Shaun had easily found his way to the Katarina Gym, and was amusing himself by taking pictures of the building when Lyle arrived. Shaun was amused to see that Spinel was still sitting on the boy’s head. “Hey there! Guess he likes it up there, huh?” Shaun asked, nodding to the Sableye.

“Yup,” Lyle agreed, then looked around. “Um, where did you want to get the pictures?”

Shaun had been considering that, and looked up at the building. “Well, the words ‘Katarina Gym’ are pretty high up, so if I got a picture out here, I’d have to stand waaaay back to get you and the words in the same shot. And if I stood closer so I could get a clearer picture of you and your pokemon, all we’d see is a wall and a door.” He looked off to the side of the gym. “There’s an open field around the back that would make an easy place to take pictures, but that doesn’t really say ‘gym’ very much.” He looked back at the gym doors. “Think they’d let us in to take pictures on the battlefield? Anyone can use it for battles as long as nothing’s scheduled, right? And even just the plain field with lines painted on cement is fairly recognizable.”

Lyle paused, then turned around and looked at the gym for a moment. “Yeah,” he finally said. “Trainers can go in to battle, though I dunno if they’d let you in to take pictures. But I can go in any time, wherever I want.” He glanced over his shoulder at Shaun. “The tournament was to pick the new Gym Leader.”

It took Shaun a moment to piece the news together. “Oh! So you’re the Gym Leader now? Congratulations again!” Yet the boy seemed oddly unenthusiastic considering he’d just earned himself a very prestigious position. He pondered over the boy’s reactions for a minute before offering, “Are you worried about it?”

Lyle hesitated, then nodded and turned around to face him. “Yeah. I dunno how to run a Gym.”

Shaun offered a smile that he hoped looked reassuring. “I’m sure the Pokemon League will help you. Their job is to support the Gyms and trainers, right? They wouldn’t just toss you into this with no guidance.”

Lyle still looked uncertain, but he said, “Yeah, I’m supposed to meet someone from the League later to talk about stuff. And I’ve been a gym trainer in Motterossa since that gym opened, so I know a bit.” He shrugged and headed inside. “Come on, I’ll show to you the battlefield.”

Shaun took the hint that the boy didn’t want to talk about it anymore, and followed him in. Before long they were standing on the battlefield, which was the standard cement one with lines painted on. Shaun took the lead here and directed Lyle to the center, where the customary concentric circles resembling a pokeball were painted. “This is the most recognizable. So would you like me to photograph all your pokemon at once, or would you like individual pictures?”

Lyle just shrugged. “Either way. Or you could do just the pokemon I used in the tournament. I ended up only using Spinel and Comet, my Floatzel.” He pulled out a pokeball and released the Floatzel, who appeared on all fours and started looking around.

Shaun immediately noticed the dark brown stripes along the pokemon’s back and tail. “Oh cool, it’s got a nonstandard coloration!”

Lyle blinked up at him, confused. “What?”

Shaun grinned at the boy and explained, pointing to various features of the pokemon as he mentioned them. Comet turned his head to look at him, and stood up to better look at Shaun while the Watcher examined him. “His colors aren’t standard for his species. Normally Floatzels don’t have any dark brown on them like that, and their flotation sac is yellow. The fins on its front legs are also usually light blue, and that color doesn’t seem present on your pokemon at all. Scientists think…” he was about to launch into a scientific explanation about the phenomenon, but stopped himself, since he didn’t know how much the boy knew about genetics. “Well, the reason can get rather technical to explain, but basically pokemon sometimes have unusual colors like this. You’ve heard of shiny pokemon?” He looked over to Lyle for confirmation.

Lyle looked mystified, but nodded. “It’s when a pokemon has a different color scheme than normal, right?” Comet had apparently grown curious about Shaun’s camera and was sniffing at it.

“Right!” Shaun affirmed, holding the camera out for the pokemon to look at. “Like a Gyarados is normally blue, but shiny Gyarados is red. Things like that. Well, sometimes you can get pokemon that’s mostly the normal color, but with markings in its shiny color, like a Gyarados with red spots. And soemtimes you can find pokemon like this,” he continued, indicating the Floatzel. “Dark brown is not in its shiny color scheme, so it’s known as a color variation. Rarely you’ll find pokemon that are entirely colored differently from normal. It’s really quite fascinating.”

Lyle nodded slowly. “OK, I think I get what you mean. I have a Quilava that’s not the usual color. She’s all red and yellow with wing-like markings.”

Shaun’s eyes grew wide. “Oooo, I’d love to get pictures of her too sometime.” Comet was trying to grab at his camera now, so Shaun pulled it away. “One thing at a time, though. Let’s start with these two pokemon.”

Lyle called his pokemon back and started posing. He was a bit stiff at first, just standing there with Spinel on his head and Comet by his side. Shaun encouraged him to show more emotion by reminding him he just won a battle and asking how he looked when he was excited from that. That prompted a series of arm pumps, excited woops, and hugging his pokemon. Then he loosened up and had a series of pictures of him and Spinel having fun, Comet bounding around, and a few pictures of the pokemon using favorite attacks.

Eventually the two sat down to rest. Shaun was glad to see that Lyle and Spinel were grinning again. “Looks like you and your pokemon have a lot of fun together,” Shaun commented.

“Yup! Everything’s better with pokemon,” Lyle agreed. “The only time I don’t have Spinel out with me is when I’m at school.” That must have reminded him of something, because he suddenly asked, “Oh yeah. What time is it?”

Shaun checked his watch. “Just after 7:00, why.”

Lyle pulled a face. “I was supposed to meet some guys from the Pokemon League to talk about gym stuff, and how that will affect school, and other things. I gotta go.” He recalled Comet and stood up.

Shaun stood up with him. “Well tomorrow’s a Sunday, so there’s no school. If you’re free, would you like to meet again, so I can photograph your other pokemon?” He pulled out a pocket notebook, jotted down his name and phone number, and handed the piece of paper to Lyle. “Call me whenever you’re free.”

Lyle took the paper and shoved it in his pocket. “OK, bye!” He turned and ran off, though Spinel turned to wave back at Shaun.

Shaun shrugged. He wasn’t sure if the boy would remember or not, or even if the paper would still be readable tomorrow. But since Lyle was a Gym leader, he’d be easy enough to find once the Gym was running again. So he headed out to develop his film and see what tomorrow might bring.