Water seemed to be the basis for all of my nightmares

I hummed but it ended up coming out as a weird screeching sound that felt so out of place

Chuckling to myself, I continued to stare at the expanse of water that covered my entire field of vision

They didn't even try anything original now but I'm proud of myself to say I've grown past my hate for water

I smirked and kicked the water but it didn't budge from its spot and merely stayed still, acting more of a solid than a liquid

It was strange to be so aware of myself right now but I didn't mind it and took full advantage of the situation

"Let's see..." I mumbled and raised my hand towards the sky

"HEAR MY CALLS OH ARCEUS. THE ORIGINAL AND THE CREATOR OF EVERYTHING. BE MY STEED AND WE SHALL EXPLORE THE UNIVERSES TOGE—"

________________________________

My senses returned to me all of a sudden and I snapped my eyes open, only to be greeted by a piercing harsh light

I screeched and covered my eyes with my hands before coating myself with a blanket

Some bits of memories flowed into my mind and I grumbled a bit about my unfinished dream where I was self aware for once

But that didn't matter, for I have won a gym battle!

I broke into a huge smile and hugged the pillow next to me. The urge to slap myself to check if I'm being delusional is strong

To think I could finally say I defeated a gym. I can now say goodbye to this apartment and stay for free at the Pokemon Center

My smile widened and I laid down my bed for a few more minutes before finally deciding it's enough lazying around and do something productive

I rose free from my blanket and got out of my bed, only to almost slip due to a stray pokeball on the floor

I cursed and my brows furrowed, wondering why Ralts's pokeball is on the floor before recalling that I have let him out from his pokeball the previous night

That little rascal must've finished all the food in the fridge by now

"Ralts?" I called out to my starter while going out of the room and into the living room

There was clutter everywhere in the room and the Tv's still open, playing some kind of basketball but with pokemon instead of people

I try not to sigh as I picked up an unfinished bag of chips and switched the tv to a news channel for trainers

"Ralts...?" I called out again, inspecting the room once more but there were no signs of Ralts

I walked towards the kitchen and called for him again, ignoring the new clutter I found there

I heard a groan and my head snaps to a bucket of ice cream sitting atop of a table

"Ralts? You there bud?" No answer but I moved closer to the bucket while my hand slowly went into my pocket

"Bud?" I took a step and I am now face to face to the bucket, I glanced down to the open lid and found my starter sleeping on a pile of ice cream

Ralts burped and his face scrunched up as my shadow covered him. He fluttered his eyes open and saw me staring at him

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In one swift motion, I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and snapped a pic

Ralts took a moment to look at me, blink and then he screeched, jumping out of the container to snatch my phone but I held it away from his reach

"Gotcha!" I laughed

Ralts screamed and enveloped the phone with psychic, wanting to yank it out of my hands but I figured he would do that and quickly covered the phone with my body, blocking it from his sight

"You've been caught red handed Ralts! It's only fair after you made such a mess"

Anger and frustration seeped in my mind as Ralts pointed his finger at me, huffing

"Maybe I should name you Glutton after eating and sleeping inside a huge bucket of ice cream huh?" I grinned, ignoring the emotions I just felt

The anger within me flickered out, replaced with the feelings of embarrassment and fluster making my grin grew

Ralts grumbled at me for a second but he levitated the bucket of ice cream with confusion and dropped it on the trash bin

He glared at me and the tiniest bit of guilt and sadness entered my mind

I smiled despite the conflicting emotions within me. It was weird to feel happy and sadness at the same time but I have a lot of time to get used to it

"Apology accepted! But that's not the only thing you should clean up, get to work and clean your mess Glutton!"

Ralts grumbled and all the guilt and sadness disappeared from me and only frustration is left

Nevertheless, Ralts took a look around the room and levitated all the clutter one by one, making sure they were on his line of sight

I myself picked up a broom while Ralts continued to do his thing

Sweeping a spot there and another one over there. We soon moved on to the living room and finished quite quickly

"Good job!" I said to Ralts as he lay down the couch to rest

He only offered me a grunt as a response and watched an ongoing fight being shown on the television

It was between a Machamp and a Hariyama. Two bulky mons just fighting it out with practiced skill and simple brute force

The fight seemed like a stalemate as of now with no one having a visible advantage but Ralts seemed to cheer on Machamp and yelled whenever they successfully hit a punch

I smiled and joined in the fun. I most obviously cheered for Hariyama to win, enjoying the spike of emotions I got in turn

The fight went on for a while but Hariyama started to get tired while Machamp still seemed eager to fight and if they kept at it with the same pace, Hariyama would lose

Sure enough, after a few more clashes, Machamp took full advantage of Hariyama's tired state and pummeled them to the ground, earning them and its trainer victory

Ralts roared and clapped for Machamp while shooting me a smug smile

"Yeah yeah you won" I said but that only boosted his smile more

"What a remarkable show of power! They truly deserved the Knuckle badge after a victory like that!" A woman appeared on the screen after the fight had ended

They'd shown both Machamp's trainer and Hariyama's trainer giving each other a handshake and I only now discovered that Hariyama's trainer is Brawly

That just made Machamp even more impressive, imagine winning against the gym leader with their own type

"On the other note. That's not the only impressive battle we have showcased! Plenty of new trainers joined the circuit this season and are already making huge waves"

I perked up and I find myself paying more attention than before

I took a quick look at Ralts to see if he's paying attention but he's already ahead of me and rushed to the front of the tv

"On Fortree city! A new rising trainer beat the gym without a single flying type! And they didn't even have any trick, moves and ability that can let them float or fly! They just defeated the poor birds from the ground"

The screen changed from the woman and into a video of a lone Trapinch, managing to grab on the wings of a Taillow and they both came crashing down with Tailow coming on top

I widened my eyes at the sight. They won even with Taillow having the type advantag—

"Yep that's right! They won despite the type advantage! Exciting isn't it? But there's more rising stars we've yet to introduce"

There's more? Could I possibly be there? Could I? Surely I do

The woman kept on showcasing more and more new trainers with each one being shown better than the last but I still haven't appeared yet

Come on! I managed to get Wallace sent out a stronger pokemon, show me already!

I desperately wanted to shout the fact to the woman but no matter how much I screamed inside, the woman kept on showing other people instead

"Look at that perfectly executed strike! Truly its trainer managed to train them properly" The woman commented with a smile

I groaned a bit as I stared at another shot of Ninjask slashing Electrike's neck perfectly

Then they showed the same thing from a different angle and then they did it again but from the top. They showed the scene for a total of four times and I find myself groaning each time

"Finally, we have our last rising star for the last week and this one had just recently appeared yesterday!"

I gulped down the lump in my throat as I processed the woman's word. It is now or never

"Their fight is more of a scene coming from a concert than an actual battle between two trainers"

"Please" I mumbled

"With frightening move mastery and quick, fast attacks. This little terror of a pokemon has clearly shown what their species can do with their fists and mind"

The screen changed and the moment it showed a particular video, my lips immediately formed a smile

Ralts was there, standing still on his platform with their hands outstretched, grasping Lotad with their psychic grip

And I shouted soon after

"LAUNCH HIM!!!"

Then Lotad flew into the sky and beams of light followed after them, glowing intensely bright and lighting up the water before all of them struck Lotad and he fainted

The video quickly changed and it showed Marill hitting the fake Ralts and crashing into the ground while Ralts loomed above them

Then of course, Ralts beat up Marill to submission

It was simply beautiful to see our own efforts coming into fruition and the so called little terror besides me seemed to agree as well

"Just simply... wow" the woman had her mouth open a little too wide and her eyes widened a bit

After a second, her face became normal again and returned back to her professional smile

"Tricking a gym leader into believing you're a special attacker? Now that's some top tier strategy"

I grinned at the praise

"A lot of promising trainers are appearing and it makes me excited to see what their futures would show! Maybe some of them might even appear in the conference? Who knows" The woman laughed and moved on to other topics

I looked at Ralts and he looked at me

He had a smile similar to mine and I bet we had similar thoughts going in our mind too, I let my grin falter and took a deep breath before shouting

"RALTS WE WE'RE ON TV!!!"

"RALTSSS!!!"

We both screamed at the same time and I jumped off from the couch and hugged the little terror

He had done so well and I'm so proud of my little terror. With the water type gym defeated, next would be hmm

Let's not rush things first, maybe I'll try traveling to lilycove. I could use some professional gear if I'm going to be a professional trainer and they have the best mall in the region for that kind of stuff

Plus, I bet Ralts would enjoy the things I've planned for him. I laughed slightly as a decision has been made and I let go of him and said

"What do you think about dancing?"