Mentor
Chapter 30: Lt. Surge

-

-

Ah, Vermillion City gym. What an… interesting place it was.

“Whoa…” Ed said, a bit lost for words as he looked through the holes of the chain-link fence, his eyes pausing over the two men who were standing guard before the doors of the gym. “It’s like an army base!”

And what a good descriptor that was. Well, maybe not an army base since it looked more like a bunch of warehouses, but there was something militaristic about it. Barbed wire was wrapped around the top of the fence, and the fence stretched all the way around the complex. The gym itself apparently consisted of one main building and two smaller ones, all which had only small windows at the very top of the walls.

“Oh, come on already,” Leah said, her words finally pulling Ed away from the fence as she lead the way towards the entrance. “You can take a better look inside.”

Ally followed close behind, but was also taking not-so-subtle glances at the gym.

“It doesn’t look like a gym,” she said.

“Oh, it is,” Danny replied to Leah’s left, looking around himself. He had an odd wistful look on his face. “It hasn’t changed since the last time I’ve been here.”

“You’ve been here before?” Leah asked.

Danny smirked slightly. “Oh, yeah; I love this gym. Why do you think I’m following you guys? When I heard that you were challenging Surge, I just had to come and see.”

The group stopped before the gate, which was locked tight with large chains wrapping around the posts and with a large lock holding it all together. Attached to fence with wire hung a piece of wood that said in big white letters:

VERMILLION CITY GYM

Ed rattled the door, which hardly moved under the chains’ embrace.

“It’s locked!” He frowned, putting his mouth close to the fence and shouting over to the guards by the front door. “Hey! Can you unlock the door?”

Neither of the guards answered. They did look like they heard him though, as they seemed to hold onto their guns tighter and shift around a bit, talking quietly to themselves.

“It’s probably closed,” Leah said, and when she reached over to try the chains, Danny took her wrist. He shook his head at her confused glance and motioned to move away.

She did so, moving away and leaving Ed and Ally to try the fence by themselves.

“What’s going on?” she hissed to him, and he shushed her, grinning.

“I’ve been here before,” he told her, his voice quiet. “Surge doesn’t make things easy for trainers. The gate was locked when I came here too. If people want to get in, they need to use their Pokemon to get past the gate.”

Leah looked back over to Ed and Ally, to see that they were still trying to remove the chains by hand.

“What do you mean by ‘use their Pokemon?’”

“I used my Swellow to fly over,” Danny explained. “Most trainers just fly or teleport past.”

Well, that was pretty unlucky. What Pokemon did the brats have? Paras, Ditto, Voltorb and Vulpix; nothing really useful there.

“What if they don’t have flying or teleporting Pokemon?”

“Some trainers Dig or burn off the chains. It’s not that hard to get past.”

Leah watched Ed yell at the guards again. “Then why don’t you tell them that?”

The older teen smirked and shook his head. “It’s way more fun just to watch them try.”

“We’ll be here for hours then. Is that enough fun for you?”

Danny sighed loudly, and took out a Pokeball. “Fine then. How about we go inside? That’ll give a good hint to the brats.” He dropped the Pokemon, releasing it.

“Go Teddy!”

The Pokemon looked like Teddy, but was obviously not. It only had some resemblance to Danny’s psychic-type, and seemed to have traded its helmet head and dress for a ballerina costume. The green part of its head had been rearranged to form two long pigtails with pink horn-like structures on each side of its head. Its white body had split in a tutu, revealing two skinny green legs that were once hidden.

Teddy stared up at its trainer with red eyes, standing on the balls of its feet.

“Touch his head and don’t freak out,” Danny said to Leah, and the girl hesitantly put her hand on the Pokemon’s head, feeling its hair’s softness.

Danny did the same.

“Alright, Teddy,” he said, pointing to a patch of gravel on the other side of the fence. “Teleport us over there.”

“Wait a minute-” Leah interrupted, but stopped herself as her vision shifted and suddenly, the ground wasn’t where it should.

She stumbled forward, the gravel crunching under her feet.

“Hey!”

Turning, Leah caught sight of Ed on the other side of the fence, staring at her with an expression of betrayal.

“Cool, huh?” Danny asked, returning his Pokemon. “Teleport takes a bit of time to get used too, but it is way better than walking.” He waved at the two kids, who were stuck staring at them.

“We’ll be going inside,” he said to them cheerfully. “Have fun!”

As they walked along the path that led to the main building, Leah grumbled, “What’s the point of going inside? I’m not challenging him and neither are you.”

Danny smiled. “There’s way more things to do than just battling here.”

“Yeah? And what are those?”

“If there’s one thing that Surge is well known for,” he started, “it’s traps.”

“Traps?”

He nodded. “Yeah, so be careful once we get inside; you might activate one.” He smirked at the last part.

Leah kept silent at that, though she was a bit curious at what sort of traps the gym leader had set. She had heard that gym leaders set obstacle courses or traps in their gyms, but she’d never seen it. Apparently, Koga had some sort of mirror house, but that was obviously not the case. Besides, putting in an obstacle course didn’t seem very practical. She doubted that older trainers, ones that prided themselves on being ‘professional’, would care for such a time waster.

As they walked further up the path, the two guards came into focus. They both wore the same green camouflage uniform, including a cap, and they stood stiffly with their legs together. They held onto their guns loosely, but those grips tightened as Leah and Danny got closer.

“Do you stand out here all day?” Danny asked them with a slight smirk, and Leah finally noticed how young they looked. Now, it was pretty obvious they weren’t real soldiers, but only teenagers that were probably hired to look intimidating.

The two guards let them pass without comment, but under their caps, their faces had a tint of red, but if it was anger or embarrassment, Leah didn’t know.

Danny opened the door and then stepped to the side. He held the door open and looked at Leah with a smile.

“Ladies first.”

Leah only gave him a suspicious look as she passed and Danny let the door close behind him.

There were several things that Leah was suspecting from an apparent ‘Trap Master’, but a regular room, though, was not one of them.

“I thought you said there were traps here?” she asked.

Danny looked around, aghast, at the lounge before him, his eyes darting from the spread of chairs to the next.

“D- Did they remodel or something?” Danny spluttered. “Last time I came here, there were traps just past the front door!”

The older teen’s loud voice was gaining attention from the few people in the room, but most of them turned back to what they were doing after the initial curiosity.

“Didn’t you here, man?” one of the kids said, who was sitting in one of the plush chairs with two Pokeballs on his lap. “A few months ago, The Pokemon League forced him to get rid of his traps.”

“What?!”

-

“I don’t see why you’re so upset.”

“You don’t understand,” Danny moaned from a chair, his head in his hands. “I really liked this gym and now it’s ruined.”

Leah sighed, and half-heartily tried to lift Danny from his depression. “Look, they’re just a bunch of traps. Wouldn’t they just waste a bunch of time, anyways?”

“Only if you were unlucky,” he replied with a nostalgic look. “Back in my days, gym leaders always used traps and stuff to weed out the weak trainers. Sometimes, they’d have the trainers fight someone else beforehand. This gym was probably the most fun gym I’ve ever been too.” He paused. “Well, except for Candice’s gym.”

“Who’s?”

He waved it off. “Don’t worry about it.” He paused. “It’s kind of hard to explain since you weren’t there, but… Have you ever had something that you did at school or had a TV show you really liked, and they were perfectly fine the way they were? But then, some people thought it was stupid or ‘dangerous’ and changed it to be more kid-friendly and retard-friendly?”

“Uh… not really.”

Danny just sighed. “You don’t get it, do you?”

“I get what you’re saying…”

“Never mind.” The older teen sighed and just looked down at the ground mournfully before turning back to Leah. “So, uh, how do you think the battles are going to go?”

“I don’t know,” Leah said, turning around to look at the front door, which hadn’t yet open. “They’re still outside. Besides, aren’t you the one who’s been here before?”

He nodded, his sour mood already forgotten. “Yeah, but you know their Pokemon. I want to know how hard they’re going to get beat.”

“You have that much faith in Surge?”

“Well, he was kind of easy to beat, so not really, but come on. You’re not saying that those brats’ Pokemon are tough, right?”

“Danny,” Leah said, deciding to be blunt. “I’ve beaten you every time we’ve battled, and I lost most often then not against them.”

Danny frowned. “That doesn’t count. I mean, the only reason you’ve won against me is because of type advantages and that weird Fire Stone maneuver you pulled (seriously, how did that even work?).”

Leah huffed and crossed her arms. “Aren’t you supposed to be some hotshot trainer that’s training for some tournament? Shouldn’t your experience in battling give you a big advantage?”

“… That doesn’t count,” Danny repeated, scowling.

“Sure it doesn’t.” Leah rolled her eyes and glanced at the door. “Look, obviously, I’m not going to convince you so you’re going to have to watch for yourself-”

Suddenly, the front door opened and Ed stomped in with Ally trailing behind him. Coralie was sitting on his shoulder, half of its purple body falling down his arm, though the boy took no notice of it.

“Why didn’t you Teleport us in?” Ed asked, scowling and stopping in front of the duo.

Danny shrugged. “That’d be cheating.” He eyed the Ditto. “Is that how you got in?”

“Coralie Transformed into a key,” Ally piped up. She added. “B-but she hasn’t really Transformed back yet.”

Looking at the Ditto, Leah looked at the key-shaped appendage that was hanging off of Coralie, which was flaked with bronze, but was slowly turning back to its original state. The key-shape swung in the motion of Ed’s movements and Leah wondered if the key was particularly heavy since the goo holding the Pokemon and the key together looked strained.

“Using Ditto?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Ed replied. “I called William and he said that Paras would be too slow for electric-types.”

“And you think that an inexperienced Pokemon would do better?” Danny asked, eying the Ditto-appendage with an odd look on his face.

Ed huffed. “It’s not inexperienced. We’ll win. You just wait and see.”

Ally interrupted the potential argument. “W-we should go sign the form,” she told Ed, the slight quiver in her voice betraying her nervousness at the upcoming gym battle.

The boy agreed and the two went over to the counter, leaving Leah and Danny behind.

“They’re so going to lose,” Danny snorted, and then lowered his voice while turning to Leah. “Hey, you know that kid’s Ditto…? Can it turn into objects yet?”

“No,” she replied, thinking back to the numerous times that Ed had tried to get his Pokemon to Transform into weird things. “This is the first time I’ve seen it.”

Danny frowned and then said nothing more.

-

Ed and Ally had rushed ahead, while Leah and Danny took their time. The shock of the missing traps had finally set in, and Danny kept sighing at every other second as they walked past every single corner.

Leah was honestly sick of it, which was why she was happy once they got to the arena.

The gym wasn’t special. It was your regular arena; the same rectangular white box, but unlike the other gyms, it didn’t seem to have that ‘special’ touch that made it unique. Blaine had the candles, Koga had those weird lamps, but Surge had nothing except for bright lights on the ceiling.

It was rather disappointing, to be honest.

Ed and Ally were already there, of course, and were talking to the gym leader. Really, you couldn’t confuse the guy with anyone but the gym leader. An incredibly tall man, Surge towered over the two newbie trainers, and with his spiked blond hair and army clothes, he was easily the most intimidating gym leader yet.

Ed, however, didn’t seem to notice.

“So that’s the Thunder Badge,” he was saying, looking at the small metal item that the gym leader was holding out with quite a bit of awe.

Leah blinked at the scene and voiced her opinion.

“There’s no way you’ve won already.”

Eying the new arrival, Surge asked, “Another challenger?”

Leah was quick to shake her head. “No.”

“He was just showing us the badge,” Ally answered to Leah’s question. “We’re going to start soon.”

“Glad we didn’t miss anything then,” Danny said, looking around with a bit of disappointment. “Damn, this place has really changed.”

Surge grimaced. “You’re telling me. I had to take down everything because of those new safety laws.”

“What safety laws?” Ed asked, his awaiting gym battle only temporally forgotten.

“Just laws that force everything to be retard-proof,” Danny answered, rolling his eyes.

Leah sighed at Ed’s blank look and suggested, “The Mentor thing?”

Understanding became present on Ed’s face. “Oh! Is that why you have to come?”

“Of course. Why did you think this whole program was set up for?”

Ed only shrugged.

Surge turned away when another man came up (also wearing the military garb) to hand him three Pokeballs.

“Thanks,” the gym leader said gruffly, before facing the trainers.

“Who’s up first?”

Ed and Ally glanced at each other, the boy noticing his companion’s nervous expression. After another moment, Ed stepped forward with a grin.

“I’ll go first.”

Surge stared at Ed, like he was sizing him up, before choosing one of the Pokeballs and releasing the Pokemon right in front of him.

It was easily recognizable with its small yellow body, long pointed ears and red cheeks. It had a lightning bolt shaped tail and brown stripes on its back.

“Pika,” it said.

“It’s a Pikachu.” Ed smiled, kneeling down and trying to pet it. ‘Try’ being the key word as the electric-type hissed at the offending hand and darted behind Surge.

“Pikachu isn’t a lap Pokemon,” Surge told the boy. “He doesn’t like to be petted.” He then walked over to the opposing trainer’s box, Pikachu following him. He turned to face Ed.

“Are you ready?”

“Yeah!” Ed said, stepping into the trainer’s box, already taking out a Pokeball.

It was a hard choice, but Ed at least had some experience with Pikachu. He had battled one before, and his Paras didn’t do too well against it. Pikachu were really fast, as he found out, and their electric attacks were really long-ranged. Even if Paras was getting stronger by the day, he had to admit that no matter how strong it got, his first Pokemon would always be slow.

Besides, William said not to use Paras and Ed knew that William’s advice was always the best.

So…

“Go, Coralie!” he said, releasing his Pokemon onto the field. The Ditto jiggled to itself and didn’t seem to notice its opponent.

“A Ditto, eh?” Surge asked to himself out loud, staring at the Pokemon. “Interesting choice.”

He grinned.

“This’ll definitely be an interesting match, then.” He gave a signal to his referee. “Let’s get it started.”

“Yes, sir!” the referee said and raised his flags. “This’ll be a match between Lt. Surge of Vermillion City and Ed Williams of Fuchsia City. There will be no-”

Surge held up his hand, interrupting the referee while chuckling to himself. “Hold up. Let’s make this interesting, alright? Make it a time limit of, let’s say… five minutes.”

“Five minutes!” Ed yelped. “That’s-”

The referee took no notice of Ed, and only continued, “There will be a time limit of five minutes. When it expires, the challenger will automatically lose. Now, let the battle begin!”

Surge didn’t wait.

“Pikachu! Thundershock!”

Having no choice, Ed set aside his ‘fears’ for later and focused on the battle.

“Transform!”

Sparks of blue electricity danced on Pikachu’s cheeks as the Pokemon seemed to grin. With one loud, “Chu!” the small spark ignited; engulfing Pikachu in a case of electricity, and the Pokemon sent the electricity surging across the fields.

Unluckily for Ed, Coralie wasn’t that fast at transforming and was hit full blast by the surge.

‘Not again!’ Ed moaned to himself. His last gym battle against Koga started out this way too, with Coralie prevented from transforming. Luckily, though, he had an advantage. He didn’t even study this time and he already knew what techniques Pikachu could learn. Really, who didn’t know the moves of a Pikachu? The level was probably between two and three, so the Pokemon probably knew Thunderbolt by now. Let’s see… Quick Attack, Agility, Light Screen, maybe… Did Pikachu even know Light Screen? It did seem kind of like a move they could learn…

Ed shook his head. He was getting distracted! He needed to concentrate on Coralie and get it transformed.

As the Ditto twitched like jelly, Ed shouted, “Transform! You can do it!”

Ditto seemed to sigh as it stood up straighter, trying to look at its circling opponent in the eye. But the Pikachu only grinned, lightning crackling at its cheeks, its tail bobbing in motion with its steps. As a hint of yellow started to show on Coralie’s flesh and two points appearing on its head, Pikachu gave it another shock with electrical energy without stopping its motions.

“Chu!” Pikachu growled once the lightning calmed down. The Ditto shook it off and continued its technique, small bristles of hair appearing on its skin and an unmistakable lightning bolt tail appearing behind it.

Ed glanced at Surge, who was only watching with interest, apparently not interested in attacking the Pokemon while in the middle of a transformation. Pikachu, too, didn’t seem like it wanted to continue its assault.

Finally, Coralie stood on its tiny paws, its huge ears twitching as the Ditto tried out its new body.

“Finally,” Surge grunted, straightening his back as he looked over at Ed. “If you’re going to use a Ditto, at least make sure it can transform fast. If I wasn’t being nice, I would end this before your Pokemon could even start.”

“Uh… sorry,” Ed said, a bit taken aback that the gym leader was advising him in the middle of the battle.

Surge grinned slightly. “Then, pay attention and let’s get this really started. Besides, I don’t mind waiting. The clocks ticking for you, not me.”

Ed gasped, his head wheeling around to look at the clock. He had completely forgotten that he was on a time limit! He couldn’t waste anymore!

“Coralie! Thunderbolt!”

The Ditto seemed a bit uncertain at the electrical impulses that danced around its face, but put more pressure on it as its trainer commanded. The bright blue energy crackled and Coralie threw its head back before releasing the electrical storm at its opponent.

Who happened to no long be there.

Out of nowhere, a yellow blue slammed into Coralie, knocking the Ditto back and forcing the Pokemon to lose control of its electricity. Pikachu only let out a small cry, however, and it was one born more out of annoyance than pain. The electric attack was waved off and Pikachu continued its assault, head butting the Ditto hardly after it had gotten up from the ground.

“Quick Attack, Coralie! Don’t let it touch you!”

Coralie growled as it jumped into motion, its small rodent body running faster than the Pokemon had ever run in its life. Its paws padded along the ground, its legs a blur. Since the fighting area wasn’t that big, the Ditto was forced to run around in circles.

But Pikachu was right on its tail, almost literarily. Coralie was forced to change its path as Pikachu leapt right at its back, swiping at its tail.

“Pikachu! Double Team!”

It happened instantaneously. Suddenly, there were two Pikachu, each looking as tough as the other. One got in front of the Ditto and growled, but Coralie jumped to the side, avoiding the electric-type.

Out of nowhere, the real Pikachu stuck, tackling the Ditto and pushing it to the ground.

“Coralie!” Ed shouted, his eyes darting to the clock. His time was running low! What was he supposed to do? A direct attack, maybe?

“Slam!”

Coralie got back up, shaking its head with a low moan. It looked at its opponent with pitch black eyes before uttering a low and angry, “Chu…”

Then the Ditto was off, leaping forward and running directly at Pikachu with no regard for its own safety.

“Nice try,” Surge commented, “but not good enough. Pikachu! Dodge, then Slam!”

Pikachu nodded and easily dodged the Ditto’s attack, leaping over the transformed Pokemon and landing behind it. Crouching down, Pikachu sprang at its opponent, using its shoulder to slam Coralie back and off its feet.

Back in the trainer’s box, Ed watched the display with a frown. His fists clenched as his mind raced, trying to find a solution. Nothing was working! He had tried everything. Well, not electric attacks, but it wasn’t like they would work on a fellow electric-type anyways. Maybe a Thunder Wave? But he wasn’t exactly sure it would work and Ed couldn’t waste any more time!

What was he supposed to do? What hadn’t he tried?

Well…

“Okay, Coralie!” Ed yelled, trying not to notice his Pokemon’s ragged appearance. “Try a Double Team!”

Coralie looked a bit nervous at that, its ears flattening and eyes narrowing as it got back to its feet. Its body started to shake and a few sparks flew out of its cheeks. On either side of the Ditto, two clones started to appear, looking more solid as the moments past.

“Good job!” Ed cheered as the duplicate Pikachu started to look at each other and their original self with a bit of uncertainty. Coralie panted a bit, starting to get tired, but Ed didn’t notice since a plan was forming in his mind.

The young trainer grinned.

“Alright! Now, Quick Attack! Run around a lot, okay?”

The Ditto nodded, its clones doing the same, and then the three leapt into action, their paws slapping the floor.

The gym leader’s Pokemon didn’t waste any time. The electric-type focused on one of the Not-Pikachu and went for it, sparks flying.

However, Ed didn’t care since he could always make more.

“Coralie, Double Team again!”

Two more clones took the stage as Coralie raced, running beside the original and bringing the clone count up to four. Or three, if the poor duplicate that Pikachu attacked didn’t disappear.

The clock was definitely on Ed’s mind as he kept only one eye on the battle before him.

“Okay, Coralie! Double Team! Then, Double Team again! You can do it!”

And that’s what the Pokemon did. Now four more clones were present and racing around, making the whole field blurred with yellow with only a single Pikachu (the opponent) standing still. The gym leader’s Pokemon looked around, lowly growling as it tried to discern which Not-Pikachu was the real one.

Coralie was panting heavily now, and it took effort just to run in stride with its own clones, who all seemed to have a bit more energy than it did. Double Team took a lot of effort, but luckily, Ed didn’t want anymore.

“Now!” Ed started. “Slam, then run!”

This time it was Surge’s Pokemon that was on the end of an unexpected attack. Before the gym leader could give an order, Pikachu was hit was a living yellow missile, sending the electric-type flying. After landing, Pikachu got back up, seemingly scowling as it looked around for its disappeared opponent, who was hiding in the sea of yellow.

Surge thought for a moment. “Pikachu, stop and listen. When you hear the Ditto, Thunderbolt.”

‘Uh oh,’ Ed thought to himself as his eyes widened. He was in trouble now. Clones mostly didn’t make noise as they were just illusions. He supposed he could get Coralie and its clones to stop running, but then they’d just be picked off one by one.

What should he do…? Wait. He had it!

“Growl!” Ed shouted. “All of you, Growl!”

Coralie hardly paused in running at the new order, even if it wanted too, and offered up a small and tired, “Pika.”

The clone offered their agreement.

“Pika!”

“Chu! Chu!”

“Pika!”

“Pika!”

“Chu!”

“Pika!”

Surge frowned, wincing slightly at the chorus of noises, looking at his Pikachu as it glanced around, no longer able to concentrate.

“Okay!” Ed said, grinning. That took care of that problem. Now, for the actual assault. “Now, Slam, Quick Attack, Slam! Don’t let up!”

Coralie’s chest heaved as it took in gulps of air, its yellow pelt damp with sweat and its eyes half-lidded. It stopped momentarily to catch what little breath it could before once again taking off at lightning speed, doing as its trainer wished.

“Pika!” Pikachu cried out as it was slammed into the ground face-first by a reckless tackle from Coralie. The Ditto paused again, panting, and then hit the electric-type again, this time with its tail. Pikachu got back on its feet, but the many Pikachu clones running around made it confused as Coralie got behind it and struck the weakened Pokemon while it was down.

“Keep going!” Ed cheered, his heart racing in the heat of battle. After another look at the clock, Ed turned back and said, “Now, finish it off with a Quick Attack!”

The Ditto’s legs shook under its own weight and, around it, its clone started to fade away due to exhaustion. Though, it still had energy for one more assault and despite its body screaming, Coralie ran forward, blurring for just a moment and ran into Pikachu head first, throwing the gym leader’s Pokemon back and to the ground.

Pikachu didn’t rise.

And despite everything, Coralie didn’t fall.

The referee came over, cautious, and knelt beside Pikachu, waiting for any signs of movement that didn’t come.

Finally, he raised his flags.

“Pikachu is unable to battle. The victory goes to Ed Williams of Fuchsia City!”

Ed’s smile grew bright as he pumped a fist into the air. “Alright!”

Out on the field, Coralie also realized that it had won, and let itself collapse on the ground, its mouse-like body melting into a pile of purple goo.

“You did a good job, Coralie!” Ed congratulated, at his Pokemon’s side in seconds. “Good job!”

One beam of red light later and Ed stood up in time to see Surge’s half-smile.

“Not bad,” he said a bit grudgingly, looking at his watch. “Though a minute more and you’d be toast.”

Ed only looked up at him expectedly. Surge sighed, reaching into his pocket to pull out the Thunder Badge and handing it to the boy.

Surge looked over at Ally, who was coming forward to congratulate Ed.

“You next?”

“Y- Yes!” Ally said, taking out the Pokeball of her already chosen Pokemon. She offered Ed, “Good job,” before turning back to Surge.

“I-I’m ready!”

-

“I told you he would win,” Leah said, rolling her eyes.

Danny, however, didn’t look that impressed. “Yeah,” he started slowly, “I suppose that it would count as a win, but not a really good one. Surge went really easy on him. He let the Ditto transform and he could have just used Thunder Wave on all those clones to get rid of them.”

Thinking about that for a moment, Leah had to agree that he was right.

The older teen paused, glancing at where the two brats and Surge were talking. “You know, before today, I actually didn’t think he was that type.”

“What type?”

Shrugging, it was clear that Danny was deep in thought and after a moment, he shared them.

“You know, the type that doesn’t care about their Pokemon and stuff.”

Leah was baffled. “What? Are we talking about the same kid? Ed likes his Pokemon.”

“Well, yeah,” Danny agreed. “But only how a kid likes a toy.”

“… I think you need to explain a bit more,” Leah said, watching as Ed and Ally conversed over the badge. “I know him better than you and I know that he loves his Pokemon. He has them out a lot, spends time with them- Yeah, explain.”

“Actions speak louder than words. You watched the battle, right? Didn’t you see how he kept making his Ditto use Double Team, even when it was obvious it was really tired? He even made his Ditto use Quick Attack like it was Agility. Hell, I’m really surprised the Pokemon didn’t faint until after the battle was over.” He paused. “Judging by the way he acted, I always thought he was the hero-type, you know? Doesn’t let their Pokemon get hurt or make them do something against their will, even if it meant losing a battle.”

Leah thought back to the time, during that long, long trek from Fuchsia to Vermillion, where Ed kept trying to have his Ditto Transform into two different Pokemon at once.

“And,” Danny said, throwing more evidence onto Leah’s lap. “He used his Ditto to unlock the gate by making it turn into a key, right? Well, since the Pokemon couldn’t really Transform into nonliving objects, it means the kid must have stuffed the Pokemon into the lock and forced it to turn semi-solid.”

“I suppose that stuffing his Pokemon in might not be too good-”

The older teen shook his head. “You don’t get it. By only being semi-solid when unlocking the lock, there’s a good chance that the Ditto left some of itself behind.”

“How do you know this? Do you have a Ditto?”

“No,” he said, “but think about it. A lock has lots of gear-like things and stuff in it. Something’s bound to get ripped off if he shoved something like a Ditto in there.”

Leah was silent for a moment. “You’re thinking about things too hard,” she finally replied. “Besides, he’s ten; he’s just a kid. He doesn’t know this type of stuff.”

Danny smirked slightly. “And that’s why he’s getting let off.”

“Let off?”

The older teen motioned to Surge. “It is really looked down upon in the Pokemon League to force Pokemon to fight until they faint.” He quickly explained himself further when he saw Leah’s incredulous look. “I mean, forcing your own Pokemon to fight until it faints of tiredness, not being knocked out. Sometimes, trainers can even have their Pokemon taken away under the title of abuse if it happens too often. But since the brat’s a kid, he’ll probably only get a warning or something.”

“Really?” Leah asked, having not known that. But now that she thought about, when she was much younger (and years before that whole Journey Incident), she remembered always watching the Indigo Conference on TV with her parents. When the battles ended, she was always confused on why some trainers would return their Pokemon, even when they were still in some shape to fight. She remembered asking her parents about it, and they never really gave her a straight answer, or at least, one she could understand back then.

Danny nodded and then sighed, leaning backwards and stretching. “Well, that’s one battle done, anyways.” He grinned at Leah. “So, you think the other brat will win too?”

Leah didn’t know how Danny could grin like that after talking about Pokemon abuse and the likes. It was something that she had never really thought about and it disturbed her to think Ed might be (unintentionally) doing something like that.

‘I’ll talk to him later,’ she decided.

Looking down on the battling area, Leah gazed at Ally and hardly had to think about how she was going to do. She turned to Danny and tried to match his grin.

“Of course.”

-

-

A/N: Sorry for the long wait, guys! Because of the length, Ally’s battle will happen in the next chapter. I’m not sure I quite like the beginning (I was forced to rewrite it this morning and I’m still a bit annoyed at it because of that), but I like the chapter overall. I hope you enjoy it!