I think Falkner wasn’t taking his loss well. I met his glare with a soft smile just waiting for the official stuff to end.

His fist was gripped tight as he held his badge.

He didn’t speak. So I decided I would be the bigger person.

“You fought really well. I wasn’t expecting that Tri-Attack combo.” I offered.

“You…” You ground out, but didn’t say anything more as he seemed to be mastering himself. “You have a powerful, well trained pokemon.”

“Yeah Arcanine is a good girl.” I confirmed patting at her pokeball. I felt kind of bad, but Falkner just didn’t have any pokemon capable of keeping up with Arcanine.

She had blitzed through the entire rest of his team, her speed overwhelming the birds she was facing.

Even when they surged into the sky, it only meant Arcanine had some time to power up, and after that?

Well a powered up Arcanine wasn’t really stoppable without something to counter it. Not something Falkner had.

So he got sweeped.

Overwhelming force met type focused skill, and plowed through it.

“You have earned the Star Zephyr Badge through your actions today… But if you think this means anything.” He said offering the badge, and definitely not doing the usual Gym Leader stuff.

I accepted the badge gently, treating it with respect as I slipped it into my Badge case.

“It just means I overcame a strong challenge.” I replied back after, looking the older teen in his eyes. “I don’t give a damn about Johto-Kanto relations. Politics is stupid, and I won’t live my life afraid of it. I’m here to get extra experience before my first conference, because I’m going to win, and then? Then I’m going to fight Lance and prove my Dragonite is strong.” I pushed my badge case into its spot and gave the boy a final nod.

Then I walked away.

I had known politics would be brought up, and that some of the Gym Leaders would see this as a political thing.

It sort of was, but it had nothing to do with Johto-Kanto Relations.

I just wanted to beat all of Lance's achievements, so no one would call my pokemon weak again. I didn’t really care about winning most of the time, but my pokemon had their pride, and it was my job to train them into the best they could be. So I wouldn’t let Lance's words be remembered, I would wipe them all away with victory!

Plus, I liked the badges! I left Falkners gym leaving the confused teenager in my wake as I headed to the pokemon center. Nurse Joys didn’t care about what region you came from, so the pink haired nurse behind the counter greeted me happily and took Arcanine and Lucario for some healing.

Lucario had done well, but I hoped her loss didn’t beat her down. She still had at least a month or so of Gravity training before she was hitting the point where it started really showing. Although she was stronger already.

I stretched as I settled into a seat at the pokecenter and just watched the news for a while. Nothing really interesting was happening although there was mentions of the conference coming up and how tickets were out and traffic would increase on the way and blah blah blah.

“And here they are! Your Lucario is fully recovered, and your Arcanine oh my! She was so fluffy!”

“Your cousins always say the same thing.” I told her as I took back the pokeballs with a smile and Nurse Joy laughed in delight at my reveal.

Alright. Time to continue on.

Bugsy next.

I threw out Dragonite to give Arcanine a rest and hopped on. Azalea town wasn’t too far, just deeper into the forests of Johto, thankfully it was a straight shot south over Route 32.

Dragonite flapped her wings and we were off, to the stares of interest from the Violet Town Residents.

None of them would know that I was a Kanto girl and not a member of the Blackthorn. So other than interested looks no one stopped me.

Dragonite raced through the air easily carrying me over what would have been a long walk high above.

I sat up a bit, the wind hitting my face as I held one hand on my hat to keep it on to just let the wind flow over my face.

I missed traveling. It was funny how eager I had been for home and a real bed, but now I was already feeling nostalgic for camping and traveling.

Or maybe I just loved flying. Magic Dragon rides were pretty much the best thing ever.

We followed the route into Azalea town without any issues, slowly coming in for a landing in town. I looked around and noticed once again a few interested looks but no real shock or surprise.

It was kind of funny how calm people reacted to Dragonite here in Johto.

I found the Gym without any trouble and Dragonite returned to her ball as I entered inside, only to find the whole place deserted.

“Hello? Is anyone here?”

“Huh? Oh a challenger?” A voice called out from behind the desk and I blinked as an old man sat up from a chair he had completely reclined, blinking from behind his massive coke bottle glasses before seeing me.

“Hello.” I greeted the old man who sort of stared at me for a while before his eyes widened.

“Right a challenger indeed! You are here to challenge our Bugsy?”

“Yep!” I agreed instantly, the old man had broken into a big grin as he asked, making the whole situation pleasant. More pleasant than Falkners gym for sure.

“Well I’m sorry to say but Bugsy isn’t in! He’s off in the forest catching bugs!” The old man exclaimed and then cackled at my expression.

“Huh… Any time he’ll be back?”

“Oh not likely until late, all the kids looking to challenge him have come through already by now, you might be the last challenge he gets this year!” I nodded at that, and instantly decided to track him down.

“I’ll have to find him then!” I said, maybe I could still get the match done today. “Any particular area he goes to?”

“Oh no, the whole forest is his playground. If you are going to hunt him down… Well good luck!” The old man offered cackling and I sighed, this was going to be a thing wasn’t it?

I rushed back out the door, and released Arcanine. Time to track down a bug trainer!

—--

Bugsy

It was nice to finally get away from the months of constant battles. Sure it was good experience for his team. Bugs grew fast after all. A pokemon freshly caught might be his new ace in a single season. It was fun!

Bugs were always happy to grow stronger.

The problem was, that even at their best, they weren’t always up to the same level as other pokemon.

Bugsy was proud of his specialization. Happy to be the Gym Leader of Azalea. Everyone always supported him.

But it was frustrating not to be the best. The one time he had fought against Clair had been eye opening. His strongest Scyther simply couldn’t stand up against her Dragon Types.

It had been frustrating then, but instead of trying to move away from Bug Type like so many trainers did, he decided instead to master them.

Just like the bugs he trained he would grow strong fast as well!

It was why he was out in the forest again. He needed to capture new pokemon for his low level challenges. Too many of his friends had evolved over the season!

It was always funny when a trainer came in for their first badge and had a Spinarak evolve mid match becoming too much for the new trainer.

Bugsy was pretty famous for how many evolutions happened in his battles after all.

He hummed a little, a noise that the bugs of the forest didn’t mind, they made vibrations like that themselves, and often he had discovered humming, soothed them more than anything. He was trying to track down a Scyther that had moved into the forest.

It was aggressive, trying to fill out a territory by pushing out other Scyther that Bugsy had bred and released.

He would need to capture it and get it to understand that it could coexist as part of his territory. Of course other than the injured bugs in the meantime this was all positive for him. Bugsy loved having more Scythers around.

They were very cute with how often they tried to be fierce!

He was still tracking it down, when he heard it. The sound of a battle!

He started racing. Oh no! Many of the pokemon in the forest were his, this section all belonged to Azalea town as a sanctuary! It was clearly marked! Were some kids poaching again!?

He started rushing towards the noise and he could smell fire.

Oh no!

He leapt over a stream, making it to the other side with an off and dropped off his bug net, he would have to pick it up later, he had to rush!

He burst out of a bush just in time to see.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The Scyther he had been hunting was on the ground! Knocked out by…

Was that an Arcanine!? He had only seen them on murals before!

Then the girl with the big bright hat that was standing nearby reached for her belt, for a pokeball!

No! This area was a reserve! No capturing was allowed!

“Hey stop it!” He shouted but it was too late and a pokeball was thrown. He was hoping the ball wouldn’t be a capture. The Rangers were angry enough when this happened, but the Johto Pokemon League would likely get this girl in so much trouble for catching a pokemon here!

But to his shock the pokeball opened and a Chansey popped out.

“Chanse!” She cheered, even as both the Arcanine and the girl's eyes were locked onto him. The Pink pokemon walked over and started healing the Scyther.

“THAT’S BUGSY! GET HIM!” She shouted loudly and Bugsy jumped a bit startling at the sudden aggression.

“Wha-Eeeeee!” He screamed as before he could react there was a massive Arcanine leaping right at him!

A few seconds of motion without connection led to Bugsy pretty sure he was on his back with his mouth full of fluff. A few seconds later the fluff was shifted and he realized he had an Arcanine laying on top of him staring down into his face.

Oh no. Was the girl evil? A member of some Poacher group!? He opened his mouth to try and say something when suddenly Arcanine leaned down and a long tongue ran straight up his face.

Oh it was in his mouth!

She didn’t stop. Continuing to lick lick lick lick lick!

Was this a Lickitung!?

“Sto-Opppp!” He shouted, but it didn’t stop. The attack continued, and he was starting to get dizzy before suddenly it did stop. He blinked saliva out of his eyes and saw the girl had her Arcanines muzzle in her hands holding her mouth closed.

“I said get him. That’s on me.” She said, sounding a little annoyed. “But you know better.” Then the blonde turned to Bugsy with an apologetic smile. “Sorry about Arcanine. She’s… Well she means well. C’mon Arcanine, get off. You caught him. Good girl.”

A few moments later he was free and wiping his face with what he could to get his face dry.

“What is going on?” He demanded, and the girl just laughed, he looked up to see her rubbing at the back of her head.

“Well I’m here to challenge your gym, and the nice old man at the counter said you were in the forest so I went hunting for you, but we couldn’t find you, and then a cool Scyther showed up demanding a battle, so Arcanine battled him, and then you showed up! So everything worked out!”

He looked up at her for a moment.

“Scyther are cool, yeah.”

“Yeah!” She agreed happily.

Okay fine. She couldn’t be that bad of a person if she thought Scyther were cool.

—--

“You’re from Kanto!?” He repeated in shock and I just nodded happily. He had been staring at Arcanine after getting off her, and mentioning he hadn’t heard of any trainers with one, when I told him I was from Viridian City.

“I’m here in Johto to get all the badges here before the League Conference! I want to give my pokemon lots of experience against stronger trainers… And I want to mess with Lance. He’s actually kinda nice? But I want to beat him!”

Bugsy blinked at me for a moment before sort of shaking his head. “I don’t think that’s really going to happen. Lance is… Amazing.”

“He’s a Dragon type nerd… But I like Dragon types too! So I get it!” I offered with a happy smile. I mean Bugsy was a Bug Type nerd so he was similar.

“Champion Lance isn’t a nerd!”

“I’ve met him. He’s a total nerd. I mean, I am too. I’m a pokemon Nerd, but Lance is definitely a Dragon Nerd.” I offered and Bugsy seemed to be getting a little heated at my words.

“The Champion isn’t a nerd! Stop insulting him!”

“I’m not though? Nerds are just people that are obsessed with their thing to the point they will take social negatives to be able to keep doing it. Like Lance and his love of Dragon Types. The cape is cool, but I bet he got all sorts of remarks about it until he became so strong no one would insult him.”

“That… Probably happened.” Bugsy admitted.

“See! And you’re a bug type nerd! Which is cool! I don’t mean anything mean about it! You love bug types and are totally obsessed. It’s cool! You definitely have a lot of love.” I explained and my words at least seemed to keep him from getting angry as the purple haired boy rubbed at his hair, wincing a bit as some saliva got on his hands.

“No one has ever called me a nerd as something other than an insult before.” He finally decided on and I shrugged.

“Eh, the best way to get rid of the sting of an insult is to take it over. It still has some negative connotations. But if I was trying to capture a Bug type Pokemon, and I was having trouble, I’d go to the bug type nerd. You know?”

“Sure.” He offered after a moment of seeming uncomfortable thought. “Anyways, I wasn’t planning on going back to the Gym tonight.”

“Aww. C’mon don’t you want a fun battle? I want to challenge your strongest team to try for the Star Badge! Won’t that be fun?”

“Sorry I have to take care of…” He looked over at the Scyther that was currently being babied by Chansey. The poor bug had woken up after facing Arcanine and seemed to want to try its luck against the healer, only for Chansey to… Dissuade him of that.

He was now laying on his stomach doing everything he could not to meet Chansey’s eyes. Scyther took that as a threat display I think? Either way he was thoroughly cowed.

“The Scyther?”

“He’s a stray to the area. Came in a week ago and was trying to carve out some territory. I needed to capture him and settle him in so he doesn’t cause any more harm… You can’t capture him. This land is a reserve… Sorry.”

I blinked at the sudden shift and looked around to see if he was talking to someone else, but no one was there.

“I wasn’t planning on capturing him though? I mean, Scyther are cool, and I would love a Scizor. But I already have lots of pokemon. I really don’t need any more right now.”

“Oh.”

I laughed at the sort of confused look on the boys face. “You have to deal with people trying to capture pokemon here a lot?”

“All the time. Although the League, and Rangers will fix it, the trainer always gets in trouble, and I try to avoid that.” He explained looking a little bashful. “New trainers tend to be quick to catch pokemon without really thinking. I’d hate for them to end up with a mark on their license so soon.”

“You’re a nice guy aren’t you Bugsy?” I asked and then I laughed at the blush on his face.

“Anyway, I guess if the Scyther is already here, I can take care of settling him and give you a match after?”

“Sure! Want some help?” I asked more than anything I was just curious how a Bug trainer would handle integrating a new pokemon into already filled land.

Seriously, the entire forest was full of Bug Pokemon. Arcanine had ended up needing to go slow just to not step on anyone!

“Oh.. Um, I guess? Are you okay with bugs?” He asked, and I smiled happily. As if bugs bothered me!

—--

“Hahaha sooo ticklish!” I laughed in delight as an army of Caterpie crawled all over me. Their sticky suction cup legs tickled as they explored every inch of me trying to get more of the berries I had offered them.

While settling in the Scyther, that was mostly introducing him to other… Alpha? Leader Pokemon? They weren’t quite Alpha pokemon as I thought of them, but leader pokemon worked best. The ones that the other listened to. We came across all sorts of fun spots. Like the Metapod forest. Hundreds of Metapods hanging down from trees from String Shot giving everything the feel of a weeping willow.

The Caterpie were everywhere in this area too. And I had made the correct decision to offer them some berries.

“Huh.” Bugsy muttered as I did my best to pull exploring Caterpie from inside my shirt, or from under my hat. Offering them a bit of berry when I caught them.

“What?” I asked when I finally caught my breath from giggling when I got most of the horde off my self.

“Most girls freak out when bugs are on them.”

“It’s a Caterpie. Pokemon are wonderful, why would I freak out?” I asked honestly, as I looked up as the brim of my hat was folded entirely over my face. I could feel a Caterpie crawling along the brim even if my hat couldn’t really hold him up.

I wrangled him as well, and just put him on my shoulder, and gave him a little piece that he happily cried out for and started munching away.

Caterpie are the cutest!

“Oh! Um… Don’t freak out!” Bugsy called out and I blinked at the sudden worry. Then a moment later I felt it. Something land on my hat.

“Oh? A new friend huh? Hungry?” I offered to the weight, and held up a berry.

Then a moment later a form I hadn’t seen yet leaned out over my hat and I saw why Bugsy was so concerned.

A Spinarak was a bit more than a Caterpie after all.

“Oooh!” I gasped as I watched the spider take the bit of berry from my hands, munching it down happily. Once it was fully gone I reached up and pulled my hat off, supporting it so I could bring it down to eye level. I saw Bugsy looking like he was going to rush in any moment, but I ignored him, and instead settled down cross legged in the grass with my hat on my lap.

“I’ve never seen a Spinarak in person before! They don’t really show up in Kanto much.” I explained to Bugsy. “Hello Spinarak. I’m Vicky, did you like the berry?” I asked and watched as the six legged spider spun around to stare at me with its cute little eyes.

Then it opened its mouth, its fangs opening and closing a whole bunch.

“Yep, you liked it. For a cutie like you I can give another piece okay?” I said winking at it as I pulled another berry chunk out of my bag and watched happily as he devoured it.

Little guy must have been starving!

“I’ve never seen a girl not scream when a Spinarak lands on them… They are poisonous, you know?”

“Venomous technically.” I agreed with a laugh. “But you only have to worry about that if the pokemon intends on hurting you. This guy was just hungry.”

“Girl actually.” Bugsy commented and I perked up happily.

“Really? How can you tell?”

“Oh uh… It just has a different spinneret?” He offered pointing at its rear end.

“I guess I can’t tell since I’ve never seen one before.” I offered with a shrug. Suddenly I remembered that I wasn’t actually here to play with cute pokemon. “Oh! Right. The battle! I got distracted.”

“I get distracted with bug pokemon too.” He offered with a smile that had me returning it. Bugsy was pretty cool.

—--

Bugsy was not very cool.

I had decided to use Milotic for this battle, to give Arcanine a rest.

Also because if I didn’t Arcanine would want every battle. And Milotic had just been too much. Bugsy had been a super impressive battler for what he had. He came up with a lot of interesting strategies, even using a Scythers Sword Dance to block attacks!

It just… Hadn’t been enough to really match the overwhelming power of Big Eel.

“You uh… Okay?”

“I’m fine.” He said as he was struggling to wipe his eyes. “I’m not hurt.”

“Well not physically.” I whispered and settled down next to him. I had challenged Bugsy’s strongest team, and while it had been impressive, it hadn’t really been awe inspiring. I’d put him around the same level as Brock?

He was good, had some interesting strategies, but just didn’t have the power to recapture a sweep once it started.

“You want Chansey to look over your friends?” I asked, and he looked up, his face red and puffy and nodded.

Milotic hadn’t swept his whole team like Arcanine basically had Falkner, but it was close, and I only pulled Milotic back to give Lucario another shot. She had done great against his Ariados. Battering through to earn her victory in a much more impressive showing than against Falkner despite so little time having passed.

Lucario just needed experience with her increased strength, and experience battling trainers. She already had the battle instincts from the wild.

I settled in beside him on the grassy Azalea Gym floor as all of his pokemon were released, and Chansey looked them over. Seemingly quite happy to help out.

“You fought really well.”

“You beat me completely.”

“So? I only have my main team, and a second group of younger pokemon I’m training right now. You have like a dozen different groups?”

“That was still my strongest team, and they couldn’t beat a single one of your pokemon.”

“Milotic is a wall that’s hard to beat… And he gets tougher if you give him a status effect. When you poisoned him, it only made his defense stronger.” I explained and Bugsy slumped.

“I didn’t know that.”

“Not many people do! Milotic are super rare! I’m one of the biggest Milotic specialists in the world!” I said proudly.

I wasn’t sure if that was true, but that was a title I would wear with pride.

“I know bug types, but other pokemon… I don’t know them. It’s why I’m a good Gym Trainer, but not a good battler. I always use the wrong tactics.” He offered and I frowned at his slumped head.

“That’s not true. Scyther using Sword Dance to cut through my attacks was amazing.”

“But he didn’t do anything against your Milotic.”

“That’s because Scyther is a stronger attacker, but Milotic is a strong defender. It was just a difficult match up since Milotic was already poisoned and so his defenses were really strong.”

Bugsy just shook his head, not saying anything else. Then slowly after a bit he reached into his pocket. “Here. It’s like the third Star Badge I’ve given out this year… None of the other Gym leaders have given out that many.” He whispered tiredly and I frowned.

“So? Who cares what they do?”

“I’m supposed to be the Gym leader here, but I’m weak.” He mumbled looking up. “You’re from Kanto… I’m supposed to be able to defend against any Kantonian trainer if there is an attack, or if there is a war… But I can’t… You beat me so easily.”

“I have all of the Kanto Gyms Star Badges.” I said suddenly, and Bugsy twitched as he looked up right into my eyes. “I also hit Falkner this morning and earned his. I’m planning on hitting every Major gym and taking a Star Badge before the conference.”

“Impossible. If Pryce doesn’t stop you… Clair will.”

“Maybe. But I’m going to try anyway. I told you, remember? I plan on fighting Lance. I can’t be afraid of something like this.” Then I got more serious. “So don’t compare normal Kanto trainers to me. You fought well Bugsy, and I’ll be honest. I would hate to come to Azalea Town if I was planning on trouble. Look around! You have hundreds of pokemon around here that would fight for you. More even!” I said waving around.

The battle had been intense, but there was a marked section of his gym that was meant for battles. The rest of it? Was full of Bug Types. Hanging from every branch, from every surface.

This place would be a nightmare to assault, unless you were just trying to burn the whole thing down.

I winced at my own thought. Best not to think about that again.

“How’d you get so strong?” He asked and I blinked, then I leaned back.

“I got lucky.” I answered truthfully. “I found pokemon that would be my friends, and trained them as best as I could. I focused on them. When I got my eighth badge in Viridian City I only had six pokemon, but only five of them were battlers.” I offered truthfully. “I did a lot to learn about diet, and how to prepare food for them to make sure they could grow strong, and… I got lucky finding my friends that could grow so strong.”

It was the truth. Luck played a major part in it. If I had never run into Feebas what would my first pokemon be? Growlithe? Would Papa have brought her home if I hadn’t already earned an early trainer license?

Chansey wouldn’t have happened. Would I have ventured out and tried to catch a Magikarp?

Okay, yeah I likely would have tried to capture a Magikarp.

I laughed at the image of me with a Magikarp trying to beat Brock. Man that would have been funny.

“I want to be strong too.” He whispered, reminding me I was sitting next to Bugsy who wasn’t happy currently.

“Well… You have a lot of strong pokemon. Do you go out and battle people anymore?” I asked, and he shook his head.

“Not really? I’m so busy with the gym I don’t have time.”

“Then maybe you need to broaden your experience! You should go out into the world and find some trainers to battle.”

“I can’t. The Gym is my responsibility. I can’t be gone for long.”

“Then don’t go out for long? Do you have a pokemon you can ride?” I asked and he shook his head.

Right there weren't a lot of big bug types in this area. No wait, only like two could even learn Fly… Ugh. Pokemon game rules were so weird sometimes!