As soon as the battle started the geodude moved his hand down, scooping up the dirt and gravel beneath him. Meanwhile Paul was dodging each respective swipe of Brock's spear, moving back and jumping whenever Brock went in for a jab.

Before Blue and the geodude clashed, the geodude had a ball of dirt and stone in his hand. He tossed it straight at Blue who blocked it with his shield. Before Blue could do anything however, the Geodude was upon him like a ghost. Ripping the shield off Blue's hand and punching him in the face, causing him to crumple on the floor. Sean winced. Rick let out a cry.

With that out of the way, the Geodude turned to Paul. He started running towards Paul, gathering the stone and gravel in his hand the same way. But before he could Blue's shield struck him across the face, causing him to collapse.

Blue's shield returned to his hand like a loyal companion. He had a purple bottle in his hand and whatever bruises he might have had from the geodude's punch had already healed.

"I don't get it," Carmen said. "When one of my tribe gets punched by a Geodude, they're out for weeks. How come that didn't happen to Blue?"

"Geodude magic is of a stone affinity," Sean explained. "Your tribe has a fire affinity which stone is strong against. Blue on the other hand is of the water affinity which isn't affected much by stone."

The Geodude got up, groaning. He picked up whatever gravel he had gathered and tossed it at Blue but Blue quickly pulled out his bubble pistol and fired out a stream of bubbles causing the ball of gravel to reduce to nothing but dust.

Meanwhile Paul was dodging the swipes of Brock's spear. Whenever he tried jabbing, Paul jumped back. When Brock went it for a jab Paul conjured the winds around and blew away Brock's spear. Brock was defenseless, he reached for the spear but Paul quickly put a feather in his hand and punched, the punch was strengthened by the wind magic. He struck Brock across the face but ended up hurting himself more than he hurt Brock.

Brock was unfazed, spear in hand he swiped.

Paul dodged but the swipe managed to slice open his armor.

On the other side of the arena Blue was getting destroyed.

He tried blocking the geodude's attack with his shield and firing his pistol but the geodude was fast. As soon as Blue pulled out his pistol he was greeted by a punch to his gut.

"They're getting destroyed," Sean said. "I knew gym leaders were good but I didn't know they were this good."

Blue was knocked out on the ground. The Geodude walked away from Blue, satisfied that he had won the fight. He headed over to help Brock and deal with the Pidgey who was surprisingly still in the game.

Paul tried going to drink the potion but Brock was applying constant pressure on him, swiping his spear wildly, going for a jab whenever Paul tried to go for a drink. Paul heard some screaming and noticed the geodude running straight for him, scooping up the ground beneath him like a bulldozer. Blue was nowhere to be seen, probably knocked out and out of the game.

Brock didn't let out with his swipes. He was still applying pressure.

The geodude let out a growl as he tossed the boulder upwards, Paul noticed the boulder casting a shadow on him. He hastily pushed the wind in front of him to dodge. The boulder was about Brock and even if it missed, Paul had a backup plan.

But that wasn't happened.

Brock leapt in the air and knocked the boulder at him with his spear as if the boulder was a baseball.

It was travelling so fast Paul had no way of dodging it. It was mere inches from striking him when...

Blue's shield slashed through it like a hot knife on butter.

Rick let out a cheer.

Blue had a cocky grin on his face as the shield returned to him.

It was this moment Paul decided to strike. Brock turned to Blue while the Geodude faced Paul.

They walked slowly towards them, fully on the defensive.

Little did they know about the feathers on Paul's boots.

He channeled his magic towards them. The Geodude ran towards him.

But the Geodude wasn't Paul's target.

He turned quickly to left and before the Geodude could strike he zoomed towards Brock.

Patricia let out a gasp. That was the same technique she used against Paul in their last battle by the mountains. Could he have learnt from her? Normally Paul dismissed whatever Patricia taught him, even when they were kids, he'd always ignore her.

But now.

Now he was using her technique.

Paul knocked Brock towards Blue. Blue grinned, knocking him down with his shield. Brock crumpled to the floor.

Brock tried getting up but Blue quickly kicked him in the head causing him to go out cold.

One down, Blue thought. One more to go.

The Geodude was taken aback that his leader had been knocked out but he managed to keep a calm face. It was hard to tell his expression seeing as his face was made up stone.

The Geodude grabbed two of the jagged rocks from the arena and tossed them at Paul and Blue. Blue quickly fired both of them down with his pistol causing them to explode into nothingness.

Paul put another pidgey feather in his boot. He nodded at Blue, Blue grinned.

Blue and Paul started running. The geodude was in the defensive, throwing jagged rocks at them that both Paul and Blue managed to dodge.

Once they were close to the Geodude, Paul focused his magic to his boots and hit the Geodude. It accomplished nothing but it knocked him back a little.

The Geodude was about to grab Paul but before he could Blue came in from underneath, a smirk on his face.

He knocked Geodude upwards with his shield.

To finish it off Paul had feathers both in his hand and attached to his boots. He used the feathers in his boot to propel upwards and feathers in hand finished off the Geodude with a punch, knocking him backwards with so much force that the Geodude mage crashed through all the jagged rocks in the arena, reducing it to dust.

Blue smirked. The battle was over. They had won.

...

They met Carmen's party at the Mage Center.

Blue smirked as he saw Carmen. "Judging by your expression I see you saw our fight."

Carmen grunted.

"What's wrong, cat got your tongue?" Blue asked. "Were you amazed at how good we were."

"Yes," Sean said. "We were. Your fighting showed skill despite your little hiccups."

"Regret not joining us?" Blue asked.

Sean shook his head. "Not in the slightest."

Patricia was looking at Paul who was far away from the group, observing the various mages in the Center. Completely ignoring her existence.

"Who's that you got there?" Blue asked as Carlotta walked in.

At that Carmen grinned. "That's Carlotta. She's going to be our ticket to winning this gym battle."

Blue nodded. "You a mercenary?"

Carlotta shook her head. "No, why?"

"Usually people around these parts hire butterfree mages like yourself to help them in the gym battle," Blue said. "For a share of the prize money."

At that, Carlotta's eyes lit up. "There's prize money?"

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Blue nodded. "Yep, 1300 bucks. The prize money increases depending on the number of badges you have."

Carlotta smirked. "Well Carmen, you have to count me in now. If what Handsome over here says is true."

Sean raised an eyebrow. "Handsome?"

Blue smirked. "Thanks. How about a drink? My treat."

"A drink," Carmen interjected. "What about our training?"

"You heard him," Carlotta said. "I gotta train. Our battle's tomorrow."

Blue shrugged. "Oh well." He turned to Paul. "I feel like we're forgetting something."

"The meek one," Paul said. "The rattata."

"Oh yeah," Blue said. "Jack."

"You mean Rick?" Sean asked.

"Yes, Dick was his name," Blue said.

Sean sighed because he wasn't sure whether he was joking or not. Suddenly Rick barged carrying a crateful of multicolored liquids.

"I-I brought you guys potions and antidotes," Rick said to Blue and Paul. "Some drinks too. I assumed you might be injured s-so..."

Blue put an arm around him. "Brick my man, you are a lifesaver."

Blue and Rick walked off. Paul grunted and followed, still ignoring Patricia. Their voices trailed off, drowning out with the voices of other mages.

"What's this about Handsome?" Sean said to Carlotta.

"Hey he's pretty hot," Carlotta said

"I question your taste in men," Sean said.

"What are you, my dad?"

Before any of them could go on, Carmen spoke up.

"What about our training?" Carmen asked.

"All that watching made me hungry," Carlotta said. "What about you guys?"

Patricia nodded. Sean shrugged. "I am rather famished, I suppose."

"I'm not hungry," Carmen said.

"Well the rest of us are, Shorty," Carlotta said, grabbing his arm and linking it with hers. "So how about we all grab a bite to eat and then we train."

Carlotta lead Carmen to the cafeteria despite his protests.

"Time to eat, I suppose," Sean said to Patricia.

Patricia nodded. "Yup."

They followed a very hesitant Carmen and a laughing Carlotta to the Cafeteria.

...

After lunch, Carlotta and Carmen left to go train. Patricia was in the room she shared with Carlotta, mixing up some herbs when she heard someone knocking her door. She looked through the peephole to see Sean standing over there. She opened the door.

"Are you free for some coffee?" Sean asked. "The Nurses let me use the coffee machine so I figured I'd make some for our team."

"C-Coffee?" Patricia said. "At this time?"

She turned to the window to see that the sun was already setting.

"Pardon," Sean said. "Did you say something?"

Patricia shook her head. "L-Let's have some coffee."

Sean smiled and left. Patricia met him at the cafeteria where he was making coffee at the coffee stills. She sat on one of the stools.

"You sure you'll be okay," one of the nurses asked.

Sean nodded. "Yeah. I've made coffee ever since I was 9, I'll be fine."

The nurse gave him a smile and left as Sean did the blending.

"T-those nurses all look the same, don't they?" Patricia asked. "W-when I was a kid seeing them at the center used to creep me out."

"Must be because they're all clones," Sean said.

"C-clones?" Patricia asked, not quite sure what that meant.

Sean nodded. "Yep they're grown in a laboratory. They're three types: Happiny, Chansey and Blisseys. Happiny are mainly used in general hospitals. You know birth, checkups the likes." Sean said waving his hand dismissively. "The Chanseys are the ones you see in mage centers and the Blisseys are mainly combat magicians."

Patricia nodded, not quite understanding what Sean meant but getting the gist of it.

"They've all been imbued with a magical property that allows them to heal others," Sean explained. "And you can easily grow them if you have the rights tools."

Patricia nodded. By the time Sean finished his explanation, the coffee was done and he gave a cup to Patricia.

"Try it," Sean said. "Tell me what you think."

Patricia took a sip and it was warm. The warmth spread across her entire body like she was sitting by a campfire or Carmen's fiery tale. It was sweet too, not very bitter and the cream melted in her mouth.

"Delicious," she said, a smile on her face.

Sean smiled too. "Glad you liked it."

There was a bit of silence until Patricia asked. "Why did you join us?"

Sean turned, looking directly at Patricia. "What do you mean?"

Patricia suddenly looked down. "S-sorry if I'm prying. It's just that Blue a-and Paul are so much better than us. I don't understand why you joined us instead of them."

Sean smirked. "Well you see, I come from a rather boring background. My parents are very rich and all prim and proper so they wanted me to be the same. I wasn't allowed to act out and do what I wanted. Every day I would go to school, play piano, make..."

He pointed at the coffee maker. "You get the point. It was so dreadfully boring being so formal all the time." There was a short pause before Sean continued. "That was until I came of age and finally had my independence. I bought this dagger and much to my parents distaste I went out and registered for the league."

"More coffee?" Sean asked.

Patricia shook her head. Sean leaned a little over the counter, drinking a cup of coffee he poured for himself.

"After that I met you two," Sean said. "And while, yes Blue and Paul are better at fights, you and Carmen had this passion in you. You had a fire and something to prove unlike Blue and Paul who are very confident in the fact that they're going to win. You especially."

Patricia reddened. "Me?"

Sean nodded. "It's pretty obvious that you're weaker than Carmen but still you fight. There's something inspiring about that."

Patricia shuffled around nervously. She didn't really think about herself like that but getting complimented like that made her feel good inside.

"In conclusion," Sean said. "You two are much more exciting to be around with than a team of strong mages and when you come from an upbringing where every day was the same it's good to have something unpredictable once in a while."

It was just then Carmen and Carlotta barged into the cafeteria. They were both sweating bullets and looked very very exhausted, panting very heavily, their chests heaving.

"The nurses told us we'd find you here," Carlotta said.

"I'm hungry," Carmen said.

Sean smiled at Patricia before pouring two cups of coffee for Carlotta and Carmen. Carlotta took a sip.

"This is amazing," she said, taking another sip afterwards.

Meanwhile Carmen spat his out, straight into Sean's face.

"So bitter," Carmen said, wiping his tongue.

Sean was glad the coffee wasn't that hot otherwise the nurses would have to rush him to the emergency room. His ashen hair was damp and coffee dripped down his cheeks like brown teardrops.

"So much for passion," Sean mumbled.

Seeing Sean like that Carlotta laughed and Patricia smiled while Carmen looked around for a waiter to get him a better drink. All of them excited for the gym battle the next morning.

...

The floodlights burst on lighting up the jagged rocks in the arena. Sean and Patricia sat in the stalls, anxiously anticipating the upcoming battle. Carmen and Carlotta were doing stretches, their eyes glued on the other side of the arena for their opponent. Carlotta just had to win this battle and she would have her freedom. Away from Pewter, away from Viridian Forest and Dardargnan and his tribe of racist assholes. She turned to Shorty, realizing she would miss his stupidity and dorkiness.

She didn't have time to mope as from the other side of the arena came their opponents. Brock in his full body armor holding his spear regally and the Geodude looking ready to break some bones. The referee stood in the middle, telling them the rules. All parties nodded in affirmation.

The referee went out. On a screen a timer went off.

3

2

1

And the battle commenced.