Somewhere in Celadon, KMT 5:00PM

"Imbeciles, all of you!" An aging gentleman in a well kept suit swept his hands across the table before him, knocking all the papers atop it to the ground in a flurry of sheets. The table splintered instantly upon contact, and Fulton winced as he watched the beautiful mahogany crumble. The other Claws averted their eyes, with only Fulton daring to look at the boss.

Winfred was as if cast in marble. Like the statue of a hellenic legend, his body rippled with bulging, barely contained muscle, and he stood in repose as if unbothered by the failure of his subordinates. Only the mask of rage twisting his face gave away his emotions, and with it, a tangible aura of violence which pressed down upon everyone standing nearby.

Despite being a three-star, Fulton still felt suffocated by the overbearing pressure. Winfred continued to stomp around the room, glaring in people's faces and daring them to argue back, as if he were looking for an excuse to punish them further.

Is that gray hair I see on his head? Fulton wondered. The boss is finally beginning to grow old. I can't believe it took this long.

Inwardly, Fulton smirked, but he didn't dare to show it, unwilling to be next in line on the chopping block. His failure had been by far the least egregious, having successfully captured the dratini and concluding the handoff. Although he had lost some foreign cargo, it was in no way as bad compared to screwing up the negotiations with the Viridian Rockets.

Fulton felt a foreign intrusion of aura attempting to worm its way into his mind, and he immediately crushed it on instinct, summoning his Ice aura to freeze and shatter it to pieces. To his left, a short woman started to bleed profusely from the nostrils, the blood forcing its way out like the spray from a pressure hose as she quickly tried and failed to cover it up with a handkerchief.

These new hires are dropping in quality by the looks of it. Fulton sneered. Is Talia mentally disabled? I didn't think I'd ever see the day that a freshly minted ace would try to read the mind of a three-star. Serves her right for trying.

"-and you!" The gentleman roared, snapping Fulton's attention back to him. He sweated for a second, before realizing that the voice wasn't aimed at him. "How could you kill the messenger the rockets sent? I ordered you to open up talks, not shut them down!"

Carnet - the taller brunette on the right - winced, her youthful eyes wide with fear. "I, sir-"

"I what?" Shouted the gentleman. "Shut your bloody mouth and be quiet for once woman! You fucked up the talks! The Rockets are our enemies now! And now, because of your stupidity, we won't be able to trade with Viridian anymore!"

Violent. Temperamental. That was how Fulton would describe his boss. The only reason he still obeyed Winfred's instructions was because the man was a true four-star. He might be getting older, but he could still easily crush Fulton.

However, in five years time… that might not be true any longer. Winfred would be seventy by then, and entering into his twilight years. His reflexes would dull, his physical form would weaken, and his aura would slowly begin to erode.

Regular men entered their prime at twenty five, and their bodies would begin to degrade after forty. The fact that Winfred could still maintain his physique and fighting strength at sixty five was already miraculous. However, like all things, there had to be a limit.

An ace who was bolstered and nourished by the mystical force of aura could maintain their peak physical and mental state until their late sixties at most - and Winfred wasn't getting any younger.

Five more years… Erika would be gym leader by then, and Fulton would kill his boss and seize his position. Then, it would be time to start campaigning to become Minister.

"Fulton! You did well on the Mt. Silver job." His boss barked.

"Thank you sir!" Fulton responded instinctively. "I made sure to take the utmost precaution. The league won't know a thing, and I concluded the handover successfully."

Evidently pleased at his response, his boss leaned in to give him an encouraging pat on the shoulder. "I knew I could trust you, boy. You're my best subordinate. With this deal under our belt, we'll be able to make inroads with the Corner Consortium, and finally start driving out our rivals from Celadon. Those bastard Medici and Iron Arbok won't have a place any longer on our turf!"

"As for you," Winfred growled, turning to Carnet. You've disappointed me for the last time. Because of you, all the work I've been doing for the past decade in Viridian has just gone up in smoke. Fulton, kill her!"

Time to put on a show again. Soon, it'll be your turn Winfred.

"You'll be getting the cloyster special," Fulton cheerily told Carnet, to her horror. She tried to break away and release her pokemon, but Fulton was faster, releasing his cloyster onto the floor with a heavy crash, depressing the floor and soaking it with seawater.

His right hand released an arterial spray of ice, stiffening Carnet's limbs, and from his left emerged a brilliant crystal spear that flew and struck true, pinning her hand to the wall and stopping her from grabbing a pokeball. It was truly a shame, but Carnet wasn't nearly as fast as him, and not nearly as paranoid.

Thank you for screwing up your job, Carnet. Winfred will have to take his attention off me to go deal with Viridian, and I'll be free to keep subverting his organization.

Cloyster began inhaling, drawing moisture from the air into his mouth in order to make a spectacle as Fulton had trained him to do so, and condensed a lance of ice the size of a wall pillar. He slammed his mouth closed and fired the ice spike with a whistle, which splattered through Carnet's stomach and blasted her through the wall.

Horribly messy, but extremely effective, Fulton mused. Her aura isn't tough enough to withstand a single blow from a three-star pokemon, let alone boost her reflexes fast enough to release her own pokemon.

Despite serving Winfred for over ten years, Carnet was unable to progress beyond the External. Even reaching this point had been difficult for her since she wasn't taught the core secrets of aura progression until it was too late, and unfortunately decided to generalize instead of specialize. One of the worst mistakes a generalist could possibly make was to bond more than two pokemon before externalizing their aura.

Doing so would pollute their aura and increase the difficulty of externalization, and that was exactly what happened to Carnet. She slaved away for years to earn even a single aura purifying elixir from Winfred, which she used to assist her progression into the External.

However by then, Carnet was already far too old to possibly have any chance at Inheritance, and her potential had been wrung dry.

Perhaps if she had been a member of one of the great factions or old clans, Carnet could have gotten access to an elixir earlier, but Fulton didn't think it likely. For one, the old clans tended to be specialists anyways, and two, they wouldn't waste an elixir on someone like her who had already run out of potential.

Winfred clapped slowly in front of Fulton. "Good job. Now clean up the mess you made. As for the rest of you louts, get back to work!" Everyone immediately scattered in fear, afraid that they would be punished next.

With a sigh, Fulton had his cloyster start spitting water onto the floor, and he grabbed one of the mops lying against the wall.

Technically speaking, he could have had cloyster manipulate the water to scrub the floor too, but Winfred liked displaying his authority and seeing people subordinate themselves to him, and Fulton knew that grabbing the mop would please him, as much as he hated doing so.

As Fulton scrubbed and scrubbed away at the blood on the floor, he let his mind wander towards Erika. I wonder how my new protege is doing.

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

Erika struggled to keep a straight face as she planked on the ground. She had been in position for nearly three minutes now, and every subsequent second that passed brought with it a fresh new wave of agony. Perspiration streamed down her steaming face in rivulets, and her abdomen trembled with the exertion.

Each time Erika noted a drop of sweat falling from her face, her willpower grew ever so slightly more eroded. Like water tunneling through rock, the sweat drops were slowly chipping away at her ability to stay in proper planking form. Drip by drip, drop by drop, Erika forced her body to remain still, and she held out for two more minutes before at last her arms and legs gave out, and she slumped to the floor in defeat.

Five minutes, fifteen seconds. A solid record, Erika thought.

She lay there for a while, contemplating her day. Snivy still refuses to budge, and growing my aura is a long term solution. It's working, but not as fast as I would like.

To her left, Oddish heaved as she walked forwards, dragging along with her an old mini fridge tied to her round body. It was a little comical to see a cabbage pull a fridge around, but Erika knew it would be good for her to develop her back muscles. The scene was made even weirder by the fact that Oddish was walking in reverse - her stubby frame faced the fridge she dragged, which was tethered to her body using old cable lines.

Due to the spherical shape of Oddish's body and her lack of arms, it would be impossible to execute the pulling motions that humans normally did in order to train the back. Squatting with heavy weights piled onto Oddish's back was a good alternative, but Erika knew that there were certain muscle groups that couldn't be trained through squatting alone - hence the contrived set up she built for Oddish.

Some might have questioned the wisdom of training a plant using human bodybuilding techniques, but Erika knew better. Oddish wasn't a true plant - for one, she wasn't a sessile organism. Wild Oddium Wanderus were known to walk hundreds of meters each night as they sowed their seeds and roamed the earth, and the specimen in front of Erika was no different.

Scientists who dissected oddish discovered that their cells contained both protoplasm and cellulose, which only provided more evidence to support the argument that the oddish line were not true plants. What was even weirder was the fact that their movements were driven by protein-based muscle contractions as opposed to polysaccharides, yet their cells still contained hallmarks of true plants like cell walls and chloroplasts. Oddish were rather odd, and no one could ever pin down exactly why.

All of this was leading up to say that the Oddish line did have a rudimentary musculature that could be developed, and Erika was exploiting that fact right now.

"Thirty second rest!" Erika barked at Oddish, who immediately stopped straining against the fridge. She slumped to the floor to join Erika briefly, quivering and shaking like a leaf in the wind. Erika took note of the swelling on Oddish's root-like feet, and recorded the distance she had managed to pull the fridge in the time allotted. Even minor observations like the intensity of Oddish's shaking and her recovery time were written down for later.

Erika checked her watch, waiting for the seconds to elapse. "Back to work, Oddish! Thirty squats!" With a painful squeak, Oddish slowly squirmed her way loose from the cable tethering her to the fridge, and slipped into a harness beneath a slab of concrete. She shook herself ever so slightly and moved forwards, dragging the concrete off the table which it had been placed on and onto her back, which immediately pushed her downwards.

She watched coldly as Oddish moved up and down, bruising her feet against the floor to shove the slab on her back upwards. Oddish is tenacious, I'll give her that. Erika thought. By all rights, she should have collapsed by now, especially since I already increased the weight from the last session. I'll have to up her load again to keep putting on the pressure.

Absent-mindedly, Erika took a glance at her bond with Snivy, as if hoping to see something different. The bond was devoid of his aura, as usual, and was suffused only with Erika's own jade green. If she concentrated extremely hard, she was able to faintly feel Snivy from the other end, but he did such a good job of suppressing his own aura that Erika usually wasn't bothered to try to sense him.

You know what? Screw you Snivy. I'll name Oddish first. Forget tradition. You don't deserve a name yet, not unless you're willing to bow before me. Erika smiled nastily at the thought. It would be a blow to Snivy's honor, being denied the First Name. While there was no real benefit to being named first, to someone like Snivy who cared about his honor above all else, it would surely sting to be denied the traditional first spot.

However, if Erika wanted to name Oddish first, she couldn't just choose a name casually. The naming was a significant ceremony especially for members of the Conservative faction, who cherished tradition above all else. If she walked into their recruiting hall with an oddish named Pear or Leaf, or something to that effect, they would surely boot her out without hesitation, nevermind her incredible talents as a grass specialist.

Besides, Erika wouldn't do that to Oddish anyways. It would be a disgrace for Erika to own a casually named pokemon, and her pride wouldn't abide by that. No. She had to think about Oddish's name carefully. Erika would bestow her with a worthy name commemorating her virtues, and she would bear it with righteous pride.

Three more excruciating sets of squats later, Oddish finally collapsed to the floor.

Erika helped lift the weights off her back, and opened the lid of a styrofoam box filled with ice, nudging it in Oddish's direction for her to climb into. The chill would sting badly, especially since she was a grass type, but the cold would stimulate Oddish's recovery.

Oddish slowly crawled towards the box, using her stumpy feet to inch her way across. She was so fatigued that even the smallest motions appeared to require immense effort, and it took nearly a full minute to reach the base of the box. Her attempt to climb into the box took even longer.

It was a sad sight to see, and Erika felt tempted to help her up, but she refrained from doing so, only coolly watching as Oddish tried and failed to heave her body over the styrofoam walls. All things in life had to be seized with one's own hands, and Erika wasn't about to hand Oddish a free meal. If Oddish wanted to get in the box, she would do it on her own merits.

With apparent herculean effort, Oddish made a second, third, and finally a successful fourth attempt at climbing the box. Her spherical body teetered on the edge dangerously, and then plopped down into the ice bath with a gentle splash.

Erika watched her approvingly as she succeeded, penning more data points into her notebook on Oddish's current training progress, before grabbing a UV torch and taping it on top of the box. The artificial light would help accelerate Oddish's recovery - even if it was inferior compared to true sunlight, while the ice would loosen her muscles and reduce fatigue. Come morning, she would be ready for battle once more.

Excellent progress, Erika thought. I didn't expect that an oddish I picked up casually from a farmer's market would be able to push herself so far without breaking. She's got grit, perseverance, loyalty… that's it! I know what I'm going to name Oddish.

Erika considered her choice of name for a second before committing, brushing a hand over Oddish's head leaves with unusual gentleness. Oddish leaned into her touch and sank deeper into the ice, as if comforted by the sensation of Erika's coarse hands.

"Guinevere," Erika proclaimed, savoring the word like a particularly delightful meal. It was a fitting name, considering what Erika had planned for her. "From today forward, you'll be Guinevere! You are she who is royal, the namesake of the wife of Arthur, and the most beautiful across the land, rivaled by none! Power shall be both your virtue, sword, and shield! Bear this name with pride Guinevere, and we shall claim this world together!"

The newly christened Guinevere, or Gwen for short, yawned from within the ice bath, and Erika poured more ice into the box. She would leave Gwen to rest and recover, and come dawn, they would test themselves in battle. There were only two more days until Erika had to meet with Fulton, and she wasn't going to waste a single one.

Erika blew out the sole candle which kept the room lit and let the darkness crawl in. The only remaining source of light came from the flashlight affixed to the ice box, and Erika stared at it until she too finally succumbed to the abyss of sleep…

…and immediately woke up moments later, gasping for air.

Erika's skin was clammy with cold sweat, and her mouth was painfully dry. There was no water in sight save whatever might be in Oddish's ice box, so she groggily stumbled over and dunked her face in, inhaling the melted remains of the ice. Strange. The ice shouldn't have melted this fast. I poured it in moments ago!

She glanced at her wristwatch, and turned away in shock at the realization that it was already six in the morning. What's going on? I could have sworn my eyes closed just now.

Erika took a few moments to recollect herself, before realizing what had happened. So it's true after all. The curse of aura - dreamless sleep. I didn't think it was real.

From within the alcove Erika had dug her home out of, she could see the first rays of dawn beginning to peek through the inky cloud layer covering Celadon's polluted skies.

She held her hand out to the light, letting the sun infuse her with its strength. Erika's grass aura, although still intangible, reacted instantly. Like a sunflower turning its head, her aura snapped towards the direction of the sun, and Erika felt a potent vitality invigorating her small frame. She felt more alive than she had ever before.

It was one of the benefits of being aligned to Grass that Erika had read about. From now on, whenever she bathed in the rays of the sun, Erika would feel her fatigue and soreness be washed away. With more training, her aura would be able to accelerate the healing of minor cuts, and help her wounds scab up faster. At higher levels, Ace grass specialists could even regrow severed limbs with enough exposure to the sun.

Erika looked forward to that day. One of the greatest benefits to specializing in grass types were their ridiculous stamina and endurance, and potent recovery abilities. Barring immediate fatal strikes, any crippling wounds or injuries incurred by a grass specialist could slowly be overcome with time and patience. As long as you were willing to wait a few months, even a lost leg could be entirely regrown.

These were just rumors, but… Erika had heard farfetch'd fables of mythical grass specialists tearing their hearts out before legendaries to prove their devotion, and surviving to tell the tale. To progress your aura to a point where you could ignore the destruction of your heart was absurd, but Erika was confident she would one day achieve those same lofty feats.

A soft rustle from behind Erika alerted her to Gwen's presence. Erika spun around to see a guilty looking oddish, who curled her leaves up in embarrassment at having been caught attempting to sneak up on her trainer. Just a mere day prior, Erika would never have heard such a quiet sound. However, she had since awakened her aura, and the potent sensory boost she gained as a result ensured her ears were sensitive enough to track Gwen's attempt at stealth.

Erika snorted in disdain. "Don't sneak up on me next time, or I might react badly. I don't take kindly to people who try to go behind my back, Gwen." At her words, Gwen bobbed her head up and down in understanding, and made a show of backing off slowly.

"Oh yeah," Erika said offhandedly, "dial down the potency of your acid. We're not fighting to the death anymore, and our opponents today will all be run of the mill trainers." Gwen looked affronted at her statement, and sent a trickle of emotion through their bond. Erika felt something faint brush against her through the bond, but it quickly unraveled and faded.

Erika strained her mind to try to sense what Gwen was trying to communicate, but she couldn't feel anything anymore. Their bond was so thin and fragile that it was difficult for Erika to feel anything through it, and the fact that her own aura was massive in comparison to Gwen didn't help matters either. It was like searching for a very specific droplet of water in a huge ocean. Erika shook her head in frustration, and signaled for her oddish to try again.

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

She felt the same faint sensation brush against her aura, but Erika was prepared this time. The emotions were fleeting, but legible, and she furrowed her brows as she tried to parse out what Gwen was currently feeling.

"You're angry?" Erika asked Gwen hesitantly. "I'm getting that right, correct? You're angry and indignant. But why?"

"Oddish dish dish!" her pokemon squeaked in confirmation. The sounds made zero sense to Erika, but their bond facilitated the emotions behind the words, and Erika soon picked up on what Gwen was trying to say.

Erika's face was pensive for a moment. "You want to challenge yourself through riskier battles to grow faster? Are you certain?"

Gwen's eyes began shining, and she nodded aggressively.

"That's definitely possible, but I don't have a trainer license yet," Erika considered thoughtfully. "Fulton will probably get me a youngster license with his connections, but that means we won't be able to register for local tournaments of any kind until then. I wanted to go battle the lurkers on the 43rd, but if you feel up to the challenge, we could go fight some bug catchers."

Upon hearing the words bug catchers, Gwen's eyes hardened. Erika felt a flurry of emotions - fear and anger principally at the forefront.

How interesting, Erika thought. Gwen looks like she's got a grudge against the bug specialists too. I don't have anything against them really, but they're standing in the way of my path of conquest. To take over Celadon, I'm going to have to crush them. If I have a pokemon that hates them fervently, fighting them might be easier actually.

"It's settled then," she decided. "Let's pack up my stuff and leave. We'll seek out the younger bug catchers at Harvest Park, and we'll beat them up together. This is gonna be great!"

Gwen cheered at her words, and began bouncing up and down in anticipation. Erika was quite amused at her reaction.

Erika packed up what little belongings she had, and then drew a thin green lighter from her waist pocket. The transparent plastic of the casing was old and battered, the years having shorn away at its once pristine coating. It was covered in scratches and oil stains, and part of the striking flint was chipped. Erika seriously doubted that the lighter would even work, but old man Selby had given it to her as a good luck charm for listening to his war stories, so she had kept it with her in an unusual display of sentiment.

She didn't like mushy stuff like goodbyes, so Erika hadn't said anything to Selby before she went off to attempt her heist on the Claw base.

Erika knew going in that there was a very real possibility that she would die, or end up crippled for life. However, she just couldn't bear the thought of remaining mediocre. Listening to Selby's stories only affirmed her belief that it was power - hard power, that moved the gears of the world. It was through the virtue of power that one controlled their own destiny, and it was through power that Erika would seize the reins to Celadon and attain glory.

She thought of telling Selby goodbye and almost went through with it, but ultimately decided against it in the end. Erika was just another street rat, and he surely wouldn't miss her if she vanished one day.

Still, the fact that Erika kept the lighter he gave her made her feel uncomfortable. She tried to throw it away several times, but she always found herself scrambling to get it back, and even had to dig through the trash once to search for it. Erika's pride was terribly hurt at having to rummage through the waste like a common urchin, but she put up with it, because losing the lighter pained her in a way that she had never felt before.

Now, she was going to light it for the first time.

Erika flicked her thumb onto the steel, striking it against the flint, and waited for a spark that never came. This might be harder than I thought actually. The damn lighter doesn't even create sparks anymore.

She tried to spark the lighter a few more times, failing each time. Finally, it came alight on the eighth attempt, and a thin orange flame flickered into existence. Erika took a few tissues out from her pocket and lit them on fire, waiting for the flames to engulf the paper more than halfway before she hastily flung them onto the ground of the alcove.

The flame quickly grew in size, and it started to roar as it picked up more and more fuel to sustain its existence. Erika withdrew Gwen into her pokeball as she backed out of the alcove, jumping down onto the street below and bracing her knees to land on the hard concrete of the outside world.

I'll miss this place, Erika thought drearily.

Erika watched from below as the flames consumed the entirety of the place she once called home, and she turned around and started to make her way out onto the main road.

While she could have left the alcove alone instead of burning it to the ground, Erika knew that it wouldn't be home anymore. Without her there to defend it, the other street rats would come to claim it as their own, and they would inevitably mark the place with their own tells. She wasn't interested in sharing her home with others, and Erika would rather burn it to nothingness than let someone else take it.

Perhaps it was selfish of her to deny the other street rats the safety of shelter, but Erika didn't really care. What is mine will always be mine, and that will never change. No one is allowed to have designs on me and mine.

Erika glanced back at her still burning home for the last time, right before she turned the corner of the alley and emerged onto the main street. Farewell.

With that, she had cut off the last connection to her old life as a street rat. Erika looked back no longer, and walked with purpose. She strode onto the cobble of the road imperiously, as if informing everyone else of her presence, and marched her way down towards Harvest Park.

The park wasn't far from where she had carved out her home, but it was in one of the nicer parts of the city, so she would need to keep her battle with the bug catchers civil once she got there. Erika herself looked down on the thought of a safe battle, for battles were never truly safe, but she would do her best to comply with the league rules, especially in a place that was heavily monitored.

She breathed deeply, trying to soothe her nerves, and immediately began coughing. Blast. I forgot that we were still in the lower districts. The air quality here is terrible. Erika paused at a water fountain to clear her throat, drinking the slightly coppery water in large gulps. She didn't mind the taste, for she was already used to drinking poorly filtered water anyways. Although warm, the water helped ease the itchiness she was feeling, and her cough went away.

Life might be tough for now, but it wouldn't always be this way. Erika had already taken the first step towards greatness, and soon her momentum would begin to rapidly build. The coppery water she was forced to drink everyday would soon turn crystalline and pure, and she would garb herself in a lavish dress and home.

The implication that she was currently homeless sat in that back of Erika's mind, but she steadfastly ignored it. Homelessness is just a state of mind, she thought. I'm different from those who scrabble in the mud and ash. I've always taken the sky to be my roof, and the expanse of the world as my home. If I live amongst the heavens and earth, how can I possibly be considered homeless?

Erika smiled. It was not a nice smile. This world already belongs to me. I just need to reach out, and seize it from those who currently occupy it.

As she walked, Erika noticed a few other trainers milling about on the street. However, the presences of their auras were so incredibly faint that she could barely feel them, and her grin grew ever larger as she came across more and more trainers. The overpowering presence of her own aura dwarfed every other person on the street, and Erika could feel jealous looks pointed her way. However, upon noticing the great ball attached to her waist, the envious looks that were directed towards her swiftly turned to fear, as people began to look away.

Erika flared her aura as brightly as she could, drinking in the attention that she received from everyone staring at her. There were a few glares, some of jealousy, some envy, and some annoyance, but she ignored the latter. They were all lesser than she, anyways.

Those who were annoyed with Erika, she brought her aura to bear upon, inflicting the same suffocating pressure Snivy had forced her to experience. They choked and started to cough.

Technically speaking, flaring her aura as Erika had just done was a form of trainer etiquette. Doing so indicated to other trainers that they were open to a battle, and it was a polite way to tell people to come challenge you. However, it was considered rude to flare weaker trainers, and even more so with civilians, but Erika didn't care.

This is addicting, Erika thought headily. I walk like a dragon amongst men.

"Hey! You rich bitch, stop using your aura to bully them!" shouted a person from across the street. Erika paused her walk to glance briefly at the person who dared to besmirch her name. Rich? How dare he!

She sneered at the boy. "I am in no way rich," Erika said crossly. "I came into this world with nothing, and it is to this world whence I shall return with nothing. Everything I have, I took with my own two hands! You'd do well to watch your words."

"Sure, right," he said disbelievingly. "Even the way you walk screams 'look at me, I'm better than you'. Your language is fancy as all heck, and you're using your aura to bully people."

He paused for a second to look at her clothing. Erika's clothing was well worn and simple. She was garbed in green and khaki, and had boots on. Her clothing clearly didn't fit the image the boy had constructed of her, but it didn't deter him.

"Regardless, that still doesn't give you the right to bully people, and especially civilians!" The boy said hotly. "Flaring your aura at civvies is illegal! In fact, I demand you withdraw your aura right now!"

"What are you going to do about it if I refuse?" Erika asked coldly.

He didn't answer her question, reaching for a pokeball clipped to his waist and clicking it open, releasing a furred mankey covered in vicious scars. That either means he's extremely experienced, or the mankey was so before it got caught.

"I think you should try to pick on someone your own size, instead of going after civvies!" The boy shouted at her. "If you're man enough, then fight me!"

Is he mad? Erika wondered, scowling. This dickhead was going to get them both in trouble!

The mankey screamed, announcing its presence, and it began furiously hopping up and down as if it were bouncing on a trampoline. "I'm going to beat you down the old fashioned way, and make you stop!" The boy declared to her. "I won't let a bully like you have your way with innocents!"

Erika felt a headache coming on, and a vein beginning to manifest itself on her forehead. Great. Another one of those justice obsessed freaks. I've already got to deal with Snivy, and now this dickhead too? I should beat the crap out of him for his impertinence.

"You are aware that fighting in public is illegal right?" Erika asked him. "The League doesn't let trainers battle in the city, and definitely not out on the street. I think you should back off before someone gets hurt - you." She said, jabbing a finger at him.

The boy only snorted, looking at his mankey in disbelief, as if he were asking if Erika was being serious or not. I'm watching a damn monkey show, Erika realized. This fool is trying to make fun of me. Screw it, I don't care anymore. I'm going to pummel him to the ground.

"Tell me your name then before we battle," Erika said to him imperiously.

The boy was surprised at her question, but he answered her anyway. "It's Lloyd! Why do you wanna know anyways?"

Erika swung her fist at Lloyd's face in a roundhouse, knocking him cleanly onto the ground in a sudden, unexpected strike. "It's so I'll know who I beat to a pulp, of course!"

Mankey loosed a shrill war cry of rage at the sight of his trainer being attacked, and he leapt for Erika, hissing with his fangs out. Already prepared, Erika flicked the button on the pokeball clipped to her waist and released her oddish onto the ground, and immediately ordered her to intercept the flying monkey. "Gwen, block him with your body and start absorbing!"

Gwen leapt upward to meet the mankey, throwing her body into the path of the descending karate chop and taking the blow meant for Erika. She was flung to the ground in a violent tumble, but got up relatively unharmed, her poison typing providing resistance to the effects of Mankey's fighting aura.

Mankey backed off to try to help his trainer up, but he began to screech uncomfortably in pain as Gwen started to drain his energy. The energy drain was horribly slow, but Erika had taught her oddish to maintain it constantly, and Mankey would slowly be withered to nothingness as the battle continued. Mankey fought through the itchy sensation and lifted his trainer up, propping Lloyd up against his back.

Lloyd struggled to stabilize his footing and glared indignantly at Erika. "That's cheating! League rules state that trainers aren't allowed to be attacked!"

"League rules don't mean anything in the real world, you stupid bastard," Erika said with disdain. "If you want to back up what you said earlier, then prove it with your fists!"

He listened to her no longer, ordering mankey to concentrate his mind and focus. Erika observed the tell-tale signs of focus energy being used and cursed loudly, jumping back and signaling Gwen to spray a heavily weakened version of her poison powder into the air.

Unexpectedly, the mankey struck the pavement instead of lunging for Erika or her oddish, and she watched in brief confusion before realizing what it was doing. That damn mankey is launching concrete at us!

As astonishing as it was, Erika could only watch as Mankey's palms smashed the ground into pieces. His mind was concentrated to a near laser-focus thanks to his use of focus energy, and it enabled him to accurately pinpoint the structural weaknesses of the concrete forming the pavement. Upon making contact with the pavement, the concrete splintered, and a massive piece shot out towards Gwen.

Calculating the exact angle and trajectory needed to strike the ground in order to break it apart and launch it at Gwen is ridiculous! Even with focus energy, that shouldn't be possible!

The concrete shard bashed Gwen to the ground, and she began to wobble, the inertia of the attack shaking her body. "Growth, and then sweet scent!" Erika shouted immediately, seeing her pokemon in distress.

Gwen ballooned up in size and inhaled, puffing out a massive cloud of sickly pink mist and dousing the area with her pheromones. The sweet scent dissipated into the air instantly, diffusing towards mankey, who was about to launch more concrete. When the mankey inhaled the sweet scent, he visibly lost control of his palms. Although he managed to strike the concrete again, it merely broke apart instead of flying towards Gwen.

Erika knew that the sweet scent had disrupted the mankey's cognitive functions. Focus energy put his mind into a high-stress state in order to enhance his concentration, and that couldn't be done without shutting down some of the active processes in the brain. There was only so much space after all, and to enhance his calculation abilities, the mankey must have traded away his sense of smell and likely taste.

However, one of the active chemicals in sweet scent's composition could directly trigger the olfactory nerve, and force the brain into registering the smell anyways. With more processes in the brain active, mankey wasn't able to maintain his calculative abilities, and lost control of his next attack. Launching concrete like he previously did demanded extreme precision, and even a slight loss of control was enough to prevent him from doing it again.

"Razor leaf!" Erika cried. "Cut him up and strike him down!"

Gwen whirled her head and scattered the leaves atop, animating them with her aura and sending them flying at mankey like darts. New shoots immediately emerged to replace what she lost, and she continued to send more and more leaves straight at Lloyd's pokemon.

To his credit, Lloyd didn't panic. "Crane Form!" He shouted at Mankey. "Do as we trained!"

Mankey took a pose and lifted one of his legs above the ground, and a shroud of gray blazed into existence on his limbs. When the razor leaves arrived, he lashed out with all four limbs as he twisted his body midair, intercepting them all in a flurry of spinning motion. His claws dug through the animated leaves and shredded them apart like old newspapers, the keratin being enhanced by a film of aura.

Upon landing, he resumed the same pose, and then leapt towards Gwen with hands splayed, legs bent and coiled back ready to explode outwards. However, something appeared to happen to him mid flight, and his body suddenly began seizing up and convulsing.

Erika smirked at the sight, realizing that the poison she subtly told Gwen to release was finally working. She didn't dare to release a concentrated poison powder unlike with the Claws, because she didn't want to get in trouble for killing Lloyd, so only a weaker version was used. It took longer to take effect, but she would be seeing the benefits now.

The dual impacts of being slowly drained and also poisoned at the same time finally made Mankey's muscled form collapse to the ground, and Lloyd cried out in horror as he too noticed the signs of poisoning afflicting his beloved pokemon.

"You poisoned Miyagi!" Lloyd accused her angrily.

Erika only grinned. "I did," she admitted easily. "By the way, you should be feeling the effects of the poison too now. In three, two-"

Sure enough, Lloyd's face started to rapidly purple as he fell to his knees, and he started wheezing uncontrollably. Erika pulled out an antidote from her pocket and jabbed it unceremoniously into his thigh, ignoring his gasp of pain as the needle pierced his skin. She pressed down on the plunger and waited, only stepping back once she noticed that his face had begun to ease up as he started breathing normally again.

Sadly for him, he would probably have a headache for the rest of the day. Erika took out a second antidote and plunged into her leg as well, feeling instant relief. I should really train Gwen in a third poison move, Erika thought, one that isn't so indiscriminate, or I'm going to have to buy antidotes for every single fight. At least the pedestrians are far away enough that they won't be affected.

Erika turned around to leave when Lloyd suddenly grabbed her leg, clutching it tightly and refusing to let go.

"Hey!" Erika said indignantly. "What gives? Let go of my leg!"

Lloyd didn't say a word, only stubbornly clinging on. Erika tried to shake him off, but he only gripped harder, doing his best to shake her body and make her fall. She quickly got tired of their game of tug and war, and Erika called Oddish over to forcibly remove him.

"Release me right now! Unless you want Gwen to douse you with acid!" Erika told him.

She didn't realize it because she was so preoccupied with Lloyd, but his mankey had shrugged off its poisoning just long enough to lunge for Erika. With a ferocious cry, the mankey threw its meaty fist around and aimed for her head, making sure to come in on an arc to increase the travel time. Force was the product of mass and acceleration, and curving the trajectory of its fist would drastically enhance the force behind the blow.

Erika saw her life flash before her eyes. If that fist connected, she would surely be literally splattered across the ground. "Gwen!" She cried out, calling for her to block the blow - but there was no need to.

Gwen had seen the attack coming and already dutifully leapt into the way to intercept, bringing her razor leaves to bear and slinging them at the mankey. This time, the mankey had no recourse, and was forced to let the leaves sink deeply into his flesh. He let loose an agonizing howl as the leaves lacerated his flesh and bit deep into his muscle, and fell to the ground in a crumpled heap.

Erika panted in nervous tension, feeling the adrenaline coursing through her veins and turning her jittery. I nearly died just now. Blast! Good thing I trained Gwen to body block for me.

She waited a few more seconds to see if the Mankey would get back up, but it seemed like this time, it was down for good. That final attempt it made to attack Erika hadn't been a second wind - it was just a sudden burst of willpower. She checked the still body of the Mankey to make sure that it wasn't dead, and stuck an antidote into it for good measure.

A weak tugging from her leg informed Erika that Lloyd was still clinging to her, and she shook her head in exasperation. Erika didn't bother trying to tell him to release her any longer. She used her right leg to deliver a swift kick to his head, forcing him to unclench and let go.

Lloyd groaned in pain. Erika just watched him. "If you had minded your business, this wouldn't have needed to happen," she told him rather flippantly. "Your mankey is half dead, you're on the floor, and now, I'm going to steal all your stuff. This could have all been avoided, but no, you just had to play the hero."

She knelt down and shoved her hands into his pockets, pulling out a wallet. Erika counted out half of the bills and stuffed them into her own, before returning the wallet to Lloyd. "I'm leaving with half your money, as is traditional. Be glad that I didn't take more."

Erika was about to turn around and continue walking to Harvest Park when she heard sirens blaring, and the tell-tale colors of blue and red that signified the police. She groaned and raised her hands above her head, already knowing that attempting to resist would be a bad idea. Stupid pedestrians. They probably called the cops on us when we started to battle in the middle of the city.

The police officers sent to respond with trainer threats definitely had pokemon of their own. Erika wasn't interested in trying to test her strength against an officer specialized in taking down rogue trainers, nor did she want to cross the law. Even if she did beat the officer behind her, the police force would just send more, and she didn't want that kind of trouble. It was better just to go with them, and have Fulton deal with the problem.

Gwen returned herself into the pokeball in a flash of red, and Erika felt her hands being grabbed and cuffed from behind. Ah shit. This was not how my day was supposed to start.

"Young lady, I'm going to need you to lie down on the ground next to the trainer you just fought," said the officer, as he talked into his walkie talkie. "Hand over your pokeballs and desist peacefully."

Erika fully intended to comply, but she needed to name drop her one contact before she did so. "Please contact my uncle," Erika told the officer. "He's Ace Trainer Fulton, three stars."

Hearing the title unnerved the officer a little, but he remained professional, and continued talking into his walkie. Erika slowly removed her pokeballs and handed them over, and laid down onto the ground. Satisfied with her compliance, the officer turned away to unlock his car door and grabbed a second pair of cuffs for Lloyd, who was lying on the floor.

Erika grinned at the realization that they would both be taken into custody. Serves you right, you meddling wanker. When Fulton arrives, I'm going to have you arrested. I hope you realize that you started the fight first by releasing that mankey.

The unfortunate mankey in question was riddled with razor leaves, and the officer ended up leaving it completely untouched out of fear that removing the leaves would cause it to bleed out. He started calling for a Center ambulance, and Lloyd finally managed to get back up into a standing position. He was promptly forced back down onto the ground by the officer, and Erika burst out laughing when she saw that.

"Screw you," Lloyd said weakly next to her. "We're both in the pits now. You didn't have to flare your aura at those civvies. Why did you do it?"

Erika thought about his question briefly. "Have you considered the fact that you were the one to escalate the fight by releasing your mankey?"

"That was because you were bullying those people!" he said hotly. "I had to do something! Now answer my question! Why did you do it?"

"I did it because I could, alright!" Erika burst out. "Is that enough for you?"

Erika wriggled her body and pivoted herself until she was face to face with Lloyd. "Actually, I resent your comment about being man enough! I'm not even a man!" Lloyd looked shocked at her entirely truthful statement. The absurdity of the situation made Erika want to laugh.

"In fact, you're not a man either!" Erika proclaimed, devastating Lloyd. "The league doesn't acknowledge you as a man, and won't until you reach eighteen years of age! You're just a little boy, poor little Lloyd who-"

A heavy slam shook the floor and stunned both Erika and Lloyd, disrupting their argument. A massive Arcanine growled down at them, and atop it, a police officer dressed in blue. "Both of you shut up right now! I don't want to hear anymore yammering!"

The sight of the snarling beast made the two of them go silent. The police officer heaved a sigh of relief and pressed his hands to his temples, closing his eyes as if their conversation had pained him. "Thank fuck. Peace and quiet at last." The irony of that statement was not lost on Erika, considering that his police car was still blaring and belting out its siren, but she didn't voice her objection to the officer.

Erika just closed her eyes and waited for the transport car to arrive.