won't be fainted for long~"

"Already assuming you're going to win?" Leroy grinned, dropping onto all fours as he stared Storm down. Though for him, his giant feet and paws were stranger to get on even footing as opposed to Storm's four paws being the exact same. His position was already wobbly by the time Storm's entire body lit up with bright and blinding electricity, Leroy couldn't even see past the light as he instinctively rolled to the side and dodged the force of electricity speeding in the direction he was in. Watching the electricity disappear from Storm's body, Leroy processed just how powerful her attack was going to be. Leroy wondered how Storm was always losing homes with an attack like that, but then he reminded himself to focus. Pulling the coin off his head, Leroy felt a new one spawn on his head as he threw the old one right at Storm. The coin hit Storm right in the cheek as it caught her off guard, and Leroy lunged. Landing on top of her, Leroy sank his teeth into her ear and didn't pull, only applying the damage needed in the fight. Storm lit up with that same blinding electricity, though Leroy let go and dropped to the ground in time for the sparks to only tickle his nose the slightest bit like a pinch.

As Leroy got up, it was too late to dodge as he felt the fiery electric shock light up his veins and burning through his body. He felt him black out almost instantly from the impact, everything turning to black…


Leroy woke up, feeling his body healing and in less pain by the second. Though his body still held a twinge of soreness, Leroy still had the energy to look over at Storm eating a Sitrus berry vigorously before glancing at the Meowth.

"Oh hey Leroy!" Storm held the berry in one foreleg as she waved at Leroy laying in the grass. "Don't worry, I'll feed you another berry or two after I eat this one."

"Didn't you only get two attacks from me before you knocked me on my ass?" Leroy stated.

"Yeah, but my attack has some serious recoil damage that hurts me as well," Storm explained.

"What in the Darkness Core was that attack?!" Leroy exclaimed.

"Volt Tackle," Storm answered with a nod as she finished the last bite of her berry, walking over on her hindlegs to pick up another Sitrus berry and handing it over to Leroy. "Very devastating attack that I've had since I hatched out of my egg, strangely enough. Even with Volt Tackle, I hadn't been able to keep those damn homes for long. There'd be a Pokémon ten times my size, or worse, ten times bigger a group against me…and I can't fight that many by myself. And on top of that, there were even territories that turned into a catching ground for humans. It was basically impossible to keep a place for long, how did you keep this patch of grass for this long?!"

"Well I hunted the Pidgey, trashed up the humans by clawing them, and was strong enough to kick out some of the more hotheaded opponents," Leroy explained between bites of the berry. "Most trainers got chased off before they even sent out their Pokémon."

"I guess I didn't think about any of those options," Storm shrugged. "Like I fought back with some of the Pokémon, but many times I took off before I could risk getting captured."

That's pretty smart, explains a lot about her.

"Well with the two of us, and Lizzie and Mimi checking in every week, it'll be practically impossible to lose this territory!" Leroy grinned, though he saw Storm bolt away from him. A giant shadow eclipsed the both of them, and Leroy looked up knowingly at Lizzie appearing as he brought a paw to his mouth and shouted. "Lizzie! It's okay, she's supposed to be here!"

Lizzie's red eyes that were trained on Storm as she flew over the air, embers of hot orange fire leaking out from her jaws, relaxed as her mouth returned to normal. Lizzie slowly dropped to the ground, glancing down at Storm as the Pikachu had her back against the gate, trembling uncontrollably as the giant Charizard stood on her legs and stared down with a blank expression.

"You…" Storm's ears flattened against her head as she pointed a wobbly digit towards Lizzie. "Are the kind of Pokémon I would've easily lost my territory over, holy crap."

"Sorry!" Lizzie's eyes widened as she stepped back, a tidal wave of hot guilt hitting her as her instinct to blaze Storm into a crisp hit her like a wildfire. She was too used to going right into offense mode, and her wings flared out in shock as she buried her face in her claws. "Shit, shit, I had no idea you were his friend and not another-"

"Lizzie, chill, it's fine," Leroy got up and walked over to Lizzie as he placed his paw on her knee reassuringly, looking up at the giant Charizard as her shoulders slumped. "The last Pokémon you saw in my territory nearly killed me, so its understandable."

"Our territory now, goober," Storm rolled her eyes as she slowly stopped shaking, pushing herself off the gate and walking towards the both of them, still looking up at Lizzie. "Mary Mew, I'd hate to be on your bad side…"

"It'd be a long list," Lizzie muttered, shaking her head before glancing at Leroy. "I was going to ask if you still wanted to spend time in my neck of the woods? Perhaps plan out some more missions to destroy some humans?"

"Missions?" Storm tilted her head.

"We'd thought of becoming King and Queen of Kanto," Leroy explained. "Those were pretty fun titles to throw around, though such a responsibility felt too much for us to fully take on. Especially since Lizzie's got eggs that are about to hatch any day now!"

"Are you able to get a Charizard to have eggs?" Storm's long pointy ear twitched as her expression scrunched up and she tilted her head at Leroy. "King and Queen? I knew you two were close right away, but not this close."

"Oh no, you've got it all wrong!" Leroy blushed as he looked at Storm's expression, though he wondered in his mind why he felt so inclined to wave off any idea that he was pursuing Lizzie (anymore). "Of course I was starstruck by Lizzie with how strong she was, and I never met any Pokémon like her before…but we've clearly got different paths in life. We still share saving others in common, of course, but I'm still figuring out who I am. And she is too. It's just easier to continue being friends. And actually…"

Leroy glanced up at Lizzie, who was already looking like a wounded puppy from the Meowth's explanation. Though Leroy wasn't deterred in continuing what he wanted to say.

"I don't think it's really safe to leave Storm here all by herself for half the week, do you think we can just plan our missions and such for the weekends only?" Leroy asked. "Plus having Mimi check in on her too? She got chased out of so many homes, I don't want her to lose this one."

"Oh," Lizzie barely spoke her response above a whisper, starting to stare at the trees in the distance as she wouldn't look at either Leroy or Storm. "Uh, yeah, that's fine with me."

"Do you still want to hang out here for a bit?" Storm asked. "I know you scared me shitless just a bit ago, but you didn't really mean to. We can get to know each other, I'm sure you have a lot of stories to tell."

"Er, I wish I could, but I only planned on leaving my eggs alone for less than an hour," Lizzie stepped away, causing Leroy to pull his paw away from the big Charizard's knee as he watched her flap her wings and take off from the ground. Looking up at the clouds, Lizzie willed herself not to look at either of them as she spoke to Leroy. "I'll pick you up then in a couple of days, you two have a great day."

Lizzie flew off out of sight, disappearing in a flash as she took off back towards her nest. Leroy was reeling over the whole sudden visit and having to explain his weird royalty roleplay to Storm, when he processed a part of the Pikachu's questioning right then and there as he looked at her.

"And no, me and her aren't even in the same egg group!" Leroy snapped as he crossed his arms at Storm, before walking away to the other side of the gate as he groaned at the turn of events before him…