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The Fearow was dumbfounded upon the sudden compliments. What was this!?

"Fearow! Don't buy into that! Use Steel Wing!" He shouted. It was virtually in vein for the moment. It charged its attack, but it was left at a loss, looking back at Jackie.

"Fearow! Snap out of it! Attack!" Jackie shouted. "Give it a Steel Wing, hurry!"

The Fearow looked back, hesitant, but it seems that Fearow was starting to listen to some reason. He looked back at the Nidoran with his wings shining a silver. "Feeearow...FEAROW!" He lifted up and started to rush off towards Nidoran.

The bird got caught up in the electrical current and fell like a stone like before, unable to reach the Nidoran. The short rest period from before wasn't really all that much to recover from the prior attacks it had taken from the Raticate and Nidoran before its switch to Xatu. It was hurting, trying to struggle back up, until it gave up, just lying there.

The ref looked at the Fearow there, before the Nidoran. That Fearow was going nowhere. "Fearow is unable to battle and the apprentice is out of usable Pokemon! The winner of this battle goes to Aden and Nidoran!"

"YES!" I shouted out from the stand. Aden shut him down. FINALLY!

"I see I may have a fight on my hands after all." Falkner said. "I have to admit, this is quite the change from yesterday, Blizzard. What exactly happened?"

"Really? Hell if I know, but whatever it was got his act straight." I said to him. "Excuse me." Quickly I jumped down from the bleachers and rushed over to Aden. "Aden, you and your Pokemon did great!"

On the other side of the field...Jackie was not all in the best of moods. His Fearow laid there, defeated. "Fearow. Return..." Part of him was infuriated. Another was humbled. His birds, powerful as they were, were downed in probably one of the most climatic clashes he's ever been in. However one spelled it, pride was most definitely hurt. As far as Aden was concerned, more than likely? Mission accomplished in putting Jackie down a few notches.

Jackie didn't answer back. He was upset with a lot of things right now, though trying very hard not to show it. He just silently went off to the back of the field and down the opposite elevator.

"Eeeh, just leave him be." Falkner said. "He'll come around. Apprentices all will eventually need to learn that losses come in the same territory, despite how hard he and their Pokemon fight, however valiantly or admirably it may be. However, I have to admit that its hard to teach such a lesson when other apprentices leave such a seriously outrageous standard." He then said, looking towards me.

".....what?" I asked.

"Admit it Blizzard. You and the apprentice in Blackthorn tend to upset a lot of trainers when they get around to you two." He said. "You two virtually have iron clad records."

"We had good teachers. I would imagine that your teacher was strict on you, wasn't he? Emphasizing the whole Flying-Pokemon scheme of things, lessons to be learned from them, and so on. Right?" I asked.

"Heh, well. Yes, he was. But I try to take a different outlook in what he taught me." Falkner said. "But enough talk that may lead to nostalgia." Falkner looked over towards Aden. "I know you only have a team of four, and two of them are heavily battle weary. I also know you spent a good part of yesterday and today preparing for your battle against Jackie. A Gym Leader battle typically consists of three Pokemon instead of two like you did with the apprentice, so I will tell you what. Instead of battling for the badge right off the bat, how about you and your Pokemon rest for the rest of today and we can meet tomorrow after breakfast. I warn you though, you best come ready. Jackie was only a taste of what a Flying Pokemon can do."

"Then its settled then. We'll meet back here tomorrow." Falkner said.

"Alright then. In the meantime, we'll just kill some time. Still got a bit of daylight to burn." I said. "Though first, the Pokemon Center may be a viable place to go to first."

"Until then." Falkner said, making his way off.

I followed Aden back to the elevator, and triggered it to go down. On the way down, I noticed Aden was a bit on edge. "Worried on tomorrow?" I asked.

I put my hand on his shoulder. "Don't let it get to you, Aden. Yes, the gym leader is always going to be tougher than the apprentice, but you got Jackie behind you now. You don't have to face him again. You finally got started your run through the gym tour." I said to him. "Besides, if you and your Pokemon can keep up that kind of zeal like you did with Jackie, you will be fine." I said.

"Good." I said as we finally reached the ground floor. "Well, come on, let's head off to the Pokemon Center, then." I told him. "We got a bit of a day still, so, lets see what we can find to do until we head off to bed tonight."