Story Notes:
Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon
Veilstone Gym
Stratos blinks as he looks up at the ceiling of the room. Looking over to his left he sees Xylina sleeping peacefully facing him with a soft smile on her face and he lightly nudges her with his paw prompting a grunt and Xylina to turn away from him,
"Miss Xylina?" He hears another grunt followed by a yawn,
"What is it...? Stratos?"
"I'm hungry..." Xylina turns back towards the small Lucario and gives him an odd look,
"What do you eat?" Stratos shrugs,
"Whatever there is? Even though I'm still under a year old I can't breastfeed cause mommy doesn't have any milk so I've been eating normal food in place of it... but nothing hard. Stuff like bananas and oatmeal usually." Xylina looks slightly shocked by such a complete and thoroughly explained explanation by the infant and gets out of the bed with a yawn,
"Okay..." Xylina begins digging through the bag of supplies Latias had left with them for taking care of Stratos and takes out a few jars of baby food and a banana. Xylina takes out a spoon and heads back over to the bed and begins to feed the tiny Lucario before giving him an odd look when he opens his mouth and eats the food off of the offered spoon, "Stratos? You have teeth." Stratos gives her an odd look and brings his paw to his mouth carefully avoiding hurting himself with his own spike and runs his hand over his short, pointed teeth lining the top and bottoms of his gums. Stratos smiles brightly,
"So this means I can eat more stuff?! Like hamburgers and French fries?!" Xylina nods with a smile at the infant's happiness,
"It's a little odd for a baby to develop teeth so early but it might because you evolved so soon after being born. And the answer is yes, you should be able to eat solid food now." Stratos grins his first toothy smile,
"Yay!! I can't wait!! When are mommy and daddy coming back so I can show them?" Xylina smiles as she continues feeding the small Lucario,
"They might be back tomorrow or the next day." After breakfast Stratos hops off of the bed and wanders over to the door barely reaching the knob after standing on his toes. Xylina raises an eyebrow, "Where are you going?" Stratos successfully opens the door and turns around,
"I'm going out for a little bit. I like to do a little training before everyone gets started for the day." Xylina smiles,
"Okay but remember to stay out of trouble. No giant pillars of fire or anything to draw attention to yourself." Stratos nods,
"Yeah I know. I promise to be good Auntie Xylina. Bye!" With a final smile Stratos leaves the room closing the door behind him. Xylina continues staring at the door,
(Auntie? Hehe, he's such a little cute kid... I wish I could have my own...) Xylina sighs, "Oh well. I have Vecransyh and that's enough. Speaking of which... I wonder how things went with him and Yakira." Xylina then disappears out the door and down the hallway to Vecransyh's room.
Vecransyh opens his eyes and looks out towards the afternoon sun before looking towards the sleeping princess of ice next to him. He smiles and lays a soft kiss on her lips prompting her to stir with a smile. Yakira opens her eyes and gazes lovingly at him,
"Morning love." Vecransyh smiles,
"Morning."
"Well, looks like you two had fun last night." Vecransyh and Yakira jump at the voice and look over to see Xylina leaning up against the wall smiling mischievously, "Wow, Yakira. You look way different without your mask on." Yakira blushes and smiles lightly,
"A Frosslass' face is changed to reflect the events unfolded in their lifetime. Since my life has been nothing but hardship and sadness up till now I look like this." Xylina grins,
"Wow. Never would've guessed." Frosslass smiles brightly,
"But I don't care what I look like as long as I have Vecransyh." Vecransyh motions to Xylina,
"Come here." Xylina floats over to him curiously and jumps when he throws his arms around her in a tight embrace. Xylina floats out of the bed and laughs as she looks at Xylina's stunned expression. Vecransyh turns his head to look at her, "Oh?! You think it's funny?!" Vecransyh holds Xylina in his left arm and wraps his right arm around Yakira's waist pulling her into a three-way embrace and the two girls smile as he holds them in his arms.
Meanwhile Stratos is in the south-eastern most part of the city near a few meteorites practicing his punches and kicks letting out quick bursts of breath to accelerate and cause more damage to strong tree in front of him. After a few minutes Stratos puts his paws on his shorts as he pants,
"Whew! That's enough for now." Stratos hears a strange alien-like voice behind him,
"Is it?" Stratos turns around and looks up at the figure in front of him with his mouth slightly open,
"Who... who are you...?" The bottoms of the figure's eyelids rise slightly to show a faint smile though it appears to have no mouth,
"I am your opponent. I wish to test the power I know you wield." Stratos eyes the figure suspiciously,
"But... who ARE you?" The figure's eyes go serious,
"I am Deoxys." Stratos takes a few steps away to identify the figure as its body blocks the sun from his eyes making it a dark silhouette. Once a short distance away Stratos looks upon the red creature with two tentacles for arms, one red and one green as they lay by the creature's sides. Deoxys' head is in three points to form a sort of crown type shape with the middles of the points with tiny green ovals. Two small squares make up the creature's eye sockets with neutral-looking eyes within them. The chest is mostly black with a vertical red stripe going through it connecting at the middle of a large crystal-like object. Stratos becomes slightly frightened of the intimidating figure,
"You... want to... fight me?" Deoxys nods his head,
"Indeed. I wish to test you to see if you are worthy to wield my power. I have sent word to some of the others and you may meet them soon if you manage to defeat me." Stratos nods confidently,
"I'll do my best." Deoxys makes the same smiling motion and holds out one of his tentacles before a light blue aura encases Stratos. When the light fades Stratos blinks, "H-hey! I'm not tired anymore!"
"Would it have been fair to have you fight me while you are weakened from your training?" Stratos shakes his head,
"No... I guess not." Deoxys nods,
"Then let's go!!! En garde!!"
Meanwhile the rest of the group is sitting down to breakfast in the Pokemon center's... breakfast... room. (I can't be creative all the time) Kaza looks up and tilts his head as he looks around at everyone,
"Hey... where's little Stratos?" Xylina looks towards the exit of the room,
"He said he wanted to go out for a while and train. I told him to keep a low profile so I'm sure he's fine." Kazamaru looks at her seriously,
"Yes, because a solid-black lucario with the ability to use immensely powerful attacks is something that no one would want." Vecransyh sighs,
"That said, I think he can defend himself if anything were to happen." Suddenly there is a loud explosion from outside and everyone exchanges glances before hurrying out of the room.
Outside everyone watches in utter amazement as Stratos fends off the psychic blasts of Deoxys before throwing aura spheres towards him. Deoxys dives towards Stratos and skids to a halt looking slightly winded,
"You must use your full power little one." Stratos looks down and then back up at Deoxys with a look of determination,
"Alright..." Deoxys leaps back and fires a focus blast that connects with the small Lucario causing a large explosion but the smoke clears quickly leaving a still-standing Stratos glowing a bright red and Deoxys makes the smiling motion before barely avoiding a sacred fire attack by Stratos,
"So... this is your power... Get ready!!!" Deoxys throws more psychic attacks that Stratos fends off with his own attacks before he throws his arms up and creates a huge ball of darkness before throwing it towards Deoxys, (W-what?!) The rest of the group watches in awe as the darkness envelopes Deoxys causing him to apparently fall asleep where he floats. Taking the opportunity Stratos charges and blasts Deoxys with a sacred fire causing him to drop from the sky and land with a thud in front of the victorious Lucario. Stratos falls to his hands and knees in front of Deoxys and the Pokemon rises and looks down at him. Deoxys forms his tentacles into arms and one of them begins to glow with a pink light as he holds it out in front of him,
"LEAVE HIM ALONE!!!!" Deoxys looks to the side and takes an ice beam and a shadow ball. Deoxys turns to face his attackers and simply shrugs off the hits,
"Do not interfere. I am done here." Deoxys releases the ball of light from his hand and it makes contact with Stratos enveloping him in a light glow. With that Deoxys disappears in a flash of light. Everyone runs over to the collapsed Lucario and they bring him to the Pokemon center. Twenty minutes pass before Stratos walks out of the back room completely recovered. Yakira blinks as she sees him,
"That was quick! How'd you end up fighting Deoxys anyway?" Stratos grins,
"He said that he wanted to test how strong I was. I feel better now then I ever have been!" Vecransyh chuckles,
"I'd feel pretty good if I beat Deoxys." Kazamaru looks at his watch,
"Gym's open now; looks like we can go get our badges." With that, Vecransyh, Kazamaru, Scarlet and all the others head to the Veilstone gym and through the doors. The inside of the gym looks more like an actual gym then a place to battle. The walls are lined with sandbags and various weight sets. Shortly after walking in the door the group is approached by a girl with light pink hair that goes up at the sides sort of like horns. She wears a tight, blue, sleeveless, top and baggy grey sweatpants. She has breathing strips on both of her arms and her nose. On her hands are black and orange knuckle gloves,
"Sup everybody!? Three for badges?" Stratos raises his hand,
"Actually I'm here for a badge to. For my daddy cuz he couldn't be here today." The girl smiles and leans down to eye level with the Lucario,
"Well then, make it four for a badge then."
Scarlet goes first and quickly defeats the gym leader with her onslaught of psychic attacks which makes for a pretty boring battle in the end so I'm just gonna skip it. Vecransyh walks to the field closely followed by Xylina while Yakira was forced to stay on the sidelines as per the rules of no non-trainer Pokemon on the battlefield. Gengar stands across from Maylene's Medicham and both Pokemon go into a fighting pose waiting for the signal to start. Kazamaru stands off to the side of the field and holds up his arm,
"This is a battle between Vecransyh and the gym leader, Maylene for a Cobble badge. There is no time limit and this is a single battle. Begin!" Gengar rushes at Medicham with his shadowy claws extended and slashes towards the Pokemon only to be parried and struck in the side sending him flying back skidding across the floor on his feet before stopping himself and running back towards the Pokemon throwing shadow balls that the Medicham avoids and slams her fist into Gengar's face making him fly backwards. Gengar stands back up and rubs his face where his nose would be,
"What the hell is with this thing? She can hit me with fighting type moves even without foresight??" Gengar shakes his head, "Whatever." The return trips end in the same way causing Gengar to fly backwards until finally he lands a particularly potent shadow ball that makes contact with the fighting Pokemon causing the ball to explode into black smoke. Gengar looks back to Vecransyh heavily beaten, "Well, at least I hit her once..." He then collapses and returns to his ball,
"You did great Gengar. Something's different about her Pokemon though." As the smoke clears Medicham looks unimpressed along with heavily bruised by the attack and Vecransyh releases Rotom from his ball in a flash of light. Medicham ducks out of the way of an oncoming shadow ball and lunges towards the tiny target barely missing him. Rotom zips around for a few minutes avoiding the fast attacks before releasing a shadow ball into the face of the Pokemon knocking her out on impact and sending her skidding backwards across the floor and back into her pokeball. A flash of light and a strong-looking Lucario stands looking unimpressed at the tiny, flying, orange... thing buzzing around and releasing random attacks that the Lucario either intercepts or avoids. The Lucario releases an aura sphere that smashes into the tiny Pokemon causing a large explosion followed by the tiny Pokemon falling to the ground from the cloud of smoke. Vecransyh returns Rotom to his pokeball,
"Hey, Maylene!?" The gym leader raises an eyebrow,
"Yeah?"
"What's the deal with your Pokemon? They can hit ghosts with fighting moves?" Maylene nods,
"I'll tell ya about it after the battles are over." Vecransyh releases Dusclops and Lucario rushes towards him charging an aura sphere. Dusclops avoids the attack and slams his fist into the Lucario's stomach in a brutal focus punch that knocks the wind out of the dog and sends him flying backwards unconscious. Maylene returns him to his pokeball and takes out her final. The Machamp smirks as he looks down at Dusclops and shields himself with his hands as a pulse of psychic energy envelopes him and the mighty Pokemon shakes off the attack before punching Dusclops in the face knocking him out on contact. Dusclopse returns to his ball and Banette takes his place with his usual insane smile. Banette begins firing shadow balls coupled with blasts of psychic energy as he dances around the Machamp madly avoiding all of his punches slowly widdling away at the Machamp's energy until it finally falls from sheer exhaustion. Banette gives the leader and insane smile and a wave as he turns into a red silhouette and returns to his ball. Maylene walks forward and hand Vecransyh his badge before taking her Pokemon to the healing machine behind her and returning them to full health for the next fight. A few minutes pass before Kazamaru is standing across from Maylene and the two release their Pokemon in flashes of light. Tyranitar roars as Medicham is brought to the field in her battle pose and the psychic Pokemon rushes towards Tyranitar only to stumble and fall onto sharp pointy rocks rising from the ground as the field shakes violently. Medicham jumps to her feet and looks up before being smashed across the face by an Aerial Ace preformed by Tyranitar's tail in a barrel roll above her. Medicham takes the heavy blow and falls unconscious before returning to her ball. The Lucario rises from his ball and smiles as he looks up at his opponent. Tyranitar grunts,
"What you smilin' about Shorty?" lucario blinks at the name and looks down at himself before looking enraged and takes down Tyranitar in a matter of seconds after a barrage of aura spheres couples with focus blasts. Kaza returns Tyranitar to his ball. Swampert rises from his ball and the two competitors stare each other down before rushing at each other and trading strikes. Lucario has the upper hand after only a few hits but then Swampert slams him on top of the head with the entire force of his arm knocking the Lucario out cold. Lucario switches out for Machamp and the two smash together and begin punching furiously but after a few minutes of battering and bruising each other the two Pokemon fall and are recalled to their pokeballs. Maylene hands Kazamaru his badge after the two walk to the center of the arena and Maylene looks over towards Stratos who is leaning against the wall with his eyes closed and his arms folded. Kaza whistles towards him and Stratos blinks a few times before walking to the field and standing across from Maylene in his battle pose. Maylene heals her Pokemon and releases her Medicham onto the field. Stratos smiles brightly as he sees the Pokemon,
"Wow! You're really pretty!" The Medicham blushes and looks at Stratos with an odd look, "But I have to beat you!" Medicham blinks as she takes a fist to the face full of so much power that it takes her out instantly. Maylene returns Medicham to her pokeball and raises her eyebrow,
"Did... did you use attract?" Kazamaru tries to stifle his laughter,
"He was taught to be polite especially when battling women!" Maylene shrugs,
"Pretty useful tactic anyway. Now then!" She releases her Lucario in a flash of light and it gazes upon the smaller and pitch-black version of himself with great curiosity before going into his battle pose,
"Not going easy on you kid!" Stratos giggles,
"Me neither!" The two Lucario rush each other and Lucario lands a force palm into Stratos' stomach causing him to gag and skid backwards a few feet,
"That did it. Sweet dreams." Stratos catches his breath and stands up,
"That kind of hurt." Stratos begins to glow red and a soft smile appears on his face, "Tell me how much this hurts!!!" Lucario's eyes go wide at the charging attack,
"The hell?! You're just a kid!! That attack should have been more then enough to take you out!!" Stratos grins,
"If I were steel type." Lucario looks shocked,
"What?!?!"
"Sacred fire!!!!!" Stratos throws his arms forwards releasing an enormous pillar of flames that completely cover Lucario and as the flames recede he is on his hands and knees breathing heavily,
"N-never would have expected... that... in a million ngh... years." He then collapses to the ground and returns to his pokeball,
"Okay little dude, how the heck can you use sacred fire?" Stratos shrugs,
"I just can. I've got a new attack that I got about an hour ago if you want me to use that instead." Maylene shrugs,
"Whatever. Just don't cry when this guy beats you." Machamp rises from his ball and looks down at Stratos before laughing,
"Are you serious?! This little guy is gonna try and beat me?!" Stratos goes into his battle pose,
"Yep." Machamp raises an eyebrow,
"Hmm... you've got guts kid. Fine, if you want me to pound you into the dirt then so be it!!" Machamp punches down making a crater where Stratos was standing and Stratos giggles now standing next to Machamp looking at the crater,
"That would've hurt. Come on!! Two more tries! Three strikes and you're out! This attack takes a while to charge." Machamp glares at him angrily and punches again but misses as Stratos leaps to the side, "Thaaaaaaat's two!" Machamp lets out a growl,
"Shut up!!!" Machamp releases a focus blast that hits Stratos head on and explodes, "Hehe, bam." As the smoke clears Stratos coughs adorably and smiles up at Machamp,
"Wow! That one had a lot of power in it but... three strikes and you're out!" Machamp looks unintimidated even as Stratos begins to glow pinkish purple,
"Oh please. You couldn't possibly..." Stratos grins as he fires an immensely powerful pulse of pure psychic energy from his paws and Machamp roars in pain before falling down slightly radiating from the attack. Stratos teeters a little bit and falls to his knees heavily tolled from the attack and Maylene returns Machamp to his ball before walking over to him,
"Huh, never thought you'd actually pull off a victory to be honest." Stratos takes a deep breath and stands up looking up at the gym leader,
"I'm a lot stronger then people think I am." Stratos grins as Maylene holds out the badge and he takes it sliding it into the pocket of his shorts,
"I should say so. That was... psycho boost at the end there wasn't it?" Stratos nods,
"Yup. Mr. Deoxys taught it to me after we had a little training battle." Maylene blinks,
"I'd normally think that would be a lie but just seeing you fight proves it true. Good luck in the future." Vecransyh walks up to her,
"Hang on. You were going to tell me how your Pokemon can hit ghosts." Maylene nods,
"Yeah but Stratos kinda damaged em pretty bad so I need to take them to the Pokemon center now. Sorry. Come see me tomorrow and I'll tell you." Vecransyh nods,
"Alright then." The rest of the day is uneventful and everyone watches the sunset from the top of the department store before heading to bed. Stratos snuggles into bed with Vecransyh and the two girls knowing that tomorrow his parents will return and he could show them how much stronger he had gotten.
"Miss Xylina?" He hears another grunt followed by a yawn,
"What is it...? Stratos?"
"I'm hungry..." Xylina turns back towards the small Lucario and gives him an odd look,
"What do you eat?" Stratos shrugs,
"Whatever there is? Even though I'm still under a year old I can't breastfeed cause mommy doesn't have any milk so I've been eating normal food in place of it... but nothing hard. Stuff like bananas and oatmeal usually." Xylina looks slightly shocked by such a complete and thoroughly explained explanation by the infant and gets out of the bed with a yawn,
"Okay..." Xylina begins digging through the bag of supplies Latias had left with them for taking care of Stratos and takes out a few jars of baby food and a banana. Xylina takes out a spoon and heads back over to the bed and begins to feed the tiny Lucario before giving him an odd look when he opens his mouth and eats the food off of the offered spoon, "Stratos? You have teeth." Stratos gives her an odd look and brings his paw to his mouth carefully avoiding hurting himself with his own spike and runs his hand over his short, pointed teeth lining the top and bottoms of his gums. Stratos smiles brightly,
"So this means I can eat more stuff?! Like hamburgers and French fries?!" Xylina nods with a smile at the infant's happiness,
"It's a little odd for a baby to develop teeth so early but it might because you evolved so soon after being born. And the answer is yes, you should be able to eat solid food now." Stratos grins his first toothy smile,
"Yay!! I can't wait!! When are mommy and daddy coming back so I can show them?" Xylina smiles as she continues feeding the small Lucario,
"They might be back tomorrow or the next day." After breakfast Stratos hops off of the bed and wanders over to the door barely reaching the knob after standing on his toes. Xylina raises an eyebrow, "Where are you going?" Stratos successfully opens the door and turns around,
"I'm going out for a little bit. I like to do a little training before everyone gets started for the day." Xylina smiles,
"Okay but remember to stay out of trouble. No giant pillars of fire or anything to draw attention to yourself." Stratos nods,
"Yeah I know. I promise to be good Auntie Xylina. Bye!" With a final smile Stratos leaves the room closing the door behind him. Xylina continues staring at the door,
(Auntie? Hehe, he's such a little cute kid... I wish I could have my own...) Xylina sighs, "Oh well. I have Vecransyh and that's enough. Speaking of which... I wonder how things went with him and Yakira." Xylina then disappears out the door and down the hallway to Vecransyh's room.
Vecransyh opens his eyes and looks out towards the afternoon sun before looking towards the sleeping princess of ice next to him. He smiles and lays a soft kiss on her lips prompting her to stir with a smile. Yakira opens her eyes and gazes lovingly at him,
"Morning love." Vecransyh smiles,
"Morning."
"Well, looks like you two had fun last night." Vecransyh and Yakira jump at the voice and look over to see Xylina leaning up against the wall smiling mischievously, "Wow, Yakira. You look way different without your mask on." Yakira blushes and smiles lightly,
"A Frosslass' face is changed to reflect the events unfolded in their lifetime. Since my life has been nothing but hardship and sadness up till now I look like this." Xylina grins,
"Wow. Never would've guessed." Frosslass smiles brightly,
"But I don't care what I look like as long as I have Vecransyh." Vecransyh motions to Xylina,
"Come here." Xylina floats over to him curiously and jumps when he throws his arms around her in a tight embrace. Xylina floats out of the bed and laughs as she looks at Xylina's stunned expression. Vecransyh turns his head to look at her, "Oh?! You think it's funny?!" Vecransyh holds Xylina in his left arm and wraps his right arm around Yakira's waist pulling her into a three-way embrace and the two girls smile as he holds them in his arms.
Meanwhile Stratos is in the south-eastern most part of the city near a few meteorites practicing his punches and kicks letting out quick bursts of breath to accelerate and cause more damage to strong tree in front of him. After a few minutes Stratos puts his paws on his shorts as he pants,
"Whew! That's enough for now." Stratos hears a strange alien-like voice behind him,
"Is it?" Stratos turns around and looks up at the figure in front of him with his mouth slightly open,
"Who... who are you...?" The bottoms of the figure's eyelids rise slightly to show a faint smile though it appears to have no mouth,
"I am your opponent. I wish to test the power I know you wield." Stratos eyes the figure suspiciously,
"But... who ARE you?" The figure's eyes go serious,
"I am Deoxys." Stratos takes a few steps away to identify the figure as its body blocks the sun from his eyes making it a dark silhouette. Once a short distance away Stratos looks upon the red creature with two tentacles for arms, one red and one green as they lay by the creature's sides. Deoxys' head is in three points to form a sort of crown type shape with the middles of the points with tiny green ovals. Two small squares make up the creature's eye sockets with neutral-looking eyes within them. The chest is mostly black with a vertical red stripe going through it connecting at the middle of a large crystal-like object. Stratos becomes slightly frightened of the intimidating figure,
"You... want to... fight me?" Deoxys nods his head,
"Indeed. I wish to test you to see if you are worthy to wield my power. I have sent word to some of the others and you may meet them soon if you manage to defeat me." Stratos nods confidently,
"I'll do my best." Deoxys makes the same smiling motion and holds out one of his tentacles before a light blue aura encases Stratos. When the light fades Stratos blinks, "H-hey! I'm not tired anymore!"
"Would it have been fair to have you fight me while you are weakened from your training?" Stratos shakes his head,
"No... I guess not." Deoxys nods,
"Then let's go!!! En garde!!"
Meanwhile the rest of the group is sitting down to breakfast in the Pokemon center's... breakfast... room. (I can't be creative all the time) Kaza looks up and tilts his head as he looks around at everyone,
"Hey... where's little Stratos?" Xylina looks towards the exit of the room,
"He said he wanted to go out for a while and train. I told him to keep a low profile so I'm sure he's fine." Kazamaru looks at her seriously,
"Yes, because a solid-black lucario with the ability to use immensely powerful attacks is something that no one would want." Vecransyh sighs,
"That said, I think he can defend himself if anything were to happen." Suddenly there is a loud explosion from outside and everyone exchanges glances before hurrying out of the room.
Outside everyone watches in utter amazement as Stratos fends off the psychic blasts of Deoxys before throwing aura spheres towards him. Deoxys dives towards Stratos and skids to a halt looking slightly winded,
"You must use your full power little one." Stratos looks down and then back up at Deoxys with a look of determination,
"Alright..." Deoxys leaps back and fires a focus blast that connects with the small Lucario causing a large explosion but the smoke clears quickly leaving a still-standing Stratos glowing a bright red and Deoxys makes the smiling motion before barely avoiding a sacred fire attack by Stratos,
"So... this is your power... Get ready!!!" Deoxys throws more psychic attacks that Stratos fends off with his own attacks before he throws his arms up and creates a huge ball of darkness before throwing it towards Deoxys, (W-what?!) The rest of the group watches in awe as the darkness envelopes Deoxys causing him to apparently fall asleep where he floats. Taking the opportunity Stratos charges and blasts Deoxys with a sacred fire causing him to drop from the sky and land with a thud in front of the victorious Lucario. Stratos falls to his hands and knees in front of Deoxys and the Pokemon rises and looks down at him. Deoxys forms his tentacles into arms and one of them begins to glow with a pink light as he holds it out in front of him,
"LEAVE HIM ALONE!!!!" Deoxys looks to the side and takes an ice beam and a shadow ball. Deoxys turns to face his attackers and simply shrugs off the hits,
"Do not interfere. I am done here." Deoxys releases the ball of light from his hand and it makes contact with Stratos enveloping him in a light glow. With that Deoxys disappears in a flash of light. Everyone runs over to the collapsed Lucario and they bring him to the Pokemon center. Twenty minutes pass before Stratos walks out of the back room completely recovered. Yakira blinks as she sees him,
"That was quick! How'd you end up fighting Deoxys anyway?" Stratos grins,
"He said that he wanted to test how strong I was. I feel better now then I ever have been!" Vecransyh chuckles,
"I'd feel pretty good if I beat Deoxys." Kazamaru looks at his watch,
"Gym's open now; looks like we can go get our badges." With that, Vecransyh, Kazamaru, Scarlet and all the others head to the Veilstone gym and through the doors. The inside of the gym looks more like an actual gym then a place to battle. The walls are lined with sandbags and various weight sets. Shortly after walking in the door the group is approached by a girl with light pink hair that goes up at the sides sort of like horns. She wears a tight, blue, sleeveless, top and baggy grey sweatpants. She has breathing strips on both of her arms and her nose. On her hands are black and orange knuckle gloves,
"Sup everybody!? Three for badges?" Stratos raises his hand,
"Actually I'm here for a badge to. For my daddy cuz he couldn't be here today." The girl smiles and leans down to eye level with the Lucario,
"Well then, make it four for a badge then."
Scarlet goes first and quickly defeats the gym leader with her onslaught of psychic attacks which makes for a pretty boring battle in the end so I'm just gonna skip it. Vecransyh walks to the field closely followed by Xylina while Yakira was forced to stay on the sidelines as per the rules of no non-trainer Pokemon on the battlefield. Gengar stands across from Maylene's Medicham and both Pokemon go into a fighting pose waiting for the signal to start. Kazamaru stands off to the side of the field and holds up his arm,
"This is a battle between Vecransyh and the gym leader, Maylene for a Cobble badge. There is no time limit and this is a single battle. Begin!" Gengar rushes at Medicham with his shadowy claws extended and slashes towards the Pokemon only to be parried and struck in the side sending him flying back skidding across the floor on his feet before stopping himself and running back towards the Pokemon throwing shadow balls that the Medicham avoids and slams her fist into Gengar's face making him fly backwards. Gengar stands back up and rubs his face where his nose would be,
"What the hell is with this thing? She can hit me with fighting type moves even without foresight??" Gengar shakes his head, "Whatever." The return trips end in the same way causing Gengar to fly backwards until finally he lands a particularly potent shadow ball that makes contact with the fighting Pokemon causing the ball to explode into black smoke. Gengar looks back to Vecransyh heavily beaten, "Well, at least I hit her once..." He then collapses and returns to his ball,
"You did great Gengar. Something's different about her Pokemon though." As the smoke clears Medicham looks unimpressed along with heavily bruised by the attack and Vecransyh releases Rotom from his ball in a flash of light. Medicham ducks out of the way of an oncoming shadow ball and lunges towards the tiny target barely missing him. Rotom zips around for a few minutes avoiding the fast attacks before releasing a shadow ball into the face of the Pokemon knocking her out on impact and sending her skidding backwards across the floor and back into her pokeball. A flash of light and a strong-looking Lucario stands looking unimpressed at the tiny, flying, orange... thing buzzing around and releasing random attacks that the Lucario either intercepts or avoids. The Lucario releases an aura sphere that smashes into the tiny Pokemon causing a large explosion followed by the tiny Pokemon falling to the ground from the cloud of smoke. Vecransyh returns Rotom to his pokeball,
"Hey, Maylene!?" The gym leader raises an eyebrow,
"Yeah?"
"What's the deal with your Pokemon? They can hit ghosts with fighting moves?" Maylene nods,
"I'll tell ya about it after the battles are over." Vecransyh releases Dusclops and Lucario rushes towards him charging an aura sphere. Dusclops avoids the attack and slams his fist into the Lucario's stomach in a brutal focus punch that knocks the wind out of the dog and sends him flying backwards unconscious. Maylene returns him to his pokeball and takes out her final. The Machamp smirks as he looks down at Dusclops and shields himself with his hands as a pulse of psychic energy envelopes him and the mighty Pokemon shakes off the attack before punching Dusclops in the face knocking him out on contact. Dusclopse returns to his ball and Banette takes his place with his usual insane smile. Banette begins firing shadow balls coupled with blasts of psychic energy as he dances around the Machamp madly avoiding all of his punches slowly widdling away at the Machamp's energy until it finally falls from sheer exhaustion. Banette gives the leader and insane smile and a wave as he turns into a red silhouette and returns to his ball. Maylene walks forward and hand Vecransyh his badge before taking her Pokemon to the healing machine behind her and returning them to full health for the next fight. A few minutes pass before Kazamaru is standing across from Maylene and the two release their Pokemon in flashes of light. Tyranitar roars as Medicham is brought to the field in her battle pose and the psychic Pokemon rushes towards Tyranitar only to stumble and fall onto sharp pointy rocks rising from the ground as the field shakes violently. Medicham jumps to her feet and looks up before being smashed across the face by an Aerial Ace preformed by Tyranitar's tail in a barrel roll above her. Medicham takes the heavy blow and falls unconscious before returning to her ball. The Lucario rises from his ball and smiles as he looks up at his opponent. Tyranitar grunts,
"What you smilin' about Shorty?" lucario blinks at the name and looks down at himself before looking enraged and takes down Tyranitar in a matter of seconds after a barrage of aura spheres couples with focus blasts. Kaza returns Tyranitar to his ball. Swampert rises from his ball and the two competitors stare each other down before rushing at each other and trading strikes. Lucario has the upper hand after only a few hits but then Swampert slams him on top of the head with the entire force of his arm knocking the Lucario out cold. Lucario switches out for Machamp and the two smash together and begin punching furiously but after a few minutes of battering and bruising each other the two Pokemon fall and are recalled to their pokeballs. Maylene hands Kazamaru his badge after the two walk to the center of the arena and Maylene looks over towards Stratos who is leaning against the wall with his eyes closed and his arms folded. Kaza whistles towards him and Stratos blinks a few times before walking to the field and standing across from Maylene in his battle pose. Maylene heals her Pokemon and releases her Medicham onto the field. Stratos smiles brightly as he sees the Pokemon,
"Wow! You're really pretty!" The Medicham blushes and looks at Stratos with an odd look, "But I have to beat you!" Medicham blinks as she takes a fist to the face full of so much power that it takes her out instantly. Maylene returns Medicham to her pokeball and raises her eyebrow,
"Did... did you use attract?" Kazamaru tries to stifle his laughter,
"He was taught to be polite especially when battling women!" Maylene shrugs,
"Pretty useful tactic anyway. Now then!" She releases her Lucario in a flash of light and it gazes upon the smaller and pitch-black version of himself with great curiosity before going into his battle pose,
"Not going easy on you kid!" Stratos giggles,
"Me neither!" The two Lucario rush each other and Lucario lands a force palm into Stratos' stomach causing him to gag and skid backwards a few feet,
"That did it. Sweet dreams." Stratos catches his breath and stands up,
"That kind of hurt." Stratos begins to glow red and a soft smile appears on his face, "Tell me how much this hurts!!!" Lucario's eyes go wide at the charging attack,
"The hell?! You're just a kid!! That attack should have been more then enough to take you out!!" Stratos grins,
"If I were steel type." Lucario looks shocked,
"What?!?!"
"Sacred fire!!!!!" Stratos throws his arms forwards releasing an enormous pillar of flames that completely cover Lucario and as the flames recede he is on his hands and knees breathing heavily,
"N-never would have expected... that... in a million ngh... years." He then collapses to the ground and returns to his pokeball,
"Okay little dude, how the heck can you use sacred fire?" Stratos shrugs,
"I just can. I've got a new attack that I got about an hour ago if you want me to use that instead." Maylene shrugs,
"Whatever. Just don't cry when this guy beats you." Machamp rises from his ball and looks down at Stratos before laughing,
"Are you serious?! This little guy is gonna try and beat me?!" Stratos goes into his battle pose,
"Yep." Machamp raises an eyebrow,
"Hmm... you've got guts kid. Fine, if you want me to pound you into the dirt then so be it!!" Machamp punches down making a crater where Stratos was standing and Stratos giggles now standing next to Machamp looking at the crater,
"That would've hurt. Come on!! Two more tries! Three strikes and you're out! This attack takes a while to charge." Machamp glares at him angrily and punches again but misses as Stratos leaps to the side, "Thaaaaaaat's two!" Machamp lets out a growl,
"Shut up!!!" Machamp releases a focus blast that hits Stratos head on and explodes, "Hehe, bam." As the smoke clears Stratos coughs adorably and smiles up at Machamp,
"Wow! That one had a lot of power in it but... three strikes and you're out!" Machamp looks unintimidated even as Stratos begins to glow pinkish purple,
"Oh please. You couldn't possibly..." Stratos grins as he fires an immensely powerful pulse of pure psychic energy from his paws and Machamp roars in pain before falling down slightly radiating from the attack. Stratos teeters a little bit and falls to his knees heavily tolled from the attack and Maylene returns Machamp to his ball before walking over to him,
"Huh, never thought you'd actually pull off a victory to be honest." Stratos takes a deep breath and stands up looking up at the gym leader,
"I'm a lot stronger then people think I am." Stratos grins as Maylene holds out the badge and he takes it sliding it into the pocket of his shorts,
"I should say so. That was... psycho boost at the end there wasn't it?" Stratos nods,
"Yup. Mr. Deoxys taught it to me after we had a little training battle." Maylene blinks,
"I'd normally think that would be a lie but just seeing you fight proves it true. Good luck in the future." Vecransyh walks up to her,
"Hang on. You were going to tell me how your Pokemon can hit ghosts." Maylene nods,
"Yeah but Stratos kinda damaged em pretty bad so I need to take them to the Pokemon center now. Sorry. Come see me tomorrow and I'll tell you." Vecransyh nods,
"Alright then." The rest of the day is uneventful and everyone watches the sunset from the top of the department store before heading to bed. Stratos snuggles into bed with Vecransyh and the two girls knowing that tomorrow his parents will return and he could show them how much stronger he had gotten.