A lone trainer stood in the warm-up antechamber, readying himself for the upcoming bout with the Gym Leader. As he stood there, he recollected just how he had come to be here. Will had never been more nervous in his life. Even though he still wasn't really battling for a badge, the opportunity to spar with Gardenia publicly was an honor in and of itself. She had helped him capture and train with his first and only pokémon, and had been working for some time to help them become stronger. He still wasn't sure if he was ready for this, but he and his friends hadn't been able to train recently due to all of them except for him taking their final exams at Sinnoh Pokémon Academy during the past week. He had passed with flying colors when he had taken his, but he still was very unsure of himself right now because he had never actually battled properly at all before this last couple of weeks. His first and only pokémon thus far was fairly powerful, but he knew that if his opponents today were to go all out that they wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in hell. He checked on Ralts, calling her out of her pokéball to make sure she was up to this, and perhaps to rely on her to bolster his wavering resolve.
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ
"Are you sure you want to do this, Ralts?"
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ
His pokémon positively beamed at him, and replied:
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ
"Okay then," he took a deep breath, "Let's go." Will walked out of the foyer into the gym itself- he was greeted by a labyrinth of trees and topiary intermingled with the occasional flowerbed, all surrounding a central arena covered by lush, green turf. He looked around the field; it was a fairly overcast day, so at least he wouldn't have to worry about that: he had seen what Gardenia's pokémon could do when the sunlight was intense, and it was never good for her opponents. He then drew his attention to the opposite end of the arena where, calmly sitting cross-legged in the grass, sat Gardenia, apparently deep in thought. The Leader looked up as Will entered the stage.

"I'm glad you came again today Will, because I thought that, as a surprise for you, I'd invite a few extra people to watch us train." Will visibly paled at the words; he had barely kept his composure in front of the fifty-or-so people that came regularly. "That's alright with you, isn't it?"

He gulped, then nervously looked to Ralts for reassurance; the eager expression on her face and the feeling of confidence she shared with him calmed his nerves slightly as he replied, "Okay Gardenia, let's begin then." He watched as she rose nimbly from the ground, and saw Roselia, the pokémon Gardenia had first battled Will and Ralts with, come out from behind her mistress. He knew that Ralts would have a type advantage over Gardenia's pokémon, but that didn't mean he could assume anything in this battle. He looked up at the stands elevated around the edge of the Gym, and was almost shocked to see close to a hundred and fifty people already watching them. He knew that a real Gym challenge would have drawn many more people, but he still felt a pang of nervousness before the battle began.

"Roselia, go!" Gardenia had obviously been discussing strategy with her pokémon before the match, because without any further commands the little flower nymph unleashed a flurry of leaf throwing attacks, before dancing away into the underbrush surrounding the field.
"Ralts, dodge, and use protect!" The little white pokémon spun on the spot and vanished into thin air, reappearing ten feet away from the flurry of undoubtedly uncomfortable flying foliage, then began to glow a delicate shade of electric blue as she raised a barrier around herself to guard against the grass-type's next move.

"Okay Roselia, come on out." As Gardenia said this, she almost sounded as if she was trying to coax her pokémon out from hiding after it had become thoroughly terrified; that came as no surprise: after their first encounter with each other Roselia truly had reason to be afraid of Ralts. But less than two seconds later, the pokémon responded to her trainer's call and darted out of one of the bushes that dotted the perimeter of the arena.

Roselia rushed at Ralts and, trailing a length of ropelike vine behind it, rushed by her, drawing the tip of it across Ralts' body like a whip. The force of the blow was enough to stagger the small pokémon, even through her protective bubble. Ralts turned to follow her flowery opponent and began focusing her mental energies, and just as Roselia was coming around for a second pass, Will shouted, "Now, Ralts! Use Confusion!" but his pokémon had already begun to release her energy, channeling its potential into a blast of pure psychic power that picked up the fragile flower and hurled it headlong across the field, landing some ten feet from Gardenia. The stunned pokémon was looking none too healthy as it lay there trying to recover from the blow, already covered in bruises from the powerful surprise attack.

However, it stood up, shook its head clear, and assumed a fighting stance, yearning for more excitement and action, its face alive with anticipation. Gardenia cheered it on, telling it "Alright Roselia, time for what we discussed earlier." Roselia chanced a look at its trainer, and nodded, then began running at Ralts while the Psychic pokémon was still clearing her mind from having used so much energy in a single attack. As she became aware of the Roselia, she began to ready another psychic blast, but just then, the plant began dancing around her, not staying in one spot long enough for Ralts to aim her attack. Then, without warning, the other pokémon took a step back, and out of its flower-adorned arms it launched a glowing seed at Ralts' body. Too startled to react in time, Ralts was hit by the Leech Seed and quickly ensnared in its rapidly growing shoots. Will looked on in shock, sharing in his pokémon's terror at her current state. "You know what to do, Roselia," coached the Leader. And indeed it did. The Grass type pokémon took advantage of the current situation and unleashed a torrent of bladed leaves all of which struck the immobilized Ralts and cut deep gouges in her soft, white skin. She began to bleed and slowly staggered forward before collapsing into a heap on the floor

"Ralts!" Will shouted as he ran to shelter his companion from any more pain. He scooped the injured pokémon into his arms and assessed how hurt she was. After seeing that she was safe and not in any critical danger, he recalled her into her pokéball so she would not feel the pain while he took her to be treated at the Pokémon center downstairs.

Gardenia, seeing that the training session had essentially finished, congratulated and recalled her own pokémon, then walked to Will. "You two fought well, and I can see that you are beginning to form a tight bond with Ralts there. Let's have another practice again sometime soon. But first: Ralts there needs to be taken care of." Together, Will and Gardenia walked to the exit to the gym's battle arena as the audience, which had grown to about half a thousand during the few minutes the battle lasted, shuffled to the exits.

"Thank you, Gardenia, I don't know where we'd be without being able to train with you." Although he was upset with losing, and distraught over seeing his partner injured, he had to admit that, without help from his town's kind and generous Leader, he'd have no idea how to battle, much less strategize as he had. The embarrassment of losing in front of so many people though was enough that he began to blush as he noticed the number of people milling about in the lobby.

"Here, Will, let's get our pokémon healed up at the pokémon center here in the gym." Gardenia steered them to the nurse's desk in the reception area as she said it. "I think it's always a good idea to heal your pokémon as soon as possible after a match like that, and it helps afterward if you congratulate your pokémon for doing so well." At this remark, Will gave his friend and mentor a queer look; Ralts had hardly landed a single hit on Roselia. "Hey now, you might not have won the battle, but you did very well, especially considering that you and Ralts have only been together for a few weeks in total!" She smiled at him, and they handed over their weary pokémon to the kind nurse behind the counter who, without hesitation, beckoned them back with her while she took their pokémon to be healed.

As their pokémon were being ministered to, and Gardenia was talking with him about the match, Will noticed his friends approaching the first-aid station. "Hey Will, great job! You're really doing better now, especially with your Ralts bonding with you so well." The person who spoke this was about average height, slightly shorter than Will, and her jet-black hair was just longer than Gardenia's, reaching about one third of the way down her back. She wore typical attire for a trainer, albeit a male trainer: tough, rugged cargo pants, a bag slung to the side across her back, a light, breathable shirt, and a utility vest over that which held her spare equipment for training.

"Hey Sanakou," Will said as his friend walked into the room, "Yeah, we did alright, but we've still got a long way to go before we're anywhere near strong enough for an official gym challenge..." He looked down as he said this, and given her response, almost immediately regretted his gloomy attitude.

"Hey!" Sanakou yelled, "Don't get all down just 'cause you can't beat the Leader this soon after you began!" She paused to take a breath, "You can't expect to get powerful that quickly, I mean it's not like some kind of videogame! You need to work long and hard at this to make it work, and you need to really trust your pokémon too." Seeing her friend recoil at her chastisement, she relented, "Hey man, it's aright... I know! Let's get the others and go train out around Floaroma, I heard the weather's great out there right now and we might find some good pokémon to catch too."

"Yeah!" cried Tenrou. Will looked over in surprise to see that his friend had traveled all the way from Jubilife City just to see him battle with his new pokémon. ÂHe was standing right in the doorway of the room, and was leaning slightly on the doorframe. Tenrou was a scruffy-looking kid, about a foot shorter than Will, although he was fully a year older; he had the same sandy-brown hair, and they almost looked like they could have been cousins. He was inseparable from his closest friend and pokémon, a shiny female Zangoose named Mina. Mina stood at his side, waiting for her bubbly friend to finish up here; she always seemed to be with him (they had practically grown up together), and Mina had become a quite reserved pokémon, especially considering her species' fierce nature. Tenrou however was very outgoing, and was never hesitant to jump into any situation, and his attire reflected his reckless and carefree nature: he wore frayed blue jeans with a green t-shirt and a blue hoodie topped with a bright red baseball cap turned to the side, and his posture seemed to radiate energy and confidence despite his ridiculous costume. "I wanna go too!" He certainly wasn't going to be left out. "I'll meet you guys tomorrow in front of the Floaroma Pokémon Center." And before anyone had a chance to respond, this energetic young man left for the bus back to Jubilife, followed closely by Mina, who seemed to be cringing at her companion's choice of clothing with every flamboyant step he took.

They all watched Tenrou leave, and Sanakou had to suppress a snicker. Of course they could hardly have expected anything else from him since he had, after all, been born and raised in Dewford in Hoenn. "Hey, don't forget me," a voice murmured from the corner of the room. Will and Sanakou looked over to the owner of the sullen-sounding voice. They saw Axl slouching there looking as serious as ever; it seemed like that was his signature trait- he was almost never perturbed by anything at all. He had the sort of feeling to him that made you want to respect him; you could tell just by looking at him that he was much wiser than his 25 years, which also made him by far the oldest of the group. Sitting beside him was his kaishakunin, an Absol who was rarely if ever any more than twenty feet away from him. Axl stood up, and looked over to the others in the room, "I think Terry and I could use a little training too, and we could do with some fresh air at any rate." Axl stood about three inches above Will, who was already tall at six-two, and had short, light-red hair that he grew into a full facial beard complete with 'stache, and wore black slacks, and a black blazer over a navy-colored shirt. Will had known that Axl would probably show up, and he nodded hello to his friend from Veilstone. Will grinned at him (Axl always seemed to make people feel good about any situation) and, after they made a point of marking the time and place to meet in their pokétches, Axl left the room with his Absol, Terry. Sanakou however seemed glad to be rid of him; she never got on very well with him, and now was no exception. She then turned to Will so they could begin planning what they would do tomorrow.

Before she could begin however, Gardenia took Wills hand to get his attention. He blushed at the gesture, but she looked at him and then gestured at the room where Will's friends had just been, and said, "Well, it looks like you won't be able to train here tomorrow, so we'll just get back to it the day after tomorrow, alright?" She let go of his hand, and walked out of the room, leaving him alone with his pokémon and his childhood friend.

"Umm, okay then..." Sanakou began as she saw the flustered expression on her friend's face. "I suppose we'll meet at the Floaroma Center tomorrow afternoon and just play it by ear from there." She could tell that his mind was still muddled by Gardenia's unexpected actions, and sighed. "Hey Will! Earth to Will: anyone home?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah sure. Sorry," he blushed as he realized that he had completely spaced out; he quickly brought himself back to reality. "Yeah; well Ralts and I are just going to head home now, so do you want to join us?" She smirked at him, and nodded yes. Will checked that Ralts was fully healed now and picked her up and set her on his shoulder as the three of them left the gym to head home.

On the way, Sanakou talked with him about how his battles with Gardenia had gone, and how she had done on her finals at SPA, and then she showed him her own trainer card, which she had just received the previous day, after passing her exams: she had already taken the qualification test, and had just been waiting for her graduation. "I can't wait to start out as soon as we can!" She continued, "I wonder what kind of pokémon we'll see? I hope we find strong ones, 'cause I want to get all the badges as fast as we can, and then I'm going to challenge the Elites!"

She kept talking, mostly to herself at this point, as Will had simply reverted to affirmative grunts and the occasional "Uh huh," or "yeah, that's right." Will was very uncomfortable with the idea of capturing pokémon from their natural habitats, and while he didn't want to cause a fight with his friend, he still didn't want to openly encourage the wholesale slavery and cockfighting that most trainers engaged in. He saw that sort of training as hypocritical; trainers were supposed to protect pokémon and people while training, but most trainers could easily be found by simply following the trail of unconscious or half-dead opponents they left in their wake. It disgusted him, and he had almost been expelled from the academy for getting into a heated debate about it with Professor Rowan himself on the subject. The good professor had since come to respect his point of view on the topic, but there was still an icy edge to Rowan's voice whenever they spoke.

Will was dragged from his reverie as the group reached home, and said goodnight. Sanakou went to her house for the night and Will went next door to his own. As they settled down for the night, he and Ralts dreamed of what they and Will's friends would do tomorrow for training in Floaroma meadow. They might even find another pokémon to join them if they were lucky...