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((Whooo! Making up for a weeks worth of posting, since I'll be gone for a week. Sorry, this should be the last long one.))

"A challenger?" Cress asked as he approached Takamaru and Cilan.

"Why, I'd be honored to have a battle with you," he said and he bowed.

***

The sound of a loose fan was the first thing she heard. The room was quiet and she found herself staring up at yet another unfamiliar ceiling.

"Why do I always wake up in strange places?" she mumbled to herself as she sat up. Where was this? The first time it was the Pokemon Center, after that the hospital, this time?

She looked around the room and noticed she was in a small infirmary of sorts. Nothing big, the kind of room you'd expect in a school. Her eyes fell on the door and she saw the head of a little boy peaking through. His eyes grew wide when they noticed she was looking at him and he took off shouting something about a teacher.

Henrietta climbed out of the bed and winced as she stepped onto her injured leg, and then she looked around a bit more. After a moment she found her bag and her shinai and soon after she was ready to go.

"How do you feel?" came a voice from the door and Henrietta turned around to see an older woman. Probably a teacher.

"G-good," Henrietta said after jumping(not into the air) in surprise.

"Hm, you're a little jumpy for 'good.'"

"Th-that's normal."

"Alright. You must have been through a lot," the teacher said and she gestured to the bruise on Henrietta's collar.

"N-no, this is from last night, h-hum.."

"I see."

"Where am I?"

"A school for Pokemon training."

A school? She could learn more about training and battling here, right?

"Feel free to leave when you feel up to it."

"W-wait!"

"Yes?"

"Th-thank you for saving me."

"I'm not sure what you were in danger of, but you're welcome. And it was Doyle who found you."

"Th-then I'll thank him, too."

"Alright. I'll take you to him."

"Thank you."

***

"Doyle!" the teacher called.

"Yes granny?!" Doyle said and then he saw Henrietta and the teacher enter the room.

"Told you she was awake!" Doyle said to Wendy immediately.

"So you found me?" Henrietta asked as she limped over. It was easier to talk to kids, you could look down on them, literally, they weren't very intimidating.

"Yup!" he proudly puffed out his chest.

And Henrietta knelt down and patted his head. "Thank you, Doyle," she said.

"What's wrong with your leg?" the teacher asked.

"I ran into a Basculin in the cave."

"I hope that's why you weren't unconscious."

"N-nope."

"I can take a look if you want."

"S-s-sure."

And soon after, Henrietta's leg was properly bandaged up. And then she was departing, when....

"Wait!" Doyle called and Henrietta turned to see him.

And a lot of kids.

"I'm Doyle!"

"Edgar!"

"Gina!"

"Marsha!"

"Al!"

"Tully!"

"Wendy!"

"Clarise!"

"Kumi!" "Amy!"

And then, all at once, "I challenge you to a Pokemon battle!"

Henrietta was dumbfounded. A hand on her shoulder. Her head turned to see the old teacher.

"You see, some young trainer came by earlier today and defeated the students here. They would like their honor back, it seems."

“I’ve got no reason to stay in Striaton City anymore. The trainers there are too weak for me now that I’ve beaten the gym. Even the trainers in the Dreamyard don’t put up too much of a match.”

Salieri...

"If you wouldn't mind a few battlers, you're welcome to stay," the teacher said.

"H-hum..."

***

And then they were standing at opposite ends of the arena. Henrietta had opted to use Socant this time around. The little electric type had...

Henrietta knelt down to him and smiled. "You got a lot stronger and I didn't even notice. I'm sorry, let's see what you can do," she said.

And Socant nodded.

"Those attacks. Your jaws have gotten stronger, that was a nice bite attack, and the other one. It looked like a web, we'll call it thunder web, okay?"

"Jol!"

"Right. I know you're still tired from earlier but let's bear with it. Let's begin."

***

And soon after that...

Henrietta and Socant sat down, panting and tired. It was a long, difficult series of matches. Still....

"No healing moves, hum... Oh well," she said and she got up to her feet.

"Thank you for the matches," Henrietta said to the trainers.

"Damn, another strong lady!" Doyle whined.

"Doyle, watch your tongue," the teacher said. Henrietta looked to her and could swear she saw a burning aura around her.

"I'm sorry Henrietta, but my blood is boiling."

"H-hum?"

"Even I can't sit still after watching my students get beaten twice in a row."

"The demon granny has awakened, everyone hide!" Tully shouted and the students did just that.

"Would you please battle me, Henrietta?" the teacher asked as she stood up from her desk, though her tone said there was no getting out of it.

"S-sure..."

***

And finally....

The teacher sat against her desk, tired out. "It seems, children, that we are simply no match for youngsters these days."

"But we're still kids, granny!" Doyle said.

"Right. Grow up to be strong like those two ladies that came by today, children. I'm sure you'll win the Pokemon league if you do that. But don't be like that boy that came by yesterday."

"Crown."

"Yes, he's one of 'them'."

"Er, okay, granny."

***

And there went Henrietta, limping her way back to town, Socant resting some place in her hair. "It's been a long morning," Henrietta said.

But she'd gained a lot. Or so it felt like that.

Robby had finished his training after a long arduous process of eating more chips and watching his pokemon train. They hadn't really been straining too hard, and it didn't seem like either was tired, which made him wonder if they'd been given any real experience of worth. After however much time had passed, they were in Striaton once more.

It was here that a trainer appeared to be arguing with their pokemon - weirdo - and that Robby decided something. They had to see the worth of all the training that had been done...

And so, Robby went up to the trainer who had just returned the pink pokemon and he spoke. "Hey, c'n we battle?"

Lunch had gone by, and the lad had decided to stay in the cool air conditioned lobby of the Pokemon Center along with his Pokemon. They seemed to very much appreciate the coolness inside, rather than the hotness outside. It was still early in the afternoon and the sun was high in the sky. Winterson sat down over a sofa, placing his stuff beside him for the meantime. Prince lay down beside him, too, with his head rested well over the lad's bag. Alexandra, on the other hand, sat on the lad's lap looking right and left. The teen was busy wiping little Alexandra's nose free of the icy blue mucus that it had. The Cubchoo had been getting sicker by the minute, and at this point in time, Winterson did not know whether to just go with it, or to start worrying. Seemed like Alexandra's condition was getting worse.

"Hey," came a gentle, womanly voice from behind him.

The lad turned around, only to find Nurse Joy standing there.

"You should probably give your Cubchoo a moment to unwind. It's good that it is a bit sickly and all, since for its species, that means it is growing a bit stronger, but too much of that sickly feeling and it might really grow sickly," said the Pokemon Nurse. Winterson, on the other hand, simply nodded.

"Alright, Nurse Joy. Will do," he told her, while turning once more to Alexandra, patting it on the head. Nurse Joy soon walked away, attending to an Audino that was having difficulty with the Pokeball trolley nearby. Winterson then grabbed his bag, waking up Prince from his afternoon nap.

"Come on, Prince. It's about time we started training," he told the small ice Pokemon on the couch. In response, it happily jumped up and off of the sofa, barking and waving its tail. It seemed to be excited. Alexandra, on the other hand, looked as if it was growing more and more drowsy. "Alright, then, let's move out. I bet there's a good place around this city where we can sight see, and perhaps, train as well,"

"Glaaay!" barked the energetic Glaceon who followed its master as he left the Pokemon Center.

Outside, Winterson began to look around, searching for anything that gave directions. Whether it be a street sign, or a lost map, he'd gladly take it, as he didn't really want to disturb the people around him by asking a question that would be answerable by simply looking at a map. Which, by the way, he already had. Remembering that small fact, the lad shook his head quite slowly, and began to move. He reached into the pouch he had strapped around his waist, and revealed what seemed to be a small booklet. He began walking, too, towards the east as he followed the sidewalk. Checking the map, the lad did find one entry point from East Striaton. Over there would be a place called the Deamyard. Perhaps, it would be a good place to train with his Pokemon. A few more minutes of walking and... He was there... The Dream Yard.

"Well," he uttered as he stared at the place whilst he stood not, too far from the entrance. "This is interesting. It looks like this place is an old ruined building. I guess, it'll be quite exciting to train here overnight,"

"Gla-ceon," Prince barked positively. The Glaceon seemed to be fearless.

"C-c-c-ub-chooo." stuttered Alexandra, who, on the other hand, did not seem too comfortable with Winterson's idea.

"It'll be okay, Alexandra. There's nothing to be afraid of," he told the bear cub Pokemon. Winterson soon proceeded, though, not far from the entrance, he had heard a familiar popping sound of a Pokeball opening. To his right, he then paid attention to a fight which was about to start. It seemed as though a seemingly overdressed man was initiating a fight between a rather hefty opponent, and to begin with, he sent out a peculiar Pokemon. Seeing this Pokemon for the first time had made Winterson almost instantly bring out his Pokedex, and aim the gadget at that new Pokemon.

"Yamask, the Spirit Pokemon. These Pokémon arose from the spirits of people interred in graves in past ages. Each retains memories of its former life," as given by the Pokedex.

"Glay?"[Really, now?] Glaceon seemed to question.

"I've never heard of a story of humans becoming Pokemon before. That Pokemon sure makes you think about life after death, huh?" muttered Winterson. The lad and both of his Pokemon remained standing by the side. With his Pokemon, he was a bit noticeable, but since he remained as a silent observer, he doubted that both the fashionable guy, and the rather chubby fellow would notice him and shoo him away.

A tackle attack was the first attack. "Kali, don't move!" As commanded the Ghost type didn't budge from the attack. Avan knew better now. Their opponent would encounter the same problem that Avan and the Yamask had just the other day; ghost attacks didn't work on Normal types and vise-versa, normal attacks would have no effect on her. The Tepig, aptly named Bacon, would pass right through the body of Kali. "Now return with Astonish!" Kali screeched to startle, turned, and went to smack the Tepig that passed through her body.

For a moment, Salieri got a strange impression off of Wayne when she brought up Team Plasma. Like he had thought about them seriously before. Maybe Wayne had met him too?

"I also met this green haired guy guy yesterday who told me about how pokemon and humans needed to be separated for the good of pokemon. That capturing pokemon is tantamount to slavery, and that he had the formula for making the world a better place. And at first I just thought that he-"

She hesitated for a second. Truthfully, she thought he was mysterious and kind of hot in a sort of dorky way at first. But she wasn't going to say that to Wayne. "...I thought that he was just kind of a weirdo, yanno?" she picked up again, twirling her finger at her head for the gesture. "But then I saw him talking to pokemon! Like, he could understand them and they could understand him."

Salieri took her hair tie off of her wrist and started tying her ponytail back up. "Something like that made him seem like he knew what he was talking about, but I knew it just couldn't be right. And then I saw Henrietta in the gym, and it just made me so much surer that I was right."

"But I didn't expect her to be a good battler. I didn't expect her pokemon to be so well trained. Henrietta knows what she was doing, and then my Eevee...maybe Salem just quits because I'm doing something wrong?"

Wayne took a deep breath in through his nose, looking to the sky and gathering his thoughts. When he started speaking, his swung his head around and looked Salieri right in the eye, expression earnest.

"You ever pick up a pokémon handbook? There was a pokémon store in the city I used to live at; big place, way bigger than a pokémon center. They had rows of magazines, books, all sorts of info for trainers to read. When I was little I'd pick 'em up and flick through, usually just looked at the pictures. But there was this one line that always stayed with me: Training pokémon is never as simple as black and white."

Wayne pulled his shirt back on and patted it down, a hand going to his head and messing up his slicked back hair until it became its usual style.

"So I figure you shouldn't blame yourself if your pokémon isn't doing what you wanted. My Hitmonlee got hurt cause he went off on his own. That's as much his fault as mine; it's something we're both gonna have to work at. So you shouldn't worry. As long as you're trying, it's not your fault. And you can't ask Salem to just go against her nature for you like that. That's why we're trainers. To overcome the differences between ourselves and our pokémon. To help each other grow, y'know?"

Another Pokemon had been sent out on the field, and it seemed to belong to the hefty guy. A hefty Pokemon for a hefty guy, how fitting, the lad thought. Aiming the Pokedex towards the newly released Pokemon, it began to scan and identify.

"Tepig, the Fire Pig Pokemon. It blows fire through its nose. When it catches a cold, the fire becomes pitch-black smoke instead."

"So it's a fire type. We can't work well against that, now," he muttered to himself. Since he had Prince and Alexandra, who are both Ice Type Pokemon, they would be weak to the fire type, hence, if he were to fight that Pokemon, they would be on the losing end. The Yamask who belonged to the rather stylish trainer, however, had a good chance. Especially against a Tackle attack. "Then again," he added. "A Tackle attack wouldn't do any good against Yamask, seeing as it is a Ghost Type,"

The Tepig passed right through the ghost Pokemon, Yamask, and soon, it began to take action.