"And now, use your Aerial Ace!"

Togepi ran forward as fast as she could, her two feet furiously pushing her forward to reach speeds she rarely ever reached. At the peak of her dash, she suddenly lunged forward, and her body tilted in the air to aim her pointed, crested head directly in front of her.

Before she hit the ground, however, Rapidash caught her in his telekinetic grip and righted her in the air.

Togepi blinked then chirruped happily. Rapidash's eyes glimmered with amusement as he set her back on the floor.

"Overall, that's pretty good," I said. "Your moves are all in tip-top shape, and your Hustle ability is coming along nicely."

I sent a glance to Rapidash.

"Do you think she's ready for today?"

He paused for only the briefest of moments to look her over before nodding his head, seeming quite proud as he did.

"Then, Gardevoir, if you would."

I quickly returned everyone but Gardevoir and Togepi, picking the baby Pokémon up in my arms and readying myself for the world to shift. Togepi wiggled a bit to get comfortable before everything shifted, and we were suddenly elsewhere.

It didn’t take us long to register at the table set up outside of this outdoor arena, and then all Togepi and I had to do was wait.

What we just signed up for was a basic tournament we would compete in together. With the Sinnoh League Conference coming up, a lot of my recent focus has been spent on the stronger members of my team in preparation for Tobias and whatever nonsensical powerful Pokémon he had. Due to that, almost all of my time had been dedicated to topics like getting Gardevoir ready to take on Darkrai, or helping Ninetales work on her developing Sheer Cold.

Togepi was still getting trained, but she hadn’t had many opportunities to compete in battles. She was still the happiest Pokémon on my team, finding delight in everything, especially her time with Rapidash, and the rest of my team enjoyed seeing her joy.

Ninetales would make snow for her to play in, both Gardevoir and Rapidash would give her telekinetic “rides,” Altaria would give her literal rides, and both Whimsicott and Dedenne would sneak her treats when they thought I wasn’t paying attention (I was).

All of that meant she was greatly enjoying her time with us, but I wanted to give her the chance to battle as well. With time to spare before the start of the Sinnoh League Conference, I thought it would be nice to sign up for a Little Cup solo’s tournament together.

Located in Sunyshore, this Little Cup tournament was an annual event that happened at the end of each season. Due to Sunyshore's proximity to the Pokémon League to the north of it, a lot of trainers passed through around this time of the year while they traveled towards where the Conference would be held.

As a result, many trainers with young or weak Pokémon often challenged others of the appropriate level to battle, and to make such a task easier, the Sunyshore Little Cup tournament was born.

“Little Cup” was just a fancy way of saying that the involved Pokémon couldn't be too strong. Each competitor had to be completely unevolved, and held items were banned.

It was a bunch of basic fights of cute Pokémon fighting each other. It didn't take much to cause low level Pokémon to faint, but at the same time, it didn't take them much to get on their feet again, either.

With us signed up, Togepi and I headed into the stands to watch the first matches. This arena wasn't a major arena, but one set up in a local park. There were seats for a few hundred people at most in temporarily set up stands along its sides.

As for the number competing, the total number registered was forty-one. That number wasn't an even thirty-two, but at the same time, there were a few tougher trainers who had Pokémon specifically bred or trained to compete in matches such as these. They would be seeded among the upper rounds of the tournament. Unfortunately, Togepi and I weren’t part of that group.

There was at least a loser’s bracket for anyone who lost.

After watching only a handful of matches, we moved down to the field. Our match was one of the first.

"Trainers, are you ready?" the referee for this tournament asked.

Togepi and I nodded, while our opponents, a teen and his Budew, made noises to share they were ready. The referee waved his flag, and with a shout of "Begin!" our first match started.

"Budew, Stun Spore!"

The move happened too quickly for Togepi to avoid it. Yellow spores puffed out of Budew to coat Togepi as she tried to dash away. A reaction started in her body to cause her to lock up, the paralysis condition freezing her movement.

I kept an even expression on my face as I saw that.

"Now, Absorb!" The Budew’s trainer called out.

"Psycho Shift," I said.

Our opponent clearly hadn't been expecting his own strategy to be turned on him. Togepi’s Egg Move, Psycho Shift, let her inflict her opponents with any status condition she was under. Around Togepi, something I couldn’t put into words shifted, and she was cured of her status condition while Budew suddenly locked up.

With her newfound freedom, Togepi let her arms swing back and forth as she found joy in her movement. I called out for another move.

"Great job. Go ahead and use Extrasensory now," I said.

Our opponent called out for Budew to use Absorb, like he ordered earlier, but Budew was too paralyzed to do so. Togepi merrily focused on her opponent and surrounded Budew in blue light. That light twisted and snapped, Extrasensory dealing super effective damage to the young Grass and Poison Type.

Unfortunately for it, Togepi had been trained in the move by not one, but two different Psychic Types, and Ninetales had helped her get a solid mastery of it by providing tips from her own experience.

As a result, Budew fainted after not too long of being subjected to the attack.

"Budew is unable to battle. Togepi wins!"

Togepi opened her eyes, took one look at the fainted Budew, then ran over to help it up. Budew groaned in pain before pushing back to its feet, and it tilted its head in curiosity towards Togepi.

Togepi offered her hand. Budew stared at it for a moment. There was a moment of tension that was quickly broken by Budew smiling and offering Togepi one of the twisted buds on its head.

Both Pokémon seemed a lot more cheerful with that end of the match.

"Great job!” I said. “Now, let's get you some healing before we move on."

----------------------------------------

"Aha! I knew it was you!"

In the audience, a familiar man walked over to me. I had met him once before, and last time, his Pokémon had beaten Togepi.

Keeping her in my arms, I stood up to shake his hand.

"It's nice to see you again, Patrick," I said.

The Dragon Tamer gave me a big smile as his cape billowed in the wind.

"Likewise! And it is a pleasure to meet you two again as well!"

Patrick shook Togepi's offered hand, too, then we both sat down.

"I didn't catch every battle since Togepi and I just fought one. Are you battling with Bagon?" I asked.

I remembered his Bagon specifically because it was his Pokémon that had beaten Togepi. It was an unfortunate first battle, but losses happened sometimes. She was much stronger now than she was back then.

"Alas, Bagon has evolved into Shelgon!” Patrick declared. “He is now striving to evolve into a Salamence just like my first Shelgon before him. In fact, most of my team has evolved in one way or another!”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"Huh. So what's your current team?"

"Salamence proves to be a strong and loyal companion, full of Moxie, Dragonair has decided to stay a Dragonair for now, but she is open to the idea of evolution in the future. Additionally, Gible has evolved into Gabite, and Bagon has evolved into Shelgon, like I have mentioned. Finally, there is the newest member of my team, who has coincidentally entered this tournament alongside you!"

I quickly did the math in my head. Patrick might not have a full team, but with his current members, he would have an absolute squadron of four Dragon Type Pseudo-Legendaries partnered up with him. He could give Tobias a run for his money with that kind of firepower.

"Your team is going to be crazy strong," I said genuinely.

"Thank you! In fact, I attribute my recent heights partially to you! Seeing how strong your team was back on Route 210 has lit a fire in their hearts to get even stronger. I cannot wait to see what they become!"

He laughed proudly as our attention turned back to the field. As the battles progressed below, we chatted idly about what we've been doing—he was shocked to learn I had competed in the Grand Festival, as he spent most of his time outside of cities—before Togepi and I had to split off to compete in our next match.

I paused before we completely left, though.

"Oh, you never said who your last team member is," I said.

Patrick gave me a knowing smirk.

I wasn't sure why I pointed it out, because to me, this felt like a moment where someone would decline to share and tell us we would need to wait and—

"A proud, little Noibat, hatched not too long ago! I'm sure once we battle, we can once more see which stands above the other: Fairy or Dragon!"

Patrick held up a fist excitedly at that declaration as a few people turned his way. I shook my head, amused, then said goodbye as Togepi and I moved to fight our next battle.

----------------------------------------

Our second match was a Bidoof, who was effectively defeated in the first attack—Charm made it lose too much motivation to continue, so all of its offensive moves lacked the willingness to damage Togepi by even the smallest amount. A rapid Aerial Ace took it out, made stronger by her ability, Hustle.

Our third match was significantly more interesting.

Standing across from us was one of the seeded trainers with a strong Pokémon working alongside her. The woman wore a silver hat and stood, arms crossed, behind a well-groomed Eevee who was pumped and ready to go.

This would be a tough battle, as she had clearly raised her Eevee with care. Unfortunately for her, Togepi would not be a pushover, as she had trained alongside Pokémon far stronger than her for months at this point.

When the match was called to begin, I decided to go with a different strategy. This one would be more fun, after all.

"Togepi, Metronome only!" I ordered.

Togepi nodded and wagged her arms, but Eevee slammed into her with a Quick Attack that hit before she was finished. Even more, a rapid Tail Whip tripped Togepi and sent her crashing to the ground. Almost any other Pokémon in this tournament might have given up in the face of such an overwhelming combination, but Togepi was far too determined to fall to that combo.

Not even bothering to push back to her feet, Togepi finally finished waving her arms back and forth and opened her mouth to spit out a String Shot. Sticky white web globbed out and stuck to Eevee's face, the Pokémon clearly not expecting the move from a Fairy Type like Togepi.

"Tackle!" its trainer called out.

Togepi was already back to her feet and using her next move. Her shell provided her ample defense to resist Eevee's crash.

With Eevee's attacks slowed by the need to deal with the sticking web, Togepi was able to stay on her feet this time and use her next random move. An arm glowed blue, and Water Type energy formed a claw at the end of it. A powerful Crabhammer struck Eevee's face and sent it stumbling backwards. Its trainer cried out with worry clear in her voice.

"Eevee!" she yelled.

Eevee shook its head to regain its focus then locked onto Togepi and growled.

“Bite!” its trainer commanded.

Bite on its own wasn't too great of a choice, as Togepi resisted Dark Type moves thanks to her Fairy Type. However, that didn't mean much when Eevee was able to grab onto the edge of her shell and shake her like a dog with a toy. Togepi was then tossed away across the field.

"Togepi!" I called out. "Are you okay?"

Togepi had landed on her side, and her rounded body had allowed her to roll and help reduce the damage. She had temporarily retreated back into her egg shell during that, but when she popped back out, her arms were already moving.

Eevee jumped forward to try to take Togepi out with a Tackle. It would have worked, too, if Togepi didn't suddenly shrink to be half her size with Minimize.

There was a moment where everyone paused, processing what just happened. My mouth opened and closed for a few moments before I was able to call out a command to snap Togepi out of her surprise.

"One last Metronome!" I yelled.

With this command alerting her, Togepi’s eyes widened and she wagged her arms even faster than before. An ethereal anchor suddenly shot out of her chest, the move, Anchor Shot, striking Eevee and sending it tumbling back on the ground.

Togepi panted, extremely tired, and carefully eyed Eevee. Both of us hoped it wouldn’t get back up.

The voice of its trainer proved us wrong.

"Eevee, you can do it!" its trainer called out. "You haven't lost yet, and I believe in you! Your opponent has only used random moves so far, so you can't let this get to you! You've taken worse, so I know you can still pull off a win!"

From the ground, Eevee snarled and just barely pushed to its feet. With taking both the powerful Crabhammer and Anchor Shot before, it was clearly struggling to do so.

But then, it gave one last push to return to a proper standing position and cried out its name.

Eevee began to glow.

The small audience for this tournament gasped as Eevee shifted. Its hair retracted and its tail became smooth. A small red gem formed on its forehead as a focus for psychic energies. The end of its tail split, and when the light broke, an Espeon appeared, ready to continue the battle.

Then the referee blew his whistle.

"For evolving in the middle of the match, Espeon is disqualified. This is a Little Cup tournament, not a normal tournament."

The arena went silent.

Espeon blinked, then its ears and tail drooped in disappointment. Its trainer clearly had mixed feelings on its evolution, as, on one hand, her Pokémon just experienced a miraculous evolution, but on the other hand, evolving had lost them the tournament.

It was generally hard to evolve an Eevee into an Espeon, so the woman at least got proof she and Eevee truly cared for one another. Her Pokémon was just trained a little too well for what was going on here.

Both of them walked off the field, the woman leaning over to pat Espeon as she left.

As for us, Togepi was injured, but not too badly. I collected her and walked off the field, honestly also needing to recover after that strange battle.

----------------------------------------

This tournament wasn't only for trainers, as one of its largest sponsors was actually the local Pokémon Center. With so many young and weak Pokémon fighting, this served as the perfect training grounds for Chansey and Happiny learning how to be nurses. Very few Pokémon sustained any major injuries, which helped train beginner nurses.

Rather than asking Florges or Rapidash for help, I brought Togepi up to the healing station, where a pair of Happiny checked her over and applied medicines to her injuries. At the end, an experienced Chansey showed up to check their work, gave them an approving nod, then gave Togepi a piece of its egg before walking off. The rich, nutritious, and full-of-energy Soft Boiled helped heal Togepi significantly faster than just what the medicine could provide.

And then, without much more waiting, we had our next opponent.

Patrick stood across from us on the field. Togepi had already taken up her position, and Patrick’s Noibat rapidly flapped its thin wings to stay in the air.

Noibat was a cute species, one not native to Sinnoh. They looked like furred purple bats with wide speakers in their ears. I was unsure how he received the egg, as it was completely possible he had obtained it from either a friend or in The Underground. The biomes down there possessed many more species than there were on the surface, after all.

"I'm glad we could have our match here!” Patrick called out. “Ever since I told him about you, Noibat has been itching to fight!"

Noibat cried out its name excitedly. Togepi waved at it, smiling.

"If you two don't have anything more to say," the referee paused, waited to see if we would speak, then continued once we didn't, "then you may go ahead and begin."

"Gust, Noibat!"

"Metronome!"

The little bat furiously flapped its wings and sent out a sharp breeze that hit Togepi. She was unfortunately light enough that it swept her off her feet, but her Metronome still successfully went off.

She landed on her back then purposefully used her momentum to roll back to her feet then rush forward. As she ran, one arm was colored yellow and sparkled with electricity.

"Supersonic!"

Unfortunately for Togepi, a sharp noise left Noibat's speaker-ears and caused her head to spin. The move confused her, and she shut her eyes with pain then slammed her randomly conjured Thunder Punch into the ground.

With her distracted, Noibat swooped down and slammed a wing into her chest, causing a repeat of the tumble she had just moments before.

This time, she wasn’t of solid mind to use the momentum to return to her feet, but her arms did at least move back and forth for another Metronome.

"Now, Noibat, use—"

Patrick's words became stuck in his mouth as a shot that consisted of three different types of energy shot out from Togepi. Flame, ice, and thunder coalesced into a spiraling, triangle attack that hit Noibat in the chest and sent it crashing to the ground from the force. The Tri Attack wasn't super effective, but it was a strong-enough move that seriously hurt the relatively fragile Noibat.

Togepi rocked back and forth on the ground, but she didn't get up. One last Metronome came from her arms.

She puffed out in pink.

As the cloud drifted away from her, I let out a sigh.

"Sweet Scent," I identified.

Togepi finally snapped out of her confusion, but it was too late. Noibat had already recovered.

I braced for its attack to land.

"Dragon Claw!" Patrick yelled.

...

"Wait, what?"

Noibat's claws scraped Togepi's chest, barely dealing any damage at all. The Dragon Type energy penetrated her body only to completely fizzle out thanks to her immunity, making the attack be the equivalent of a completely mundane scratch that didn't even bypass her shell.

"Togepi is a Fairy Type. She's immune to Dragon Type damage!" I called out.

Patrick blinked and pulled out a book. The match effectively went on pause as he flipped to a specific page.

"This says Togepi is a Normal Type," he said.

Patrick held up the book, but I couldn’t read the text from this distance. However, I could easily see the book’s yellowed pages.

"...how old is that?"

"It is a veritable Pokémon Encyclopedia, gifted to me by my grandmother to assist my on my journey! I have used it quite extensively as we trained, and as a result—"

"I, uh, think it's a bit out of date."

"Togepi is a Fairy Type," the referee chimed in, supporting my comment.

Patrick went silent.

"Ah," he said. "So the line does not first gain the Fairy Type upon evolving into Togekiss."

Patrick shifted in place awkwardly. I scratched the back of my head.

"Please continue the match," the referee sighed.

"Extrasensory!"

"Gust!"

Before Noibat could unleash its move, its body locked up due to the Psychic Type energy pinning its body. As an extremely light Pokémon, it was easy for Togepi to affect it, and thanks to that, it quickly fainted.

Patrick let out a sigh.

"Alas, it seems my own lack of knowledge has cost me the battle," he said.

"I mean, you came from a reasonable place. A lot of people thought Togepi and Togetic were Normal Types in the past."

He nodded.

"And my encyclopedia does not include Togekiss as well! It seems I have been misled through my own flawed online research! Hm. I suppose an updated book may be in order..."

Patrick rubbed his chin as he walked off the field, leaving Togepi and I to celebrate our "victory" for that match.

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Unfortunately, that was as far as we got.

With the added trainers, there were only two more rounds to get through, though Togepi lost the next one. The Trapinch she faced might have been slow, but it was quick to trap her in a pit of sand, and its powerful jaws squeezed her until she fainted.

Not even the Confuse Ray or Heat Wave from Metronome saved her from that.

Afterwards, we fought Patrick again in the loser’s bracket, and this time, he learned his lesson. Togepi was immediately hit with Supersonic to confuse her, and he didn't tell his Pokémon to use a Dragon Type move on a Fairy Type.

We didn't make it to the end, but we were one of the top finishers. There were a dozen prizes for the top ten people, meaning a quarter of the competitors won something.

Where others got rare evolutionary items, a powerful held item, or a decent chunk of cash for the winners, I was more than satisfied with our prize.

It was a King's Rock, but not one that was anything special. Instead of being yellow stone, it was gray, and it only had a sparse amount of energy left. In this case, the item’s stored energy had already been depleted by previous evolutionary use, preventing it from facilitating the same phenomenon again. However, there was still enough in it to allow it to serve as a proper held item, giving its holder a chance to cause all their attacks a chance to flinch their foes.

It was perfect for Togepi, though it didn't add to the flinch chance Air Slash would already cause. Still, she appreciated it, and the gray-colored stone rested on her head at an angle due to it being a little too big for her.

"So. Did you have fun?" I asked her afterwards.

Togepi nodded her head excitedly, and we continued walking out of town to find space to release my Pokémon. Once we found a private location, Rapidash was sent out, and Togepi immediately hugged his leg and started to chatter excitedly to him about her time in the tournament.

I smiled at the sight as our day wound down. Simple events like these were always nice to experience with such a major Conference slowly creeping closer.