“And the overwhelming might of Victoria Ferrous is still on display!” The announcer called out, as I watched my opponent recall their Nidoking.

It had been a good try, but my opponent’s Nidoking wasn’t anywhere near the old man from Pallets King.

“Will Victoria Ferrous recall her Arcanine after that mighty clash? It doesn’t seem so! Another round with the Legendary Arcanine!”

The challenger threw out a pokeball eventually and I grinned.

I see.

Nidoking, and a Blastoise. This girl was a fan of chonky boys.

“Blastoise!” She called out, without giving an order and I smirked as it shifted to aim its pumps right at Arcanine.

“Arcanine! Don’t get wet!” I called out, less because I didn’t want to get her hit, and more because she smelled like wet dog when she got soaked.

She juked, and then burst rapid fire in a rush as the Hydro Pump roared out, and smashed into the Rock Arena.

Unfortunately the Rock Arena didn’t slow Arcanine down, like my opponent had probably hoped.

She was in fact loving the uneven terrain as she dashed around, leaping off rocks, back and forth in a blur of flame and speed.

Over and over the Blastoise fired, while Arcanine kept moving, rocks smashed away at the pure power of the water type, but it was all for not.

“Blastoise! Air Burst!” My opponent called out and I blinked at the odd name, but I watched and felt my grin grow wide as Blastoise stopped aiming at the ground and instead pointing his nozzles straight up.

“Blaaaaaast!” He roared out and it wasn’t a pump of power, but like a pressured ball of water that blasted into the air with the power of a mortar!

Then while in the air it exploded! Suddenly water dropped onto the arena less like a rain, and more like a wave!

“Counter Shield!” I roared out loudly, because I had to just to be heard over the noise of rushing water.

Arcanine suddenly stopped running and started spinning like a dog chasing her tail and then between one second and another like the friction was needed, fire erupted out from her coat.

The wave of fire that exploded out smashed into water, and while it would definitely lose over time, this wasn’t a constant attack.

The water that fell down was burnt away as the entire arena started heating up.

Arcanine still had a long way to go to get her special attack up to her physical attack, but we had trained hard with this Fiery Counter shield just in case.

“Now! Go!” I roared, and out of the ball of flame that pulsed on top of the rock, a line of fire straight from the flame and into the chest of Blastoise burst out.

Arcanine appeared, her head shining like steel as she smashed head first into Blastoise’s stomach.

I nodded. The battle wasn’t actually over yet, the Blastoise blasted water guns to try and fend Arcanine off, but the trainer was shaken, and she wasn’t doing well in getting a plan together.

Not long after Blastoise went down from another flaming streak across the arena.

Arcanine’s tail was up in the air showing her eagerness for the next battle.

I smiled as I waited for the next pokemon.

—--

“Miss Ferrous!” A voice called out as I left the arena, second win in my pocket.

I blinked as I was just walking out of the overhang when I was called and I turned and pointed at me, because the sight that reached me wasn’t something I was really comfortable with.

A reporter, and a Cameraman.

Shit.

“Miss Ferrous! CPN Kanto news! Miss Ferrous, video of a flying Gyarados is spreading like wildfire across all of Kanto, tell us, will we start seeing more Gyarados flying? How did you pull off such a feat?”“Uhhh.” I stalled because. Camera.

But then I blinked and shrugged.

Fuck it.

“Probably not, it takes a lot of training and love to get a Gyarados to connect with their inner flying type and claim the sky.” I said, with a shrug. “And I don’t want to confirm how I got my Blue Heart to fly, because I only have one example. Give it a bit, and we’ll see if it’s replicable, and if it is I’m sure the knowledge will get released to the people.”“Are you confirming that you’ll release that secret to the world?” She asked again, throwing the mic in my face.

“It’s not really a secret. I told Lance yesterday, and he said he’s going to try it himself.”“Champion Lance? Are you in communication with him often? Can we get information on your connection to the Blackthorn Clan, and comment that they gave you the title of Dragon Master through nepotism?”“Uuuh. Not often? I got pulled into a meeting yesterday after my flight with Blue Heart, and he was there. And I only went to Blackthorn City on my journey, The Elder’s a good man. We talked before my battle with Clair and he gave me the title. He believed I earned it.”“Is it true, you went through the entire Johto region’s Gyms in only a few days?” She asked again. Man it’s a good thing I remember smartphone cameras, and youtube. Otherwise I might get annoyed with being recorded.

“Yeah, I traveled to Johto to get some training for a new pokemon I was adding to my team for the conference. She needed some training in fighting in pokemon battles with people. She did really well, and then I earned all the Star Badges from the Johto gyms. It was fun, and I made some new friends.”“New friends? How was your treatment in Johto? A Kanto Trainer doing what you did must have caused some ruffled feathers.” She urged on, probably looking for some drama? But I just shrugged.

“It was okay. Everyone battled me without too much issue, and Bugsy even traveled with me after I won his badge, and we became good friends. He’s going to do some training and we are going to have another battle as well! So I’m looking forward to that.”

“Oh! Bugsy from Azalea town? You had a good relationship with him?” She asked, and I narrowed my eyes at the woman with her stupid shining fake smile and just brushed it off.

“Anyway I’m going to get going. I have some friends battling soon,”“Wait miss Ferrous one more question!”“Sorry I need to go. Bye!” I called out, as I released my secret weapon.

Arcanine perked up as she realized we weren’t just at the Pokemon Center.

I climbed on board without hesitation and then we were gone in a burst of speed.

She had just soloed an entire team, but Arcanine always had more energy.

“Thanks for the save girl.” I called out and she howled out in happiness at getting a chance to just run.

—--

“Sorry Kiba.” I offered and he growled out a grumble from around a burger that he was chewing angrily. He lost his match today. The enemy had hit him with a really surprising Machamp, and it had just been too much for his poor Mightyena to overcome.

“You did well.” I offered and he side eyed me. “No really! Going against type advantage is hard, but you still hit that Machamp. Trying to counter with Sucker Punch was a good call.”

“It wasn’t enough.” He grumbled and I nodded.

It wasn’t. Kiba was strong, but the trainer he fought had three years on him, and it showed.

“Kiba!” Ivy called out as she rushed into the restaurant. She had her own battle after so hadn’t been able to comfort Kiba.

“Ivy… You win?”If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.“Yeah.” She said a little embarrassed. “Only barely. Venusaur got knocked out. I had to rely on Tauros, and then Clefairy. The match went long because the opponent used a Raticate, and it just couldn’t hit with its Hyper Fang, once Clefairy started hiding.”

“Sneaky.” I complimented her and she smiled before growing.

“Sorry Kiba.”“It’s fine! Just… When one of you fight him, kick his ass for me.”“We will!” I assured him with a fist raised to the sky. “Us Viridian Trainers have to represent!” I called out and Ivy just laughed at me, but didn’t really confirm.

“Idiot.” A new voice called out and I turned with a smile.

“Zelos! Hi! Come join us!” “Pass. I heard you lost Kiba.” She said while still standing beside the table.

“Yeah.” He mumbled grumbling a bit. It was funny, Kiba was hunched over his food, and the image made me think of a puppy grumbling around his food to keep anyone from touching it.

“Your opponent was good. Really good. I doubt most first year trainers could have beaten him.” She said and then to my surprise she turned and walked to her own table farther into the restaurant.

“What the fuck does that mean?” Kiba snapped and I hummed.

“I think she was trying to comfort you actually.” I offered and Kiba blinked before scoffing, biting back into his cheeseburger with ravenous intent.

—--

While I was still staying in the free trainers lodging, my family obviously wasn’t. So once I had finished comforting Kiba I had run off as Ivy had done the same to go find everyone.

I was actually really thankful that I wasn’t staying with them, because Papa and Uncle Leo close together was a recipe for awkward moments.

Running through town I hit the hotel that was actually pretty fancy and headed up to the rooms our family had ordered.

With both Elizabeth and I in the conference our families each got a deal on rooms but it had meant they were close by.

I knocked and peaked my head inside only to relax. Papa was sitting at a cute little dining table with some food in front of him, while he was watching the TV.

“Papa!” I called out as I rushed in, and I delighted in his smile brightening as he stood and scooped me into a hug.

“There she is! The girl of the hour!”“Is that Vicky I hear?” Mama called out and I laughed as she sat up from the bed where she had been completely hidden by pillows.

“We were just watching your tape.”“My wha-? Nooooo!” I howled as I looked up and saw it. The Star Badge Tape! It was playing the recordings of my gym battles! I reached for it to turn it off, but Papa had me held tight! Was it a trap all along!?

“That’s right! We’re watching the whole thing!” Mama said cheerfully, and I had to turn to her in horror at the betrayal!

“Gram Gram is with Elizabeth next door watching the normal tapes. To see the Match Elizabeth got recorded.” Papa added and I slumped when I realized it was a family thing. They weren’t going to let me turn it off.

“Plus I really need to have a talk with a few gym leaders. That Surge!” Mama snapped and I suddenly couldn’t help but giggle because Surge was in trrooooouble.

I glanced up and saw that it was currently playing the Sabrina match, and I nodded because that wasn’t going to last long.

“If you didn’t like Surge, just wait until you see Blaine.” I added. And Mama suddenly glared harder.

“I remember Vicky. Throwing Lava around with a ten year old in the room!” Mama hissed as she rose up and looked like she was going to strangle Blain.

“Heh, yeah I broke his stupid gym though.” I said with a happy smile. He totally deserved it.

Papa even patted my head a bit as he hugged me tight.

“Well these matches are amazing Trouble.” Papa said changing the topic, looking up to the TV Sabrina was losing fast, her pokemon just not able to keep up without her crazy altering reality, or perceptions while battling she had been doing before.

“Eh.” I scoffed. “They’re okay. I’ll be glad to not have to do the gym challenge again next year. Or any year for that matter.” I said and Papa laughed a deep rumble.

“Never again?” “Well I mean, maybe if I go to another region or something? But not here again. I’ll finally get to be lazy for a bit once the conference is over.”Mama was suddenly there, and her fingers pinched my cheek.

“Lazy?”“Aaa! Productive lazy!” I countered and she let me go.

“Good. No Laziness.” She proclaimed and I just nodded hurriedly.

—--

The next morning I woke up early and jumped onto Dragonites' back.

I had gotten a call from a friend the night before.

Flying into Johto only took a short time as I was already up in the mountains. And not long after I landed in sleepy Azalea town.

As I jumped off I looked up at Dragonite and she gave me a look that I nodded at.

She was ready for a battle today.

“It’ll be your turn today.” I told her and she preed happily, her wings flapping, and shifting her from battle ready dragon to happy girl, as she clapped her hands together.

“Vicky! Sorry I’m late. There was trouble with the Heracross this morning. One of them got into a fight.” Bugsy explained as he ran up, panting. I noticed that despite the early morning, he looked like he had been up for a while.

Heh. Bug Nerd.

“Don’t worry about it.” I waved him off and his shoulders relaxed at my words. “I just got here anyways. You got everything?”“I do! Everyone is going to watch the forest for me, while I’m at the conference.”“Cool! C’mon Dragonite needs a warm up for her match today.”“Oh she’s going to fight today? She isn’t going to uh. Blow up the arena.. Is she?”“I don’t know!” I said happily as I climbed onto her back. “Dragonite, you want to blow up the arena?” I asked her, and she tilted her head like she was thinking about it, and I noticed Bugsy getting a little nervous, before she couldn’t hold it and started snickering, and I joined her. Letting Bugsy realize we were messing with him.

“Funny.” He said, but the smile on his lips kept it from biting.

“I’ve never been to the Indigo conference before. Is it any different than the Silver?”“I don’t know! You’ll have to tell me!” I called out as Dragonite had once Bugsy was on board launched herself into the air at full speed.

—--

“And this is Ivy!” I introduced Bugsy as I finally found Ivy in a little cafe along the road eating breakfast.

I smiled when I noticed a sleepy Fomantis sitting on the railing next to her getting some early morning sun.

“Vicky? Oh, who is this?”“This is Bugsy, the Azalea Gym Leader!” I introduced her, turning to Bugsy who waved a little awkwardly, and I realized he was worried about girls being squeamish about bugs.

“Oh how nice! I’m Ivy Vinewood. Viridian Bulbasaur breeders, along with some other grass types.” She said a little formally, and Bugsy’s eyes widened.

“Oh that’s wonderful! Bulbasaur are great assisted pollinators!”“Yes! Flowers are very important to grass types, and Bug types too I suppose.”“They are! Without so many grass types helping out, Bug types wouldn’t be able to pollinate as much, and so many Bug Types would suffer! Weedle, and Caterpire both need lots of flowers in their diet.”“Blegh. But they always eat too many!” Ivy instantly argued back, the irritated look of a girl that had done a lot of chores in her life across her face.“Oh that’s a diet issue! If you plant some specific grasses around the flowers they will only eat one or two before moving on.”“Wait really?”“Yeah flowers don’t have all the nutrients they need, but they do have some key vitamins that they can’t get from grass, but they’ll overeat, if there isn’t enough grass in the area to draw them off.” I felt like my neck was going back and forth and Bugsy and Ivy started getting deep into gardening…

I let out a breathy laugh so I didn’t interrupt and just took a seat next to Fomantis, resting my head back against the railing next to them and enjoying the warm morning sun.

It was cold outside after all.

—--

Ivy had her battle first today so Bugsy and I were watching and I was sort of excited. Bugs and Grass types share a lot of similar battle strategies. Between poison, and sleep effects and things.

I was really hoping that Bugsy would get even more sneaky moves from Ivy so our rematch would be even more fun!

And the match was going to give him all that he needed, because it was getting a bit desperate.

Ivy had gone into the fight serious, and had been pushed back right away by a ferocious type weakness.

A Xatu. The Psychic Flying type was perfect to counter Venusaur.

Someone had studied his opponent and had a good counter.

Especially since Ivy had jumped to try and use her normal sleep powder and the Xatu had Magic Bounce. Reflecting the status move right back at Venusaur! The shock on Ivy’s face when her powder move had actually worked on her Venusaur had been obvious even up in the stands.

I winced as Venusaur went flying from a powerful psychic waking up the grass type for a moment but as it rose up slowly and injured it was obvious that Ivy’s first move had failed.

“Venusaur! Return!” Ivy called out and I relaxed. Ivy always was good at noticing when it was too much.

“Go!” She called out and this time threw out her Butterfree.

Interesting.

I could feel Bugsy perk up and suddenly as the battle continued, I watched Ivy continuously use a different battle style than she normally did.

She was still using evade moves as often as she could. Substitute popped just then as Xatu slammed into it with a nasty Air Slash.

But a whirlwind blew up dust from the Rock Arena and hid Butterfree from view for a bit longer.

Interesting. What were you up to Ivy?

Butterfree was losing. It simply wasn’t keeping up with the Xatu that was actually faster, as the bird kept boosting its own speed with Psychic literally throwing itself around the arena, but luckily it wasn’t quite overcoming Ivy for one reason.

As Xatu used Psychic to throw a rock at Butterfree I watched as the rock was deflected off with a Psychic as well.

Heh. I didn’t know Ivy had taught her Butterfree Psychic. Was it from a TM? Or practice?

But it was working, as Xatu’s trainer kept trying to finish it with Psychic and it kept failing just enough for Butterfree to succeed.

Then I noticed it.

The first rock that had been deflected away had been a struggle.

As the battle went on, despite being on the back foot, it was less and less an arduous task.

Ah. I see.

“Quiver Dance?” I questioned aloud, and Bugsy looked away for a second before nodding.

“Yep. The flutter Butterfree is doing when it dives after being discovered? That’s Quiver Dance. It’s bold. No one is noticing because Butterfree is ducking down to hide after every use.”I smirked at Bugsy’s direct confirmation on what was happening. Of course the bug nerd would notice it right away.

Then I think this battle was shifting in who was winning.

But Butterfree couldn’t keep this up. Substitute took some of the pokemons energy to make them, each time they were created that was a chunk of their Health going away, do it enough times and the pokemon will just faint in exhaustion.

Then it happened. Ivy must have been satisfied, and worried that she would push too far.

“Butterfree! Now! Baton Pass!” She called out and I whistled. That was a move I hadn’t expected. Especially since you weren’t really supposed to return pokemon in the conference. That might still count as them being out.

Not that it mattered I supposed.

When Butterfree turned into energy and rushed back to Ivy, she held out a second pokeball and the power washed over the ball before she tossed it out.

“What’s this? A return and sending out a new pokemon using Baton Pass! That counts folks! Butterfree is out for this match, putting Trainer Ivy Vinewood on the back foot! Two down to nothing!

“Clef! Clefairy!” The little pink ball cheered out as it landed, and I smirked as this battle might just be over.

Ivy was a Kanto trainer too after all.

“Moonblast!” She called out and the trainer called out something, but it was too late. Quiver Dance increased Special Attack, Special Defense, and most importantly Speed.

And Butterfree might have even maxed out its buffs.

So the Xatu made to move, its energy glowed as Psychic was activated, its trainer telling it to block it, but it was too late.

The energy ball appeared between Clefairy's hands and then a moment later the air shrieked as a beam of energy rocketed out, and blasted into the bird.

Heh. I couldn’t help but laugh at just how much power Ivy had released. She had gone a bit overkill with that one. She could have done that earlier, but nope. She decided to go all out.

“Whoa.” Bugsy whispered beside me, and I nodded as the crowd around us roared in excitement.

It was time for the Ivy sweep! The battle was over at that point, but the trainer still tried to resist.

Only when her Charizard slammed into the earth, unable to resist the overwhelming power of the tiny pink terror that Ivy had brought to bear did the match get called.

Hehe! Ivy really was a Kanto trainer at heart! Going for the overwhelming power play!