After a very brief examination, Scyther is recalled as Ran approaches his defeated friend. Hesitantly, he speaks up in an attempt to offer some consolation, "You were unlucky, there aren't many Spearow that know Steel Wing."

Spencer's answer is a sharp snarl, "I know that. Let's just get to the pokémon center."

Wary of provoking his friend's anger any further, Ran drops the topic rather than discussing the battle or the signs that they'd been baited. It's useful information, but with Spencer almost vibrating with pent-up frustration, trying to have a post-fight analysis now feels like it'd only end in another argument.

Instead, he follows more sedately as Spencer starts jogging towards the distant red roof of the Pokécenter. As they get closer however, Ran realizes that what they're approaching isn't actually a proper Pokécenter, when the large shield the building has hanging out front becomes legible.

'Union-32 Rest Stop' isn't a name Ran has ever heard of, but with its position, it's easy enough to understand just what they're coming up on. However, what is hard to understand is the red roof, because the Pokécenter's distinctive look is legally protected to ensure that in cases of emergency, trainers will find it as soon as possible.

Intrigued, Ran speeds up, catching back up to Spencer easily enough. As they approach, Ran gives the building a proper look, noticing the clearly delineated battlefield out back immediately. Next is the sheer number of windows the large wooden building has, hinting at a large number of small rooms. Out front there are a number of large wooden tables and benches, but they, like the arena in the back, are all entirely empty.

Just as Ran is about to ask if the place is open in the first place, he notices the sign on the front door that assures them that Union-32 Rest Stop is in fact open for business. Following Spencer as the other boy bursts inside, it takes Ran a moment to understand just why the building they've entered has a red roof.

Directly in front of them, greeting any entrants, is a large desk, behind which a previously bored young woman visibly perks up as the doors swing open. Directly to the left of the entrance however, is a smaller desk area behind which a surprisingly young nurse is pushing the buttons of a Pokécenter machine Ran doesn't know the purpose of.

Spencer immediately beelines towards the green-haired nurse, the urgency with which he puts his pokéballs on the desk enough to spur the woman into action. Ran, eventually wanting a brief check-up of his pokémon as well, but none of them truly injured, politely heads to the proper front desk, where the receptionist is smiling warmly as he approaches.

As he nears her, Ran takes the young woman in for a moment. She looks about eighteen, with long, light brown wavy hair and pretty dark brown eyes. Wearing casual clothes like jeans and a simple light green top, she doesn't seem uniformed, but still looks perfectly at ease behind the desk.

"Hi, welcome to Union-32 Rest Stop, your one-stop hostel for all your and your pokémon's needs," She greets him cheerfully, "Is this your first time with us?"

"It is." Ran confirms politely, not expanding any further as he is happy to let the receptionist steer the conversation for now.

"Okay, great! We offer private rooms with baths or beds in the common dormitory with common baths on a per-night basis, Pokécenter usage at the standard rates as well as breakfast and dinner options or personal use of the shared kitchen, whichever you might prefer. We also have a common room for relaxation which is freely available to all paying guests. Finally, should you be in need of any supplies, we offer a limited range of products typically found in your standard pokémart." She rattles off enthusiastically, before drawing in a deep breath, her long spiel finally finished.

"Are you interested in staying with us?" She finally asks, as Ran patiently waited for her to recover her breath and ask her question.

A brief animated but good-natured discussion follows, in which Angie happily tries to upsell Ran into getting two private rooms, breakfast and dinner, whilst Ran insists two beds in the common dorm will do and they'll happily use the shared kitchen. Before Angie can really pour the charm on however, Spencer finishes with the nurse and joins the conversation like a grumpy raincloud, his sour expression enough for Angie to drop the matter and quietly let them both pay for the cheapest option on offer.

Spencer immediately walks off, his earlier bad mood only worsened by the current lack of pokéballs on his side. As it's only the early afternoon however, Ran is in no such hurry, calmly heading to the nurse's desk and checking his own pokémon in for a quick check-up. None of them really took any meaningful hits they couldn't just sleep off during their journey through Union Cave, but he figures it's better to be safe than sorry. Then, curiosity piqued, he heads back to Angie, who watches him approach curiously.

"Do you need any help finding anything? We're not busy at the moment, so I could leave the desk unmanned for a few minutes if you'd like." She proposes helpfully.

"No thanks, I'll go settle in properly in a minute, but I'm curious about this place," Ran admits, "I wasn't aware Pokécenters aren't always independent buildings."

"Ohh," Angie says, as she realizes why Ran is still in the lobby, "Well the thing is, usually they are, but there's a few places where having a full-time Pokécenter would just be outrageously wasteful and costly, but not having one would be irresponsible. On the other side of Union Cave, someone in a big hurry can just about make it to Azalea Town within a day, but from this side, Violet City is just too far away to get to fast in case of an emergency. So when my parents opened this place years ago, the Pokémon League reached out about including a small Pokécenter almost immediately."

"That makes sense, thanks for the explanation. Do you get a lot of customers?" Ran asks, interested in any information he can gain about a usual Conference season.

Angie nods happily, "We sure do! We're just coming out of the calmest months of the year, actually. Right at the end of the season and during the first week or two of the next one, we hardly get any traffic at all, because the wild pokémon around here aren't particularly rare or strong and at that point trainers that are still hunting for their final badge are usually strong enough to have alternative means of transportation, cutting out the need to pass through Union Cave. But now that the new season's started and lots of fresh trainers are starting out again, traffic will be picking up again."

"Especially as Violet City usually also gets a wave of rookies from Cherrygrove and then there's all the types that want to do the Elm-route. Ever since that guy's been sending out three sponsored trainers a year, we usually see a huge spike in the first quarter. I'm telling you, if you'd come in a few weeks from now, this place would've been bustling already!" Angie finishes proudly.

Thanking Angie for the information, Ran eventually goes looking for the dormitory, finding it to be a large room filled with four rows of five bunkbeds apiece. Each bed has a large footlocker consisting of two compartments to store away any gear in. Right at the entrance is a big poster showing a Rattata with a red X drawn across it. Underneath, it reads: "No pokémon out of their balls in the dorm!"

Already having claimed a bottom bed in the corner, Spencer is moodily paging through his planning notebook, occasionally scribbling something down. Ran wanders over, claiming the top bunk on the next bed over from Spencer's. He takes a minute to put his backpack away, before, after a moment's hesitation over whether or not to talk to Spencer, he wanders out again in search of the common baths.

The shower stalls he finds aren't anything spectacular but, considering they'd just spent the better part of a week in a cave, Ran still delights in the feeling of warm water pouring over his dust-covered body. Later, after retrieving his pokémon from the nurse and receiving the affirmation that they were indeed in fine condition, Ran wanders over towards the front desk once more.

"So you work here full-time for your parents then?" He asks Angie, who greets him with another smile, "That I do. What's on your mind, Ran?

"I was wondering if you've trained any pokémon," Ran admits, not seeing the point in beating around the bush, "Because it's a bit early in the day for me to just go sit in the common area and laze about for the rest of the day."

Angie grins, leaning forwards on the desk, drawing Ran's eyes downwards, "You did come in a bit early yeah, but honestly, usually by the time rookies make it to us for the first time they're happy for the excuse to crash and unload for a bit. But yeah, I never even applied for my CGCs, but I've got two pokémon."

"That's cool," Ran acknowledges with a smile of his own, doing his best to look the older girl in the face without blushing, "Spencer got baited into a battle earlier today so his team's with the nurse for the moment, but I was wondering if, if you're free, you were interested in a battle?"

"Is that a challenge?" Angie leads, smiling flirtatiously at Ran, leaving him to flush slightly.

"Not yet," He manages to get out without stumbling over his own words, "Just a question, I'd like to know if you're interested and what kind of wager you had in mind, first."

Angie's smile becomes more genuine, her voice warming as she leans back from the desk she'd been using to accentuate her charms, "That guy Spencer fought was a piece of shit with a big bird keeping glove and a Spearow he shows off, wasn't he?"

"Uh, yeah, yeah he was," Ran acknowledges, "I gather you're familiar with him?"

"Sure," Angie waves off, "Win's been staying here for a few days already. I already figured he came down here to prey on rookies for a bit of easy money until he's got his scheduled match with Falkner. We went to school together for a few years, back in the day. It's honestly pretty sad to see that he's still the same smug bully he was back then."

"It's a shame we didn't make it here before running into him, that warning could've saved Spencer a fair bit of money." Ran replies sullenly, Angie's words further confirming his own assumptions about the other guy, whose name he's now finally learned.

"It is, but at least you clearly learned a lesson from it, seeing as you're already avoiding blindly challenging me," Angie encourages, seemingly trying to cheer him up, "Anyways, I'm up for a friendly spar. Head on out back, I'll catch up to you in a minute."

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Grinning eagerly, Ran thanks the pretty receptionist before doing just that, the two of them facing off across the Rest Stop's arena not five minutes later.

"Come on out Sentret, we're getting a workout in today!" Angie calls out with a grin, sending out her first pokémon into the field, Ran answering by sending out Spinarak.

"We go when the pebble hits the ground, alright?" She calls out to Ran, lifting up a pebble demonstratively. At his nod, she throws it up in the air, Ran tensing up as he tracks its flight closely.

The moment the pebble hits the ground, their first commands overlap.

"Quick Attack!" "String Shot!"

Sentret's tail flexes hard, letting it burst forwards at Spinarak at speed, but the benefits to Ran's training, forced to focus on practicing moves and execution speed due to not being able to use the Pokécenter as often as he would have liked, show through, as Spinarak manages to act just as fast, a tight jet of sticky string flying directly at the approaching Pokémon. It doesn't slow Sentret down enough to prevent the attack from connecting, Spinarak thrown off her legs and landing harshly on the ground, but when Sentret slows down and turns, it's got multiple thick strands of sticky, tough webbing running across its body.

"Again, Sentret!" "You too, Spinarak!"

Already, the difference is notable, Sentret's charge noticeably slower and slowing even further as Spinarak heaps on even more sticky webbing. Still, the gap closes swiftly, but neither trainer watches quietly this time.

"Pivot into Fury Swipes!" Angie orders Sentret, the still charging Pokémon obediently pulling its arms back, tips of its claws shining with Normal-type energy.

"Make it pay for sticking close! Absorb!" Ran orders in turn, confident in Spinarak's ability to tough it out through Sentret's attack and pay back the damage dealt with interest.

The residual speed from Sentret's Quick Attack is enough to send both pokémon rolling head over heels following impact, with Sentret growling and clawing furiously at any part of Spinarak it can reach, while the bug type for her part chitters agitatedly as green globules of enemy get drawn out of Sentret and into her.

It's a tense fight for a few seconds, both trainers remaining mute as their pokémon come to a stop, Sentret clawing away on top of Spinarak whilst the green spider doggedly uses Absorb to recover from the damage she receives and weaken Sentret in turn. Eventually, one of the two has to be winning out, but Ran isn't sure who that someone is.

Angie appears to disagree as after a few more tense seconds, she pulls out her pokéball and calls out, "Sentret, come back!"

Ran looks up in surprise, his entire focus having been on the heated fight between their pokémon.

"Spinarak's Absorb was healing her up almost as fast as Sentret was hurting her, she'd have knocked him out after a few more seconds without really gaining us anything, so I didn't see the point in making him suffer through that," Angie explains for Ran's benefit, before pulling out her other pokéball, "But this fight isn't over yet! Come on out, Gorgeous!"

"Sunflora!" Angie's clear starter cries out as it materializes, dancing around happily in place for a moment before focusing on Spinarak. At the sight of the bug-poison type, the usually smiling sun pokémon's expression sours.

Rather than throwing another pebble, this time there's merely a nod from Angie to show that she's ready to continue, though she doesn't immediately speak. Hoping to take advantage of her hesitance, Ran immediately gives an order.

"String Shot again!"

Angie smiles easily at the command, clearly having gotten what she wanted, as she gives her own order, "Ingrain, Gorgeous!"

Ran barely suppresses a curse, as his first attack proves entirely useless with Sunflora voluntarily immobilizing itself, its roots digging hungrily into the ground remaining entirely unbothered by the webs Spinarak shoots at it.

"Alright Spinarak, your target's immobilized, Poison Sting and get close enough for Infestation!" He orders after a moment's delay, channeling his frustration into a new set of orders rather than continuing to stew futilely.

"Don't let it, Gorgeous! Razor Leaf!" Angie counters immediately, easily accepting the prospect of a shoot-out.

Spinarak fires off hundreds of tiny darts of poison type energy, Sunflora answering with tens of sharpened leaves. Where the two attacks meet, Spinarak's attack is destroyed, but the sheer volume of darts guarantees that at least some get through. From the other side, Sunflora's attack is barely hindered, but where Sunflora is stationary, there's nothing keeping Spinarak in one place.

The end result is Sunflora getting lightly sprayed with Poison Stingers, whilst Spinarak scuttles erratically as she slowly closes the distance. What Razor Leafs hit her definitely have more power to them than her own Poison Stings, but the significant type advantage sees the smaller pokémon advance nearly entirely undeterred. Just as Spinarak starts getting close enough to use Infestation however, Angie gives a command that drains the blood from Ran's face in a moment.

"Earth Power!"

"Get out of there!" Ran cries out desperately, Spinarak doing her best to dash to the side, but too slow to dodge as Sunflora's expression tightens for a moment, before the ground under Spinarak glows ominously. Then the earth erupts upwards, sharp spires erupting outwards and throwing Spinarak flailing into the air, where Ran immediately recalls his pokémon as she hits the top of her flight, before she can start falling.

"I withdraw Spinarak, she doesn't need to take more than one hit like that for a spar," Ran explains, drawing an approving nod from Angie, as his hand hesitates between his two remaining pokéballs, before making his decision, "And I'll meet your starter with my own! Let's show them how it's done, Ekans!"

Angie grins when Ekans materializes, looking at Ran challengingly, "You realize that this one doesn't even have the bug typing to make this hurt less? Right?"

"We'll be alright," Ran replies confidently, before calling out sharply, indicating the spar's resumption, "Ekans, Sunflora's ingrained and knows Earth Power! Glare into Poison Sting and Wrap things up! Coil dodge if it gets the move off!"

"W- Earth Power, Gorgeous!" Angie stumbles for just a moment, before giving out the expected order.

She's a moment too late however, as Ekans' eyes glow menacingly and Sunflora visibly freezes up for a moment. It's enough for Ekans to start sliding forwards as fast as the purple snake can manage, a spray of poisonous darts fired from his mouth to keep Sunflora distracted.

Under the combined hammering of Poison Sting and the lingering paralytic effect of Ekans' Glare, Sunflora takes precious seconds to finally muster up the energy to attack, but still the ground beneath Ekans glows ominously before the distance between both pokémon is entirely closed.

Instantly, Ekans stops slithering forwards, coiling up tightly in an instant before explosively leaping to the side. When the ground ruptures upwards, Ekans' head and front half are already flying out of the danger zone, only his lower half ripped upwards painfully and tearing gashes into his hide. Ekans flips end over end as a result, but manages to land somewhat steadily despite the obvious pain he's in.

"Press on!" Ran shouts, leading to Ekans obediently rushing forwards once more at Sunflora, as their opponents suddenly realize just how much danger they're in with a furious poison-type closing in.

"Razor Leaf! Keep it back!" Angie orders hurriedly, but the few projectiles Sunflora manages as a last gasp effort don't bother Ekans, who wraps tightly around Sunflora, restraining the grass-type and slowly squeezing, as Ekans' head looms just above the sun pokémon's head, mouth gaping wide open and fangs dripping threateningly with poison.

"Ekans, end-" Ran starts to call out after giving Angie a moment to forfeit, before getting cut off when she does just that.

"Forfeit!" She shouts as fast as she can, just in time for Ekans' final lunge to stop after just the slightest hint of forward movement. Obediently, he releases his Wrap and gently starts slithering back towards an enthusiastic Ran, who greets his starter with some cautious petting before allowing him to rest in his ball.

For her part, Angie recalls Gorgeous the Sunflora and saunters over with a begrudging smile, having to step cautiously around the patches of ground destroyed by her own pokémon's usage of Earth Power.

"Well I didn't think I'd actually lose! I thought I was being nice by not putting a wager on things, but I guess not, huh?" She asks wryly, offering Ran a hand to shake, which he eagerly accepts.

"It could've gone either way." Ran answers humbly, not mentioning his Zubat, which would've more easily handled Sunflora under the conditions.

"Maybe," Angie replies, not seeming particularly bothered either way, "But that was fun. I should get back to the front desk though. Enjoy the rest of your evening! If you're bored later, you know where to find me."

"Thanks, you too!" Ran agrees, before looking at the arena again.

"Uh, what about-" He starts to ask, but Angie waves him off immediately.

"Dad's Quagsire will sort it out later, don't worry about it."

"Huh, that's convenient." Ran admits idly, but Angie merely grins.

"Yeah well, neither of my parents had a ground type before opening this place, it took them until about a week after opening before dad gave in and went out to catch himself a Wooper. You really can't host trainers without having an easy way to provide a good arena."

Looking out once more at the amount of chaos even their friendly, low-level fight inflicted on the rest stop's arena, Ran can only nod agreeably before they both head inside.

When he hands over his pokéballs to the nurse for actual treatment rather than for a simple check-up, she actually seems grateful for the work. Before he can even comment on it to Angie however, who is already in the process of returning to her desk, the brunette calls back to him over her shoulder, "Don't get used to it, you're not going to find another Joy anywhere in Johto who gets as much free time as this one!"