Lilith paled, she had been caught. Despite knowing it was a possibility, she never took the consequences into consideration. She recognized the man before her as Cheren, Rival of Bianca, Head of the League funded Pokemon school, and the Normal-type Gym Leader of Aspertia.

“Umm, Yeah.” Lilith responded to him. Her mind whirled as she came up with an excuse for her presence.

‘Was it the League, or Bianca that told him about me.’ She thought.

“Pokemon battles are no joke. A stray shot from a heated battle could be fatal.” He paused in a serious tone.

“You're lucky I found you and not one of the security personnel, they take their jobs very seriously. I would probably have to punish you if that happened, but Bianca won’t stop talking about you. She’s been taking up all my free time and she keeps calling me so we can hang out. She even messages me when she should be working…” He blanched.

“I don’t want her mad at me, so let's just say I invited you for a tour of the facility.” He finally finished.

Lilith nodded as Cheren opened the door for her. The two walked the halls as Cheren gave her an official tour of the facility. It was rather bland considering Lilith’s expectations. There was an indoor and outdoor section. The inner areas were for higher level Pokemon that tended to break everything around them. The walls were made with a special material, hence the ugly fashion choices. Safety came over looking good every time.

He mainly stuck to the outer fields as the two walked past many people practicing different moves or techniques. Cheren didn’t know the exact reason she had gone snooping, but he had a general guess. Bianca had told him that she was quiet and secretive, but when Pokemon were involved she opened right up. She was looking to watch higher level fights, but Cheren was still unsure what she wanted to gain from them. His Holo Castor let out a notification ping. He read the message while glancing at Lilith.

“Do you want to see one of the inner battles? I just got asked for some advice.” He asked.

Lilith’s eyes sparkled as she nodded, trying not to look too excited.

‘Bianca has her spot on. She’s definitely a Pokemon fanatic.’ He thought.

Cheren pulled out his Holo Castor and tapped a few buttons. He scanned the list of rooms looking for a specific name.

“Ah, here we go. Room 34E.” Cheren read off. Lilith followed behind him as they reentered the west wing from outside. Lilith jumped nervously about as they walked through the building into the east side.

Cheren walked up to the arena door and pushed it open. The design was the same as the previous arena, so Lilith had no trouble identifying her surroundings.

The two Pokemon stopped as she hid behind Cheren. The Trainers followed suit.

“Hey boss, who's that?” Denis called out.

Lilith peeked her head out where he could see them. Denis was one of the strongest Trainers under Cheren. When the Normal Type Gym was founded, he was first in line to volunteer. His days of going out to explore the world were long gone, the elderly gentleman spent his days leisurely doing what he loved. His knowledge was deep enough to secure the top most position. Denis found it a rewarding job to help raise Pokemon while also giving advice to young Trainers.

That’s exactly what he was doing now. The Trainer opposite him was a young man. He looked old enough to be about 18 and was preparing for his 6th Gym Badge.

“She was with me when you called. She’s one of the new Trainers this cycle. Is it ok if she watches too?” He called out.

It was customary to not air their battle strategies out in the open, so Cheren asked for the young Trainer’s permission. He glanced at Lilith. Anyone who could get a tour personally from a Gym Leader definitely had to be something special.

“Yeah, Sure!” Tyler said.

They both turned back to the Pokemon battle. Denis and Lopunny, his partner, looked rearing to go. The large bunny hopped from one foot to another as he started down their opponent. She had just evolved and was getting used to her new body. Practical application was usually the best course of action for such situations.

Instead of paying attention to the fight, the large metal humanoid turned to the two interlopers. Her main body was a dull red with shiny metal blades sprouting as appendages. A large orange blade came out of the helmet on her head.

Bisharp stared at Lilith intently.

“Come on Bisharp!” Tyler called out.

She didn’t miss the look Bisharp had given her. It wasn’t unsurprising given all that she had learned about herself in the past few days.

“Arp!” She called out defiantly and charged her foe.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Cheren looked slightly surprised as the Pokemon disregarded Lopunny and charged at him instead. It appeared the situation was worse than he thought.

Lilith pulled out her Holo Castor, ready to take notes as she looked up. Cheren released Stoutland as he rammed into the charging Pokemon. Bisharp was sent flying across the arena before landing into the back wall. Her mouth dropped open as the situation became clear to her.

‘Is Cheren trying to kill me?!’ she wanted to scream.

Despite the distance, Bisharp seemed relatively unharmed. Before she could continue her rampage, Tyler recalled her into her Pokeball. The connection between the two was straining and he could feel Bisharp pulling away from him. A Pokemon could break off the connection if they really wanted to.

It was the reason why it confused him so much. She simultaneously refused to listen to her yet kept the connection. It was common for a Pokemon to release itself if both didn’t get along. Denis hadn't heard anything like it so he asked Cheren for his opinion.

“I am so sorry about that, she just won’t listen to me” He said exasperated.

“No worries, and you say she refuses to break the link even when you offer it to her as an option?” Cheren asked.

“Yes, I couldn’t find any Rangers nearby to ask what was going on, so I came and asked for help here.” Tyler's shoulders drooped. His career had been relatively smooth thus far. He had faced hardship, but nothing to truly test his limits.

“Then let's call her back out, see what I can find.” Cheren said.

“Are you sure?” Tyler gave a skeptical look as he glanced at Lilith.

Cheren simply smiled and nodded. Stoutland took up a position to guard her as Bisharp appeared in a flash of light. She spun around rapidly as if looking for an opponent before locking eyes with Stoutland before turning back to Cheren.

He stood out in the field with his hands behind his back in a confident pose.

“Attack him.” He inclined his head towards Lopunny as he spoke.

Bisharp seemed to take the advice as the fight was back on. Lopunny danced around her opponent. It was clear from the onset that Lopunny was the superior Pokemon. His movement outmatched hers, along with just being faster. Bisharp made long violent cuts towards her opponent. There was no rhyme or reason. It was violence for pure violence sake.

“Hmm what do you think?” Cheren asked Lilith as he stepped off the field back to Stoutland.

Lilith watched the fight intently. She tried feeling the star level each was on, but had nothing to base a prediction on. Both felt strong, she just didn’t know how much.

“She doesn’t want to fight…” She answered.

“Oh?” Cheren’s lips threatened a smile. “And why do you say that?”

Lilith had never seen a Trainer battle before. She had no idea how a usual battle was supposed to unfold. It would seem silly if the Trainer called out each move when Pokemon had proven to be just as intelligent, if not more so. Despite not knowing the usual flow, she could feel how unhappy Bisharp was.

“I just can…” She said. “It’s like the energy in Bisharp's body is running wild and attacking is the only way to get rid of it.”

Cheren pondered the thought as he watched the fight unfold. Bisharp sent out Slash after Night Slash towards her opponent. Her long sabers attached to her forearms swiped left and right as she grew more frustrated. Multiple images of Lopunny jumped out of his body. They moved around the arena like clones, circling his opponent.

Lilith opened a new tab and labeled it Double Team. Cheren watched as she deciphered each move and wrote down everything she saw. With the Double Team originating in one place, Lopunny could decide to not even move as the clones distracted Bisharp. He was impressed with her insight.

Bisharp hacked at the after images before her metal started to glow. Iron Defense took effect as the real Lopunny behind her launched a Double Kick at her back. Both connected with Bisharp being sent flying. The Fighting Type Energy was especially damaging to her body.

She tried to get up as Lopunny Bounced on top of her. With Bisharp’s Energy fully depleted, the battle was over.

At Cheren’s command, Tyler left her out on the ground unconscious. Denis and Lopunny converged on the center of the arena, standing over her. The two talked about what went wrong and plans for future training, a regular debriefing.

Lilith could not hear the nuance as Cheren walked over to join them.

“Come, let's go see how they’re doing.” He said.

Lilith followed behind him as the two walked down onto the field. The two Trainers continued to talk until Cheren got closer. Denis turned towards him.

“What do you think Cheren, now that you’ve seen her in action?” He asked.

Instead, he looked at Tyler.

“First I’d like your take on Bisharp, why do you think she doesn’t listen to you, yet is still so attached?” Cheren asked Tyler.

“We got along great before her Evolution, so I think it's pretty obvious she’s been impacted somehow. Now, she attacks my other Pokemon when we aren't training and won’t listen to a word I say.” He analyzed.

“Hmm yes…” Cheren acted all mysterious.

“What do you think Lilith?” Everyone turned towards her in surprise. If it confounded the other two, then why was he asking someone who wasn’t even a Trainer yet?

“You two haven’t formally met, this is Lilith. My friend Bianca asked me to show her around when Denis here asked for my help.” Cheren clarified.

The two nodded in understanding as she voiced her opinion.

Everyone watched as Lilith approached the unconscious Bisharp and knelt down beside her. Tyler appeared rather nervous, the fact that she might wake and attack her at any time was a real possibility. The other two Trainers look unperturbed as Lilith placed her hand on Bisharp’s metallic head.

“It’s because her Dark energy is all wrong…” She paused. “I don’t know the cause or the fix, just that it’s not her choice to continuously attack. The Dark energy is on some sort of cycle. It increases rapidly and she uses her moves to try and get rid of the excess. I imagine if she stopped it would hurt her body…” She pondered.

“So, what? Its Evolution burn?” Tyler wondered aloud.

‘What is that?’ Lilith thought.

If on que Denis spoke. “No, it's more like the reverse. If it were Evolution burn then she would be sluggish because of the lack of energy to fuel her new body. Instead, the body is overloaded with energy that she can’t burn off…” He stopped to ponder the idea.

Denis wasn’t in tune with Dark energy to feel the problem, while Tyler was too inexperienced to understand.

“Have you seen anything like this Boss?” He asked.

“What is Bisharp’s Ability?” Cheren gave a small smile.

Something clicked.

“Defiant!” The three other people in the arena shouted together.

“Of course! So if Bisharp has Evolution burn, where her energy membrane is constantly being depleted, the Defiant ability kicks in and gives her a temporary attack boost, but it's a never ending cycle as she goes from too much energy to too little energy!” Lilith shouted.

While she did not understand Evolution burn, she could theorize its overall cause through its symptoms.

“Have they gone over Evolution burn in class yet?” Cheren lifted his brow. Not only had she identified Bisharps ability, but she also inferred the cause it had on the situation despite having a key piece missing.

“No, I just guessed. what is it?” She asked slightly embarrassed.

“It's when a Pokemon evolves too early and doesn’t have enough energy to maintain their new body. It can be incredibly dangerous, but in this case she appears to be fine due to Defiant. The only side effect is that the energy has to be constantly expended. Bisharp should be fine once she collects enough energy to maintain the evolution properly. It’s definitely a strange case, I’m sure Professor Juniper would be interested in it.” Cheren said.

‘It’s just a wonder that she calmed the effect with just a touch…' Cheren kept his final thought to himself.

He then had Denis take her home after they were done at the Gym. Bianca hadn’t been happy that Lilith tried sneaking into the training arenas and then continued to stay up late. Cheren had apparently messaged her after she left and Bianca then chewed her out for rewarding her for the bad behavior. There was an attempt at a lecture, but Lilith rushed into the bathroom for a shower right as she got home.

The night went by with Lilith laying next to her Egg.