Chapter 16 - 18

"Spread your wings wider, Toothless. Yes, like that. Now try it again."

I had left Officer Haley's house early in the morning the next day to travel to Mossdeep. Mossdeep is only a few hours away from Lilycove by flight, so I decided to take this opportunity for Toothless to gain some experience in long distance flight. Toothless flew beside me as I rode on Snap's back while try to teach him some of the more complicated aerial maneuvers on our way to Mossdeep.

It was about 11 am when we arrived at Mossdeep. The hustle and bustle of the city is a stark contrast to the doom and gloom completed with the scenery of devastation I saw at Lilycove. It helped to distract me from the negative thoughts I had from the invasion. I am still a little feverish and my fever had probably rose on my way to Mossdeep. The fever also had me feeling lethargic and sleepy. I know that I should just go find a room at the pokemon center to rest but I have enough of being confined to a bed, especially since I had just gotten myself discharged from the hospital only a day ago. I retrieved a cardigan from my bag to wear it for keeping out the cold I'm feeling thanks to my fever. Fuzzy used his tail as some sort of scarf and wrapped it gently around my neck, keeping me warm.

I rode on Flamel's back as I made my way to the Mossdeep gym. Battling is the only I can think of now to get rid of all the negative thoughts I had in my head. I don't want to sleep too, I don't want to experience anymore nightmares. I don't want my mind to dwell on Lilycove any longer, it's just not healthy.

I entered the gym still riding on Flamel's back. Kel and Rena were by our side. Thankfully, Kel had made a full recovery and her injuries, especially those on her legs, were healed and she's as good as new. Kratos had healed as well, but there is a small patch on his armour where machamp had injured him that is of a slightly lighter colouring from the rest of his armour. The nurse had said it is a scar, but it will not affect Kratos negatively in any way.

I rubbed my temples as I tried very hard to get my lethargic mind back in working order. I had popped a few pills given by the nurse at Ever Grande Hospital to keep the fever at bay, but I think they had a side effect of making me drowsy. I really should go and sleep off the effects at the pokemon center, but I know that I will not be able to fall asleep at this time of the day unless I take sleeping medication, which I don't have. None of my pokemons know hypnosis as well, so I can't use their help in getting me to sleep. Not like I would want to really sleep, there's always a chance for the nightmares to make themselves known again. I should have requested for some of the sleeping medication from the nurses at Ever Grande Hospital. Battling is the only thing I can do now to get rid of any thoughts I had of Lilycove, even if it is only a temporary solution.

'Mistress, do you mind if you let out the entire team?'

"I don't mind, but what do you need them for?"

I released my entire team as I replied to Rena's request. She never does things without any good reason so I trusted her, even if I don't know what she's planning.

'Sleep, Mistress. We are capable of handling the gym challenge on our own. You need to rest. We promise that we will help you to get the gym badge by the time you wake up. You are not feeling well. Let us fight the battles for you.'

Even before I could reply, Rena's eyes glowed a psychic blue as I felt my eyelids getting heavier.

'Rest well, Mistress. We will win our battles for you. Don't worry about us.'

Rena gently lowered Velda from Flamel's back and placed her with her back leaning on one of the walls of the gym in a sitting position with her psychic powers. Fuzzy uses its body like a pillow to stop Velda's head from rolling to a side, preventing Velda from experiencing a neck ache when she woke up.

'Are you sure this is a good idea, Rena? And since when do you know how to use Hypnosis?'

'What I did wasn't Hypnosis. Mistress's mind now is a mess, her mental defense is so weak right now that she is very susceptible to any form of psychic invasion to her mind, it's the only reason why I'm able to coax her mind to sleep. Such abuses of psychic powers is illegal among psychics, but I am Mistress's pokemon and I used it for her own good, so it doesn't count. This gym is a gym full of psychics and it is possible for them to invade her mind by accident which I did when I first evolved. Mistress has secrets in her mind that she doesn't want anyone else to know even if they found out by accident. It will be safer for her to be asleep given how weak her mind and body currently is since it will be harder to invade her mind when she's asleep. I would have tried to persuade Mistress to wait until she is fully recovered to come here but Mistress doesn't want to stay still. Her mind is still trying to recover from what she saw on the battlefield and she thinks that battling will distract her from negative thoughts. I will stay with Fuzzy to guard Mistress and to put her back to sleep if she wakes up earlier than expected. Pair yourselves up. Mistress had told me that this gym specialises in double battles so that is what we will be expecting. We need to clear the gym trainers as fast as possible so that we have more time in fighting the gym leaders. Mistress won't stay asleep for very long, what I used wasn't a real Hypnosis and the effect will weaken from repeated use. If you need any help in translating or communicating with the gym trainers just send me a message with telepathy, I had already established a telepathic link with everyone on the team. I had also just sent a message to all the other humans in this gym that we are attempting the gym challenge on Mistress's behalf since she's not feeling well and I had put her to sleep. They should know we are coming for them.'

'Let's just get this over and done with then. If Vel have secrets no one else should know, then we should try our best to guard it for her if it means finishing the battles as soon as possible.'

'Hey Snap! Can I pair with you? Please! Please! Please!'

'Sure, Dolly. Come on, let's go and find our first pair of gym trainers. I wonder what they will think when they see us without a trainer with their own eyes? They probably thought Rena's message was a joke of some kind. I don't think we have saw anyone attempting a gym challenge asleep back at Petalburg gym.'

'Oooh, that sounds like a nice prank! Alright, here's what we are going to do...'

Bigblue watched as Snap and Dolly making their way towards the right side of the gym just as Lily slowly made her way to him.

'Bigblue? Mind if we pair up? We make a great combination.'

'Sure. Just remember not to use any lethal attacks this time. We are not on a battlefield anymore and Vel doesn't need more things to worry about if we accidentally kill our opponents.'

'What do you take me for? A fool? Come on, we are wasting time.'

Toothless walked up to Kratos from behind and simply grabbed Kratos by his head using his large claws. He lifted Kratos up and spun him around to talk to him.

'Hey! What's the big idea? Put me down!'

'You are with me. Let's go, we have foes to burn and bury.'

'Heh, I like the sound of that.'

Kel watched in silence as her teammates starts to go off to the different parts of the gym pair by pair. Flamel trotted up to her side.

'We are the only ones left, do you want to battle? It's ok if you don't want to battle, you just recovered from your injuries after all. I think I can take on my opponents two on one. Even if I cannot handle them, Rena can always take your place and help me if you aren't fit for battling.'

'I'm not an invalid, Flamel, but thanks for your concern. Vel needs my strength now, it will not do any good to sit and do nothing. We should go, the others will finish off the gym trainers even before we have a chance to fight them if we stay and talk for any longer.'

Ring...Ring...

Liza picked up the telephone and answered the call. Who would call them right before their lunch break?

"Hello?"

"Liza? It's me, Richard. There's a challenger that would be making their way to you and Tate anytime now. You should get ready. The challenger is here for an advanced level battle."

"I see. Thanks for calling me, Richard. Tate and I will make our way there as soon as possible!"

"Wait! Don't hang up yet! There's something you need to know..."

Liza's mouth slowly widened in disbelief as she heard what Richard said. This situation is beyond bizarre. She ended the call when Richard had finished talking and turned to her twin.

"Tate..."

"I know, I read your thoughts. We can read each other's thoughts, remember? Weird cannot even begin to describe this situation."

Steven, who was in the same room as them, looked at them quizzically. "What's wrong? An emergency?"

"Nothing of the sort, Steven. It's just a challenger that we told our gym trainers to look out for. Her name's Velda. Liza and I have been waiting for her to challenge our gym for a long time already. She impressed every single gym leader she fought so far and she's near our age. There aren't many trainers our age that can give us a good challenge. The problem is that Velda is currently asleep thanks to her psychic pokemon. Apparently her espeon told our gym trainers through telepathy that it put her to sleep 'due to medical reasons'" Tate mockingly did an air quote with his hands as he said those words. "Her pokemons are participating in this gym challenge for her while their trainer is asleep. They aren't taking any commands from their trainer and they had somehow defeated all of our gym trainers. Officially, there are no rules to forbid the challenger from sleeping during the gym challenge so our gym trainers accepted their challenge on our behalf. No one expected for them to reach us. They will be reaching Liza and I anytime now."

"We need to go now, Tate."

"Let me go get our pokemons first. Let's see, we can use-"

"No. We are not using Sunny and Moony against her. They are our starters, it will be overkill! Don't you remember how Winona told us it was a bad idea on her part? Velda's asleep too! We can always postpone her gym challenge until Velda gets better!"

"And why hasn't she done it already? Why is she attempting the gym challenge even when she's sick? Besides, there's no doubt we are probably the weakest gym leaders in terms of power. Sunny and Moony are strong, but definitely not on the level of Winona's altaria and dragonite. They are not even our strongest pokemons when it comes to pure power. I think Velda's pokemons can put up a good enough fight. Our pokemons on the advanced level are obviously too weak to do anything against her if what we saw in her battle with Winona is true. We need pokemons that are at least on the Elite level. We can always help heal Velda's pokemons back after the battle with Heal Pulse before sending them back to the pokemon center for a thorough medical checkup. Velda doesn't even need to win to earn our Mind Badge. All she needs to do is to impress us. Relax, Liza. Steven can help spectate the match if you are uneasy about this arrangement."

"I don't mind, it's not like we can continue to discuss the defense plans we have for Mossdeep with a challenger knocking on your doors. Most of it is already finalised anyway. This discussion can take place later, you have a challenger to meet."

"This may be an official gym battle, but I still don't want to use Sunny and Moony against her. Not when she is unable to command her pokemons in battle."

"It's fine, Liza." Steven rose from his seat on the couch and placed a reassuring hand on Liza's shoulder. "I will step in if necessary. Just go all out if you feel like you need it. I have heard about Velda's exploits from her brother. Wallace too, who heard it through Winona. You might really need to go all out even with Sunny and Moony."

Liza looked at Steven and Tate with a scowl on her face.

"Fine. Go grab whatever pokemons we need for the gym battle."

'Are we supposed to wait here?'

'Yes, brute. This is the area where we are supposed to battle the gym leaders for Mistress. Be patient, the gym trainers did tell us that the gym leaders will be teleporting here very soon.'

'I still can't believe that we are going to do this. Sounds crazy. I love to fight, but this is suicidal, even by my standards.'

'Just stay by the side then. We can always battle without you.'

'Nice try, Toothless. But no, I'm still battling. At least I know the risk of dying here is low.'

'That won't happen with us around. Don't worry about it, Kratos. Just battle as you usually do.'

'Thanks Flamel. So who's going up to battle? Only six of us can battle, right?'

'Kel should stay with Mistress. I know for a fact that the gym leaders are psychic humans with very strong psychic powers, Mistress told me before we came here. I don't think they will accidentally invade Mistress's mind with their psychic powers but we should play it safe. Kel's void powers should prevent any accidental psychic intrusion to Mistress's mind simply by staying by her side. Fuzzy and I aren't battling. I need to stay healthy enough just in case I need to establish a telepathic link with the gym leaders. So that leaves one of us left who needs to sit out on this battle.'

'I can sit out. Kel is sitting out on this too so that leaves me without a partner. It's not like I really enjoy battling either. You guys go and have your fun, I will stay by Vel's side.'

'Thank you, Flamel. So that leaves the six of you. Are you guys going to stick to your pairs?'

'Yea, Kratos makes a good shield to use in case of emergency.'

'OI! You used me to block attacks without my permission! I will get back at you for this, you hear me?! I am the future king of the mountain! You just wait till I evolve...mfph!'

'There, it's a lot more quieter now.' Toothless said as he pressed Kratos face down on the ground with his feet, muffling anything Kratos was trying to say. 'Yea, I like my arrangement with Kratos very much. We will stick together.'

'Lily and I are fine with our pairing too.'

'So are Snap and I!'

'Good. I guess all we have to do now is to wait for the gym leaders to appear then.'

The gym leaders appeared in a flash of teleport at the other end of the arena just at that exact moment. There was also a human with light steel blue hair that arrived with them. He made his way to the spectator stands at the side of the arena. Rena guessed that he was probably here to spectate the match. Rena walked a few steps to the front of her group and began to speak to the gym leaders via telepathy.

'Greetings, gym leaders. My name is Rena. We would like to battle for your gym badge on our trainer's behalf. She's currently asleep, but we are more than capable in handling ourselves in battle even without her help. We would like to request this to be an official battle.'

'We heard from our gym trainers what you told them. We will honour your wish for an official gym battle. But in light of your trainer's condition, this battle will stop the moment we deemed it necessary. Are we in agreement?'

'This arrangement is acceptable. I suppose we need to register the battle with this machine?' Rena brought out Velda's Pokedex with her psychic powers and hovered it in midair where it is easily visible.

'Yes. Please place it on the panel at the center of the challenger box.'

The registration was quickly finished, and the gym leaders sent out a psychic bird together with a psychic-ground doll for battle.

'Kratos and I will go. I can handle the bird, Snap should save his energy for later in case there are other opponents that has the capability to fly. Let Kratos and I scout out their strength.'

With that said, Toothless grabbed an unwilling Kratos, who was still trying to resist his grip, and flew down to the arena for battle in a loud roar.

'Toothless is eager, isn't he?'

'He just wants to redeem himself, Snap. I think it helps to relieve some of the guilt he felt even if Vel had already knocked sense into him.'

'They better win this. It will be so embarrassing for us if they don't.'

'Don't worry, Kel. They will win.'

'Toothless! Stop using me as a shield for everything!'

'It's convenient.'

'Why you-'

Kratos was cut off from his tirade as Toothless picked him up once more to block an Ancient Power from the psychic-ground doll.

'There, see? This is the best arrangement for the both of us. I attack, you defend. Besides, those rocks it threw barely scratched you.'

The psychic bird tried to use a Psychic on the bickering duo only for Kratos to disrupt it with a Dark Pulse.

'I don't mind WHAT role I'm placed into, but it's HOW you use me that is the problem, you stupid lizard!'

'Shoot out some more Dark Pulse before they overwhelm us with more psychic attacks. GO KRATOS! FIRER, WATCH YOUR FRONT! TARGET: 20 METERS AHEAD! FIRE! PEWPEWPEW!'

Toothless held Kratos in front of him like a gun as Kratos had no choice but to systematically fire off a barrage of Dark Pulses before they were overwhelmed once again with psychic attacks. Back at the hospital, most of the free time the team spent in the clearing with Velda outside of training was either napping in the shade or watching some human TV drama series together with Velda through a small portable screen. Toothless was very interested in the contraption called a "gun", since it can shoot out small bursts of fire. Kratos blamed his current predicament on the many human TV drama series Toothless had watched together with Vel back at the hospital.

'TOOTHLESS!'

'I'm going in to attack the bird, cover me.'

Toothless dropped Kratos back onto the ground unceremoniously as it roared and charged at the psychic bird while bathing itself in flames. The psychic-ground doll tried to unleash a Rock Tomb to trap Toothless, but its rocks were blasted into smithereens from Kratos's Stone Edge.

'I'm your opponent! Stupid psychic doll!'

With a savage cry, Kratos charged at the psychic-ground doll and let out a ear-piercing Screech that forced the doll to back off. Kratos took this time to increase his speed with Rock Polish. He needs every advantage that he could get.

Kratos used the Focus Rock technique as he sent pebbles flying at the doll at high speeds. The doll stopped them effortlessly with its psychic powers. Kratos's eye twitched in annoyance. His ground type moves are rendered useless by the doll's ability to levitate while his rock type moves are stopped with psychic attacks. He still hasn't managed to get to the point where he is able to control rocks as freely as Bigblue and Lily.

That leaves him with the few dark type attacks that he knew as the only attacks he could use to damage the stupid doll.

'Hey Kratos, I need you to use Taunt on the both of them! This stupid bird kept healing itself! Can you do it?!'

Kratos grumbled under his breath as he dodged a Solar Beam from the psychic doll and used Taunt on both the bird and the doll. He sprang back towards the psychic doll while firing Dark Pulses. Toothless is the only one among them with the offensive powers to put them down for good. All Kratos needs to do is to buy time for Toothless to finish the bird before they crush the damn doll.

Kratos was still forced to go on the defensive despite the aggressive attacks he shot towards the psychic doll. The psychic doll is adept at defensive techniques, more so than him, and has more offensive powers than him as well. Kratos held his frustration back, he is still new to the team and he hasn't grow into his full potential yet. It is normal to be pushed back on battles of this calibre but he doesn't like it. He prefers to destroy his foes with brute force.

'Watch out!'

Kratos felt himself being pulled back by Toothless just in time as the psychic bird suddenly teleported beside him and tried to hammer him with a Zen Headbutt. The psychic doll followed up immediately with a wave of Psychic only for Toothless to destroy it with a Shadow Claw.

'Hey! You were capable of defending yourself all along! You are just too lazy to do it yourself! STOP using me as a shield!'

'Details.' Toothless waved it off casually with a dismissal wave of his claws. 'And I just saved you, didn't I? I'm not that good in using Shadow Claw so that's why I needed your help to defend ourselves from their psychic attacks earlier. Have you noticed? The trainers of these two psychics haven't visibly give any commands to them but yet they act as if they are under their command. That Teleport was too nicely timed for it to be anything but done with the help of their trainers. I think they are talking telepathically to their trainers.'

'So what? It's not like we didn't know what we are getting ourselves into when we decided to do this for Vel. Nothing's changed.'

Toothless snorted. 'Remember what Vel used to tell you all the time? Everything has a weakness. There must be downsides to using telepathic links, we just need to find it. But that's not our job for this battle. I think I know by now the extent of the strength of the psychic bird.' Toothless unleashed a wave of flames at their opponent that wrapped itself around them in a Fire Spin, blocking their vision of them. 'Your ground type techniques are useless against them and your rock type techniques are stopped by their Psychic. However, this only means that your techniques can work on them if they do not have the time to react to it. Why else will they stop it? Right now we just need an element of surprise. I'm not suited for the job, you are. You need to get near to them quickly before they realise it. Aim for the bird. We will take it out first. I have a plan.'

'I'm not going to like what you are planning, am I?'

'No, but it helps to end this battle quickly. Are you in or not?'

'Fine. Just what are you planning anyway?'

Toothless said nothing as he increased the amount of flames that wrapped around their foes with another dose of Fire Spin. He grabbed Kratos and flew up high into the air. From their vantage point above, they saw their opponents blocking the damage from Toothless's Fire Spin with a dome made up of Light Screen, waiting for the flames to die down.

'Remember baseball? Vel taught us the game some time back at Lilycove before the attack. I am the pitcher, you are the ball.'

'TOOTHLESS!'

'Have fun.' Toothless grinned as he cocked his arms back with a struggling Kratos in his grip. 'Remember to use a Brick Break to break their Light Screen before landing followed by a Smack Down on the bird. It will be easier for us this way.'

'THIS IS NO WAY TO TREAT A KING! I WILL KILL YOU AFTER THIS BATTLE! I SWEAR IT!'

'Aww, love you too. Remember, Brick Break and Smack Down. See ya.'

To everyone's else surprise, Toothless threw Kratos downwards with Fling, and Kratos sped down towards their foes like a crashing meteor due to the force of the throw. Kratos forced his way through the Light Screen with a Brick Break and crashed onto the psychic bird with a Smack Down, pinning it onto the floor. The psychic doll tried to rescue its ally, but was forced to dodge the Flamethrower from Toothless as he flew down and stood in its way. Toothless slashed at the psychic doll with Shadow Claws while spitting flames, trying to buy time for Kratos to finish the psychic bird.

'Kratos! Hurry! I can't hold the doll back for long!'

Kratos said nothing as he opened his jaws and coated it with dark energy before chomping down on the bird with a Crunch. The bird screeched in pain as Kratos immediately followed up his attack with an Assurance. He blasted the psychic bird with a few huge beams of Dark Pulses just to be on the safe side, he doesn't want to be thrown by Toothless again.

Seeing that the psychic bird was down, Kratos immediately launched himself at the psychic doll and fired off Dark Pulses to aid Toothless. Thanks to Kratos's sneak attack, Toothless had managed to get a few good hits in with Shadow Claw that injured it critically. Toothless immediately unleashed another Inferno that caused the doll to scream in pain. The doll used a Stone Edge to gain distance between itself and the two of them before glowing a bright white.

'Arceus, it's an Explosion!'

'What are you waiting for?! Defend!'

Kratos and Toothless immediately raised walls of stone for defense just as the psychic doll exploded itself, buying just enough time as they managed to surround themselves in a sphere of Protect.

'Looks like we win this round, Kratos.'

'Throw me one more time, and I will eat you alive when I finally evolve.'

'Yea, sorry about that, but I just couldn't resist. You were the perfect candidate to be a ball too.'

Kratos almost lost control of himself to throttle Toothless, but was interrupted as the gym leaders sent out another two psychic pokemons out to battle.

'I see a psychic-steel bell-like thing, and a floating mass of green liquid-jelly thing with an occupant inside. What are they?!'

'I don't know, Kratos, but I don't think they are from this region. HEY! WHAT ARE YOU GUYS?!'

The psychic bell remained silent, but the floating mass of green liquid-jelly looked very pissed by their attitude.

'I am a reuniclus, you barbarians! And my pal there is a bronzong! We will destroy you for your uncouth manners!'

'Gosh, another Rena, or are all psychics like that?' Toothless remarked as he dodged a Shadow Ball from the reuniclus with Kratos safe in his claws. 'Thank Arceus we don't have any more psychics on our team. They are so stuck-up.'

'I'm actually on their side for this one, Toothless. You need to work on your attitude.'

'Shut up. That psychic bell thing is obviously a steel type. I'm going to melt him.'

Toothless flew into the air with Kratos as he sucked in a deep breath before unleashing a massive Flamethrower at their new opponents, who did nothing but receive their attacks head-on.

'Toothless, your flames aren't working.'

Toothless grunted in frustration as the psychic bell just raised a shield of Light Screen and remained unaffected by the heat of his flames. The reuniclus simply healed faster than the damage Toothless inflicted on it with Recover. Toothless continued to increase the intensity of his flames, unleashing a Heat Wave this time but it doesn't seem to have any visible results.

'That reuni-something is like another Lily, Toothless. He healed way too fast.'

'I think that psychic bell thing has the Heatproof ability. There's nothing else that I can think of on why it seems unaffected by my flames. Light Screen can't possibly block off that much damage. Vel had warned me before when facing enemies with Thick Fat or Heatproof as their ability. I think we need to switch out, you?'

'Yea, we need to switch. I don't think we can handle these guys. The others might have a way.'

'Good. I will buy some time for us to get back.'

Toothless spewed out a black cloud of smoke with Smokescreen before flying out of the arena with Kratos in his arms.

'We can't defeat those two! They are too good in defense! Watch out for the green one, he can heal as fast as Lily!'

'Another one with healing abilities like me? Bigblue, shall we?'

'Let's go.'

Bigblue and Lily entered the arena and observed their opponents. The psychic bell had actually managed to withstand Toothless's flames despite being a steel type and they had mentioned that the green one have the ability to heal as fast as Lily.

'Let me gauge their strength first.'

Bigblue called upon a huge wall of Muddy Water that he sent crashing down onto their foes below and used Work Up to increase his offensive powers in the meantime. Lily took the opportunity to Stockpile, trying to store as many Stockpile as possible while they still have the time.

The psychic bell redirected the Muddy Water away from it and the green liquid-jelly pokemon with a Psychic and enveloped the entire area with psychic energy, enclosing the entire arena in a rectangular room of psychic energy.

'It's no slouch in defense. But what's it doing trapping us in the arena? It's not like we are allowed to move out of it in the first place.'

'Only one way to find out.'

Bigblue sent a wave of Stone Edges at their opponents which the green psychic jelly quickly warded off with a Reflect. Lily sent out a beam of ghostly energy of Confuse Ray in an attempt to confuse their foes but the psychic bell suddenly managed to fire off a huge blast of Flash Cannon faster than what it can realistically do. Lily aborted her attack and raised a thick wall of rocks to shield themselves before grabbing Bigblue with her tentacles and pulling him away from the blast zone together with her using Rock Surf.

'How did it managed to attack faster than us?! There's no way it can charge up Flash Cannon in that short amount of time! That Reflect was also materialised way too quickly! That green thing is definitely not skilled enough to use Reflect that quickly! Even Rena's not capable of that!'

'I think it's the psychic room they trapped the entire arena in, Lily. Vel had told me before the existence of such a move. It matches the description. I think it's called Trick Room. It allows slower pokemons to move first within the area. In this case, these two are the slower pokemons, hence they will always move first as long as this room is active.'

'So we can only be on the defensive the whole time?! How are we going to win at this rate?!'

'This may not be a bad thing. Just wait it out and see first. I don't think they can maintain the room for too long, using it on such a big area has to be tiring for the psychic bell.'

Lily was forced to respond with Energy Balls just as the green psychic jelly threw a number of Shadow Balls at them. Bigblue used Earth Power to erupt the ground under their foes while receiving an Extrasensory from the Psychic Bell. Faster than what they could react, the psychic bell began to spin at high speeds on the spot before ramming into the both of them and threw them back with a Gyro Ball. Things are not looking good.

'Not a bad thing? Bigblue? Are you sure about that?'

'Is it too late to take back my words?'

'Incoming!'

Bigblue unleashed a freezing storm of Blizzard just as the psychic bell shot an intense beam of Solar Beam faster than what it should be physically capable of. Lily tripped the psychic bell with a Grass Knot, causing the psychic bell to miss its aim and shot the Solar Beam at the ceiling instead. Bigblue's Blizzard froze the psychic bell, encasing it with ice. The psychic jelly swiftly broke the ice with an Energy Ball of its own, freeing the psychic bell.

'The speed at which they use their attacks is too fast! We hardly have anytime to react! They cover each other so well too!'

'Then we need to split them up. Let's try to change the battlefield, it's what we are good at anyway.'

Wordlessly, the two of them liquefied the ground immediately. Lily allowed Bigblue to do most of the work since he is better at ground type techniques, and they sent a huge part of the liquefied ground like a roaring tidal wave towards their psychic opponents, trying to command the wave of liquid ground to drown their foes and drag them underneath the ground. The psychic jelly forcefully stopped the liquid ground from reaching them with a huge wave of Psychic, only for Lily's tentacles to burst through the liquid ground, wrapped themselves around the psychic bell, and pulled it closer to Lily and Bigblue at an alarming speed.

'Eat this!'

Bigblue shot out a powerful jet of steaming hot water at the psychic bell and sent it flying far away from its ally with Scald. The psychic jelly tried to save its friend, but found itself face-to-face with Lily, who had managed to reach it with Rock Surf and whipped her tentacles at it in a frenzy, forcing the psychic jelly to back off. Lily continued her furious onslaught against the psychic jelly, trying to grab it with her tentacles while she shot rocks and Energy Balls at it. The psychic jelly hissed at Lily and fired an overpowered Shadow Ball at Lily, only for Lily to withstood the attack and sent it back at double the power with Mirror Coat.

'Bigblue's right, it may not be a bad thing after all to let you guys have the first move.'

Even while speaking her thoughts out loud, Lily's tentacles were not idle. Her tentacles caught the psychic jelly who is still reeling in pain from the reflection of its own attacks back at it. The psychic jelly quickly blasted Lily with a Psywave thanks to the speed granted by Trick Room in an attempt to try and regain its freedom, but Lily remained surprisingly unfazed as she withstood the attacks and secretly planted a Worry Seed followed before injecting a huge dose of Toxic into the psychic jelly and used a Wring Out, causing the psychic jelly to scream in pain. Lily also realised that the Trick Room is no longer in effect, Bigblue must have managed to either defeat the psychic bell or disrupted its focus.

'Let me go!'

'So you finally decided to speak. It was hard enough trying to separate you from your friend over there, I'm not letting the both of you to regroup.'

The psychic jelly quickly regained its health with a Recover and Lily followed its example, but Lily will always use a Wring Out that deals more damage whenever the psychic jelly is near perfect health right after they both use Recover. The psychic jelly will try to untangle itself from Lily, but no matter what attacks it used, Lily just wouldn't let go.

The battle had turned into a battle of attrition.

Both parties would heal up their wounds whenever they got low on health and proceed to blast each other with their own attacks until they were both low on health again, and they would heal themselves back up again before repeating this vicious cycle. The psychic jelly tried to get out of the vicious cycle by changing its attack patterns. After experiencing Lily's Mirror Coat, the psychic jelly had resorted to using physical attacks and tried to punch Lily only for Lily to grab both its arms tightly, not allowing it to move. The psychic jelly used a Heal Block to prevent Lily from healing only for Lily to use a Mimic to return the favour. The psychic jelly is now truly afraid, there is nothing it can do while getting itself caught by the tentacles and unable to heal. Its health was getting rapidly drained from poison. This is not possible!

'Why?! Why is your poison affecting me! I'm supposed to be protected by my Magic Guard!'

'I planted a Worry Seed on you while you weren't looking, your ability is no longer whatever-it-is guard. Vel had always said it is usually better to secretly plant such moves on your opponent when they belonged to the Mind Arts Trio, you never know when they have such ridiculous abilities. I'm glad she taught me that knowledge. You can heal as fast as I do, maybe even faster. You have temporarily blocked my ability to heal but I did the same for yours. We are supposedly to be in the same circumstances, unable to take each other down due to our similar way of fighting defensively through ridiculous healing speeds. But the poison in your body is getting more lethal by the second no matter how much you heal. You are going down.'

The psychic jelly didn't reply as it used Calm Mind successively to raise its offensive and defensive powers before charging up a huge Hyper Beam, intent on taking Lily out even before she can retaliate with a Mirror Coat in a last ditch attempt to win.

'Fool. Do you never stop to think why I was able to withstand all of your attacks in the first place?'

In a single burst, Lily released all of her power it had stored with Stockpile ever since the start of her battle with a Spit up, knocking the psychic jelly out of their battle.

'I have never stopped Stockpiling since the start of our battle. Vel taught me to always have a secret move to surprise your opponents, you will do well to remember that as well.'

The psychic bell was vicious in its attacks ever since it was forcefully separated from the psychic jelly. Thankfully, without the help of the psychic jelly, its offensive abilities isn't notable enough to be a significant threat other than the Solar Beam. All Bigblue had to take note of is how to get past its defense while defending himself from the Solar Beams. Vel had trained him on how to block and dodge Solar Beams during their stay at Petalburg gym with help from Lily and Flamel so he wasn't as helpless as a sitting psyduck, but it was still annoying trying to deal with the psychic bell that can throw Solar Beams without even getting winded.

Bigblue had given up on trying to drown it with water unless he can catch the psychic bell by surprise, the psychic bell simply diverted the waters away from itself before the waters can reach it. That leaves him with the physical moves, but most of them does not do much damage to the psychic bell due to it being a steel type as well. Furthermore, there's this Trick Room that allows the psychic bell to attack first no matter what.

What an annoying opponent to face.

Bigblue steeled himself, he is one of the best defensive battlers on Vel's team and he has a different way of battling defensively as compared to Lily. Unlike Lily who tends to win by using recovery moves repeatedly while dragging out the time to allow her prey to fall to poison or Giga Drain, Bigblue uses the strength of his opponents to bring them down. The stronger the opponents are, the stronger Bigblue gets, as long as he can withstand the attacks.

Bigblue allowed himself to be hit by a Psyshock, before returning fire with a huge Avalanche, an attack which gains power if the user took damage prior to using this move. Any physical attack Bigblue received was sent back with a Counter, forcing the psychic bell to keep its distance away from Bigblue and tried to attack Bigblue using ranged attacks. Any attacks Bigblue was not confident of taking were either dodged or blocked with a Protect while he returned attacks of his own with Mud Shot or Earth Power. Bigblue knows he have to play this carefully, there are very little attacks he knew that can effectively damage the psychic bell thanks to its steel typing, but bringing it down isn't impossible. The process is just tricky. He needs to bait the psychic bell to use one strong ranged attack and destroy it with its own power. It is a tactic that both he and Lily are capable of using, but Lily prefers to use her recovery moves rather than to fall back on this tactic.

The Trick Room had disappeared when Bigblue had first used an Avalanche to damage the psychic bell and the two of them went back and forth in this manner for a short while with Bigblue keeping up the pressure of his attacks to prevent another use of Trick Room from the psychic bell. Bigblue tried to use a Yawn to lure the psychic bell to fall asleep, only for it to defend itself with a Safeguard before retreating further away from Bigblue and continue to blast Solar Beams at him. Fortunately, the psychic bell did not use Sunny Day and Bigblue realised that it must be wary of that move backfiring on it due to Lily's presence since she is a grass type.

This realisation reminded Bigblue to start up a Rain Dance of his own and he used the power boost from the rain to use an empowered Muddy Water. The psychic bell still managed to divert the waters away from it using its psychic powers, but recognised the threat that Bigblue posed and finally decided to end the battle with one single attack.

Finally.

The psychic bell quickly strengthen itself with a Calm Mind before charging up one of the largest Solar Beams Bigblue had ever seen.

'I really hope I survive this.'

Bigblue dashed forward towards the psychic bell while preparing himself for the combo which Vel had taught him. It is used only if there is no other viable way to bring down his opponents. She nicknamed it the 'do-or-die combo' due to the fact that it will either succeed beautifully, or fail horribly.

Bigblue was only about twenty feet away from the psychic bell when it unleashed the huge flare of Solar Beam at him. The light from the Solar Beam blinded the entire arena as it continued to fire at Bigblue's location. The psychic bell kept on its attack, happy that it can finally put its challenger down.

Its mood quickly plummeted as the Solar Beam was suddenly redirected into its direction and blast at it instead, sending him flying into a large rock that Bigblue had called up from the ground early on at the start of their double battle.

'Huff...huff... I really hate Solar Beams.'

'You are late, Bigblue.'

'Lily? When did you finish your battle?'

'Just right before that Solar Beam was fired at you, was that a Mirror Coat?'

'Yeah, I used Endure before using a Mirror Coat right away to send that stupid beam of sunlight back. Mirror Coat can be substituted with Counter if needed, but that's not important. Is that psychic bell out?'

'It is. Get ready, our next wave of opponents are coming.'

Liza watched in amazement as Velda's pokemons managed to defeat four of their pokemons. Xatu and claydol were at the higher end of the advanced level while reuniclus and bronzong were at the lower end of the Elite level. It's not surprising that xatu and claydol were taken out, but it was surprising to see reuniclus and bronzong being brought down together at almost the same time. Tate and her would not usually use reuniclus and bronzong on advanced trainers, their recovery and defensive powers is a pain for anyone to deal with without the proper skillset and experience.

Not only had Velda's pokemons taken out the aforementioned four pokemons without the help of their trainer, none of the pokemons who had participated in battle had fainted yet.

It looks like they need to get serious if they want to bring Velda's pokemons down.

"Tate."

"I know, we can read each other's thoughts, remember?"

Bigblue and Lily barely had any time to rest as two floating psychic-rock pokemons appeared for battle. The aura that these two pokemons gave off was a lot stronger than the previous four pokemons they had seen. In fact, their presences were very similar to what they had felt from the battle they had at Fortree when they have faced the formidable duo of flying type pokemons, even if they were obviously not as strong.

'Lily, I think we just got...what did Vel call it? The short end of the stick? Again.'

'Just heal yourself first, I will cover you.'

Bigblue wasted no time in using Rest to recover his lost health from the previous battle as Lily swiftly regained her own health with Recover, the effect of Heal Block from the previous battle had disappeared.

The orange psychic pokemon dispersed the rain clouds summoned by Bigblue with a Sunny Day and started to fire beams of Solar Beam at Bigblue. Lily simply grabbed the sleeping Bigblue with her tentacles as she skated gracefully around the battlefield with Rock Surf, dodging the attacks and blocked any lucky shots with Protect.

A Sleep Talk from Bigblue summoned a huge wave of water using Surf. The crescent-shaped psychic rock simply stopped the water from advancing with a Psychic and sent the waters back at Lily and Bigblue effortlessly. Lily used an Amnesia to raise its defensive powers against ranged attacks before creating a thick dome made of rocks around her and Bigblue, hunkering down in a temporary underwater shelter and preparing for their next attacks.

The orange psychic evaporated the waters at the blink of an eye with its fire type attacks and blasted the dome open with another Solar Beam, only to find it empty of its occupants. Where did they go?

Its question was answered as tentacles shot up from the ground and wrapped itself around the crescent psychic as Lily emerged from the underground with one of its tentacles around Bigblue, allowing him to carry her underground with Dig. Bigblue is now awake and fully recovered. Lily got off Bigblue and wrapped a tentacle around him before throwing him at the orange psychic with great force. The orange psychic tried to blast Bigblue back with a Solar Beam, only for Bigblue to use Battering Ram and slam himself into the orange psychic without any damage to himself.

Both Bigblue and Lily injected a dose of Toxic into their respective opponents just before they managed to free themselves at launched a combined Psychic attack at them. Lily moved to stand in front of Bigblue and raised her defense once more with Amnesia before sending the Psychic attacks back with a Mirror Coat, but the two psychics used a Protect of their own to block the damage.

Even after using two Amnesias and numerous Stockpiles to raise her defenses to extremely high levels, Lily was almost taken out in that combined Psychic attack.

Lily swiftly recover her lost health with a quick Swallow as Bigblue carried her to safety using only one arm as the crescent psychic shot freezing beams of ice at them. They are outmatched.

'Bigblue, we can recover our lost health as much as we want but it doesn't take away our fatigue. We are too mentally exhausted to continue battling in this manner against foes like these. We will slip up sooner or later.'

'I agree, I think Dolly and Snap can takeover for now. I don't think they can bring those two down by themselves, but there's still four of us left to help them if they fell in battle. We have also used Toxic on those two but they haven't remove the poison. I guess it's safe to say that those two does not know any moves that can help to remove the poison from their bodies.'

In response, Lily simply grabbed onto a large rock near the edge of the arena and hauled herself and Bigblue out of the arena through a small opening in the psychic barriers surrounding the arena. The gym leaders had kindly opened a small hole in the barrier for them for their own use before the start of the gym battle in case they wanted to switch out. Bigblue gestured to Dolly and Snap, who entered the arena to replace their tired comrades. It's their turn to fight for Velda.

They won't let Velda and the team down.

Tate and Liza observed as the swampert and cradily switched out with flygon and banette. These are not pokemons that they saw and battled against often. Banettes are not highly favoured among both civilians and trainers and hardly anyone wants to venture into the harsh desert at Route 111 to catch themselves a flygon. Most of them prefer to get themselves a bagon or shelgon from Meteor Falls instead.

Using the telepathic link shared between Liza, Tate, Sunny, and Moony, Tate and Liza commanded Sunny and Moony to raise their powers with Calm Mind. To their surprise, both Sunny and Moony were unable to do so.

'It's the banette! It used Taunt on Sunny and Moony!'

Liza turned her attention to the banette, who is zipping in and out of the shadows that was created by the sunlight from Sunny's Sunny Day and the numerous debris strewn across the battlefield. The banette is good at distracting Sunny and Moony, allowing the flygon to fire its dragon type attacks at the both of them. The banette is too slippery to catch, the flygon will be an easier target to handle.

'Moony, Blizzard!'

Moony rose higher into the air as it called forth a raging Blizzard to attack the flygon. The flygon unleashed a Heat Wave which was strengthened by Sunny's Sunny Day. The two attacks cancelled each other out. Banette took the opportunity to use a Hex on the unsuspecting Sunny, who backed off and shot a burning cone of Flamethrower at the banette who ducked back into the shadows.

Flygon suddenly switch its target and aimed for Sunny instead with a Dragon Pulse. Tate and Liza surmised that the flygon must have gotten wary of Moony's proficiency in using ice type attacks and decided to fight Sunny instead. The banette cackled and sent Shadow Balls at Moony, who dodged it by weaving through the air. The banette simply cackled once more as it sent a Confuse Ray at Moony who destroyed the beam of ghostly energy with Shadow Ball. The flygon regrouped with banette, who rode on flygon's back as flygon brought them high into the air.

Then banette unleashed a massive Dark Pulse combined with Ominous Wind.

What's different about this particular Dark Pulse mixed with Ominous Wind is that it does not aim to injure, but rather release a huge wave of dark and ghost type energy that lingers in the area which it was unleashed upon. The dark and ghost type energy blanketed the area and the entire arena was fogged with translucent blackness like a miasma.

It cut off any telepathic links shared between Tate, Liza, and their pokemons.

Without the mental command of their trainers, Sunny and Moony were forced to be on the defensive for a short while as they try to understand what had just happened. Tate and Liza had no choice but to verbally command their starters. Tate and Liza are still able to be of a single mind as they are out of the affected area but that no longer applies to Sunny and Moony, and they are starting to show signs of imperfect coordination with each other. Their coordination with each other are no longer as precise as what they are capable of and there are lags in executing their trainer's verbal command as compared to their usual telepathic links.

Banette made full use of the darkness that it created as its domain. It is nigh impossible to pin it down now. The flygon flew in the air at high speeds as it tried to blast Sunny and Moony with Dragon Breaths and box them in with rocks it summoned with Rock Tomb. Sunny and Moony are still able to withstand the lethal poison of Toxic they were inflicted by swampert and cradily earlier for a long while as they fought with banette and flygon. Their psychic attacks were obviously disrupted by the miasma of dark and ghost type energy lingering around and it wasn't as potent as before. Tate and Liza need to think of ways to get rid of the miasma.

"Moony! Blizzard! Sunny! Heat Wave! Flood the area!"

Moony used its powers to summon a cold wave of wind within the gym. The combination of Blizzard and Heat Wave caused the ice from Blizzard to melt from the heat of Heat Wave, and the ice melted as it fell onto the arena in a massive downpour of rain. Velda's espeon had shielded the entire team in the challenger box from the rain with both Reflect and Light Screen (How did they all managed to fit in there?). Steven, who hasn't moved a finger since the start of the battle, had let out his skarmory who used one of its massive wings to shield him from the rain as well.

The massive rain had flooded the entire arena with rain water as the water levels began to rise. Sunny and Moony had raised tall walls of stone along the borders of the arena, and the water that fell inside it had started to accumulated to form a small lake that covered the entire arena.

"Sunny! Heat the waters! Moony, cool the air! Storm combo!"

Sunny made a noise of acknowledgement as it dove into the waters and began to rapidly heat the waters from within with a Heat Wave, causing steam to rise into the air. Moony floated high into the air, calling forth a snowstorm at the top of the air. Banette and flygon were at their end of the arena, watching the proceedings warily and undecided on what to do.

The warm air had a higher air pressure and pushed into the area of lower pressure above where the air is cooled by Moony's Blizzard. As the warm air continued to rise from the waters, the surrounding cold air around it started to swirl in to take its place. The moist air that had rose cooled off and the water within it starts to form clouds once more, the whole system of clouds and rapid wind spun and grew, fueled by the heat from the waters and the water evaporating from the artificial lake.

Sunny and Moony had created a massive artificial hurricane as it started to rotate faster and faster, sucking in the miasma created from the banette. Their telepathic links were reestablished with their trainers once more and their psychic powers were now unhindered and freed.

The rain had stopped by now. Using their regained psychic powers, Sunny and Moony sent the artificial hurricane at flygon and banette, who had now realised what they were planning to do all along.

Flygon gave a roar as it immediately summoned a sandstorm with a single flap of its powerful wings and created an artificial sand-filled hurricane of its own with Sand Tomb. The banette aided flygon by adding its Ominous Wind into flygon's creation, giving flygon's hurricane extra speed and rotate even more violently.

The two artificial forces of nature clashed and exploded violently. The winds from the explosion tore through the arena, ripping chunks of rock as they flew into the air and banged against the psychic barriers, which is barely holding the brunt of the explosion of violent winds. Some of the winds leaked out from the barrier as trainers and pokemons outside it braced and held onto something to prevent them from flying off their spot. Tate and Liza gripped onto the handrails while Steven's skarmory stood protectively in front of his trainer and cut the violent winds that approached them with an Air Slash. Steven just remained sitting in his position back at the spectator's box unmoving and without a single hair out of place.

A Dragon Pulse shot through the air and blasted into Sunny as it was sent flying backwards a short distance before it recovered its balance. Banette appeared behind Moony with Phantom Force and used another Taunt followed by a Hex and disappeared into the shadows once more and attacking Sunny with a Shadow Sneak combined with Taunt. The banette isn't giving any time for Sunny and Moony to power up or heal, forcing them to stick with attacking moves.

They need to take the banette down, no matter how slippery and difficult it is to be pinned down.

Moony eyes glowed as it prepared a Future Sight while Sunny tried to force banette out of the shadows on the ground with an Earthquake. Banette emerged from the shadows before Sunny's Earthquake landed and stopped it with a Shadow Ball, retreating behind flygon as it continued to shoot Dragon Breaths and Dragon Pulses while flying in the air.

Grass grew out from the crevices in the ground as it quickly elongated and wrapped itself around flygon with a Grass Knot. Flygon quickly burnt them off with a Flamethrower, but the delay was enough for Sunny to bash into it with an Iron Head and separate it from banette. Moony appeared before banette and activated Future Sight. Banette screamed out in pain as it was severely injured with Future Sight, but mitigated the damage with a Pain Split and shared its pain with Moony.

Flygon managed to land a Dragon Tail onto Sunny and sent it far away from it. Banette is still fighting a dangerous battle with Moony, who is preventing banette from ducking back into the shadows with the attacks it rained down on banette. Flygon flew high into the air before charging up a dangerous amount of draconic energy at the front of its opened mouth.

It planned to take down both Sunny and Moony with a Draco Meteor even if banette is caught in the crossfire.

'Sunny! Moony! Get out of there!'

Sunny and Moony barely had time to retreat to safety as they quickly retreated backwards as the Draco Meteors rained down from above, indiscriminately destroying everything in its way and destroyed the entire arena. Sunny and Moony had managed to escape it by sticking together and floating high above. They coated themselves with a Light Screen, banette was nowhere to be seen. Flygon was panting on the ground, trying to recover from the use of Draco Meteor.

Moony took the opportunity to snipe flygon with an Ice Beam which was blocked by flygon who raised a block of stone from the ground with Stone Edge. Banette suddenly appeared between Sunny and Moony and forced them to separate once more as it blasted Shadow Balls at them. Sunny tried to nail it with a Flamethrower only to destroy an after-image of banette which was produced by its Double Team. Moony was suddenly blasted into the ground when banette suddenly appeared above it with Phantom Force and knocked it down with a Shadow Ball. Flygon had recovered by now and attacked Sunny with a Thunder Punch, preventing Sunny from attacking banette. Sunny took the opportunity to get close to flygon and attacked it with a Flare Blitz. It proved to be a mistake as flygon braved through the attacks and held a struggling Sunny with its claws before chomping down on it with a sickening Crunch, not letting Sunny go.

Sunny screamed in pain as flygon flew high while it kept up on releasing dark type energy from Crunch into Sunny using its fangs. Flygon used a Laser Focus and it charged up a Draco Meteor once more with Sunny still held by its mouth. Sunny's rocky hide had started to crack from the continuous use of Crunch and it was writhing in pain from both the Crunch and toxins from Toxic. Tate's and Liza's heartbeat started to hastened. Sunny is starting to weaken from the prolonged exposure to Toxic. There's no way it can withstand a Draco Meteor at point-blank range that is powered up by a Laser Focus after getting mauled by flygon's Crunch.

'Moony! Save Sunny!'

Moony separated itself from its battle with banette as it dashed off trying to save its comrade. Banette reappeared in front of it with a Shadow Sneak and forced it to back off with a Hex.

The Draco Meteor was fired once more as the collective energy of it was directed onto Sunny and sent it blasting into the ground below. Flygon looked thoroughly spent as it floated down onto the ground trying to catch its breath, but looking proud of itself for taking Sunny down.

And that's its downfall for underestimating Sunny's capabilities.

A massive Psychic attacked flygon and it roared in pain from the surprise attack from Sunny. Sunny kept up its attacks on flygon and brought it down moments later. Sunny had managed to block the damage with a Protect despite the dark type energy running through its body due to flygon's Crunch. Sunny was battered from receiving the full impact of Draco Meteor despite blocking its damage, and its hide started to crack in several places. Sunny is also tired from battling due to the damage it received and the toxin in its body, its ability to levitate is starting to fail as it wobbled around in the air.

Banette screeched in rage as it appeared behind Sunny with Phantom Force and unleashed a barrage of Shadow Balls on Sunny. Moony moved in to defend Sunny but banette slipped past it with either a Shadow Sneak or Phantom Force and locked onto Sunny as its target. It didn't relent and continued to blast Sunny with her ghost type attacks and finally nailed Sunny with a huge blast of Dark Pulse.

Sunny was finally brought down.

Tate recalled Sunny back into its pokeball. This was an unexpected outcome. The flygon was strong, but the banette is a bigger problem than they thought if it actually managed to bring Sunny down, even if it was already in a weakened state.

Banette doesn't seem to care for its well-being as it engaged Moony in a vicious battle and the psychic twins guessed that it must have lost its mind in a fit of rage after flygon was brought down. Velda's cradily had pulled the unconscious flygon out of the arena and rejoined the battle once again. However, it does not have the opportunity to help banette as its battle with Moony is so fierce that there were no openings for it to intervene for fear of attacking banette by mistake. Moony unleashed massive waves of psychic attacks on banette, confident that it can finally bring it down. Its eyes subtly glowed once more as it prepared another Future Sight.

The Future Sight was unleashed and banette screamed in pain once more. This time, however, the banette gave Moony a smirk as the outline of its body glowed briefly with ghostly energy before the same happened to Moony.

No way.

Tate and Liza watched in shock as Moony was brought down together with banette by banette's Destiny Bond. It was only now that they realised that banette only appeared to lose its mind. Everything that happened so far after flygon was defeated was carefully planned. It goaded Moony to engage it in a full-blown battle and it succeeded. Despite the type disadvantage, Moony is still leaps and bounds ahead of banette when it comes to raw power and it was the reason why it willingly engaged banette in a straight on fight, knowing that it can win banette if the battle is a one vs one single battle. It tricked Tate, Liza and Moony to unleash a finishing blow on it so that it can bring Moony down with a single move.

Velda had actually completed the entire Mossdeep gym challenge without even giving a single command to her pokemons. In fact, she had somehow managed to sleep through this entire ordeal and is still asleep, leaning onto her rapidash, which have laid down on the ground behind her for her to lean her body on instead of lying down on the hard and comfortable floor.

'Gym leaders, I believe our team had won.'

'Yes, you all did.' Tate responded on behalf of him and Liza. 'Please wake your trainer up. We wish to present her the spoils of her victory while she's awake. I don't think there's any need for her to remain sleeping any longer. The "medical reason" is not the only reason why you put her to sleep, isn't it? The absol hasn't even moved once from her side despite all the commotion that's happening around you guys. You are afraid of us. You are afraid of our psychic powers, to be more specific. You are afraid of us, or any psychics here, probing into your trainer's mind whether it is by accident or not. I can tell that much by feeling how absol's dark type powers wrapped around her. It looks well-trained and is the most logical candidate to send out against us in battle, but yet you guys did not let her out and settled for letting it remain beside your trainer. What are you hiding?'

The espeon bristled loudly, looking enraged. The rest of Velda's team picked up on its change of mood and stood protectively in front of their trainer, ready to fight. The members of Tate's and Liza's main team willingly released themselves from their pokeballs using their psychic powers after sensing the animosity that was directed to their trainers. The winds in the arena picked up once more as it seems that there will be another unavoidable battle.

A large skarmory screeched as it flew into the middle of the wrecked arena, bringing everyone's attention onto it. Steven stood on top of skarmory with his arms crossed and a stern expression on his face.

"Stand. Down. The whole lot of you."

A crushing wind pressure was released as skarmory flapped its wings towards both sides, sending all of them skidding back. Steven turned to face Velda's pokemons.

"I don't know what Tate and Liza said to all of you, but I can guarantee that they didn't mean any harm. They are gym leaders, and I am the future Champion of Hoenn. It is our job to defend Hoenn and its citizens. You will not be attacked unless you or your trainer did anything to jeopardise the peace and safety of Hoenn, which I think is unlikely given what I heard about your trainer from my friends. So stand down, unless you wish to endanger your lives and your trainer's own by going up against me."

Velda's pokemon seemed to consider his words as they stared back at him warily. The espeon established a telepathic link with Steven this time, conveying its thoughts.

'Only if you can promise that none of the psychics here, including the humans over there, will probe into my Mistress's mind with their psychic powers. She has been hurt enough. We will stand down if you can give us that promise, future Champion.' The espeon said the last two words with a sneer.

Steven's expression didn't change as he raised his right hand and swore. "I, Steven Stone, give you my word that no psychics here, including human psychics, will probe into your trainer's mind without her explicit permission. Of course, this is on the condition that she did not do any unlawful things that warranted a mind probe." He glanced at Tate and Liza who were behind him and gestured for them to recall their pokemons. Steven lowered his right hand and crossed his arms once more. "Is that satisfactory?"

'It is. I hope you uphold your promise. My Mistress is still physically and mentally weak from what she experienced at Lilycove, but was unwilling to rest as the images from the battles keep reappearing in her head whenever her mind wanders off in boredom. That was the reason why she challenged the gym despite her condition. We wanted her to sleep, but she is unable, and unwilling to sleep for fear of nightmares. We only put her into an improper deep sleep because we wanted her to rest properly and because she has knowledge of secrets that is vital to Hoenn's survival in the confines of her mind. It was the only way we could think of to protect her secrets while indulging her need for a battle. Please don't release any form of invasive psychic powers around her. Please don't worsen her condition even more than it already is. Please.'

Steven grimaced. He had heard and known of Velda. Wallace had told him the full story when he went on a solo mission to retrieve the orbs and hid them in another safe place that even he don't know about. He knew of Velda's contribution in bringing down the main force of Team Magma and Team Aqua. He knew a little of what she experienced at Lilycove due to his friendship with Vance, her brother. Velda is another victim of the attack.

Hoenn had failed her. Hoenn had failed the people who were at Lilycove when the invasion happened. Something like that should never have happened.

"We will take note of it. I know what your trainer did for Hoenn, her brother is a good friend of mine. I gave him his metagross when it was still a beldum, you might have seen it before. We will make sure that no form of psychic energy that are invasive in nature will be released around your trainer. We have a duty to protect Hoenn as well. Please trust us." Steven said this part out loud for Tate and Liza to hear, who had reigned in their psychic powers in response.

'I am willing to trust those who Mistress and Vance trust. Please remember your promise. I will wake my Mistress up now.'

"Ugh... what happened?"

I glanced around my surroundings. I am no longer at the entrance of Mossdeep gym. In fact, I was somehow transported into a challenger's box which had somehow managed to accomodate every single member of my team. I was sitting down on the floor and leaning on Flamel's side, who was using his body for me to lean on. Kel was lying down by my side as well while Fuzzy was using his body as some sort of pillow so I could rest my head comfortably. Was I somehow asleep this entire time?

'Mistress. We have won the gym battle for you as we promised.'

"What?"

I slowly stood up and took a good look around at my surroundings. I was no doubt in a room meant for a battle with gym leaders. The entire arena was wrecked. My heart skipped a beat when I saw Snap and Dolly lying on the floor unconscious. It was only when I saw them still breathing and alive did I let out a sigh of relief. I quickly dug through my backpack and fed them a revive each. Dolly have to ingest the revive by pressing it against her own shadow, she is unable to open the zip on her mouth. Doing so will kill her.

Snap and Dolly quickly regained consciousness as they stood up, battered but looking happy that I am awake. I hugged the both of them and pulled away shortly after and looked at Snap sternly. I recognised those craters.

"You used Draco Meteor without my permission, didn't you?"

Snap looked sheepish as he turned his head slightly away from me, not daring to look at me in the eyes. I rubbed the temple of my head with my knuckle. Just what happened? I will deal with Snap later. Did they really just won a gym battle without me?

"It was a splendid battle. You have trained your pokemons well."

A large skarmory slowly flew up to the front of the challenger box and Steven Stone smiled down at me.

"Steven Stone?"

"In the flesh. I was watching the entire battle from the spectator's stand. I never thought that an advanced trainer can take on Tate's and Liza's pokemons without commanding them. They only used two pokemons on the advanced level. Another two of them are on the lower end of the Elite level and two of them were from their main team, even if they weren't their strongest members. Your team defeated all of them and only your banette and flygon were knocked out of battle."

I gaped and turned to my pokemon in shock. They did what?!

'Your body was too weak to command us in battle, Mistress. It's not like you will listen to our words and go back to rest. Your mental defenses were too weak for you to be here, your secrets could possibly been found out if any of the numerous psychics here probed into your mind, accidentally or not. Putting you to sleep was the best way.'

'Please don't do something like this without my permission again, Rena.'

'Understood. For what it's worth, I'm sorry, Mistress.'

'You are all forgiven, I expect you to tell me everything that has gone on while I was asleep later.'

Cutting off the telepathic link with Rena, I turned my attention back to Steven. Tate and Liza had made their way beside him from where they were on the opposite end of the arena and stood beside Steven. Tate had a small smile on his face while Liza was smiling as brightly as the sun.

"Hi Velda! I'm Liza! And this is-"

"-Tate. That was a-"

"-wonderful battle! We should do it again-"

"-sometime in the future."

I blinked. Wow. Are their minds really linked to each other?

Liza took out the Mind Badge and a TM and passed it over to me which I accepted. I obviously had won the gym challenge somehow without me knowing about it. Liza and I were about the same height and she held both my hands and started to chatter on without a care in the world.

"That was absolutely amazing! It's hard trying to find a skilled trainer around our age, you know? Your banette and flygon managed to take down Sunny and Moony too! Granted it was a rookie mistake on Sunny's part to try and engage your flygon up close, but still! It was amazing! How did you managed to train your pokemons to this level? And so quickly too! You have been a trainer for only slightly more than a year, right? You are already skilled enough to be an Elite trainer! Tate and I were special as we were given permission by the league to be trainers at seven years old but that's partly because we were born with psychic powers. Oh, by the way, you do not need to worry about us accidentally releasing our psychic powers. We have complete control over it and we made sure to keep it in. Your espeon had warned us about it. But still! You have to come back some other time! I want a rematch! I don't care what Tate thinks about this! I want a rematch! I want a rematch! With my main team this time! Don't care about Tate, he is a sour grape so ignore him." Liza ignored a "HEY!" from Tate and she continued to chatter on. "Make sure you come back to challenge our gym after your first Ever Grande Conference, ok? I will be prepared for you this time. I didn't know that your banette is so troublesome to deal with. It was the reason why Moony and Sunny were unable to release their full powers! With only a single Taunt too! Argh! It was so frustrating! I want a rematch just thinking about it!" Liza released me from her grip as she gripped the sides of her head with both her hands while facing the sky. "That Taunt was so frustrating! We cannot even use most of our combos because of it! Who even uses Taunt nowadays! Not even Spenser the old goat uses it!"

Steven looked very amused while Tate looked suitably embarrassed at Liza's outburst as he facepalmed and looked away. Steven calmed down the agitated Liza by placing a hand on her shoulder. "That's why you should be prepared for all kinds of situations, Liza. Sunny and Moony are way stronger than any of Velda's pokemons, I have no doubt about that. But Velda have trained her banette on how to prevent their opponents from unleashing their full power, it is something you can learn from her. Both you and Tate are very strong for your age. I'm sure the both of you will grow to be even more powerful when you are adults. What you need now is just more experience. These things take time. Don't fret too much about it."

"But Steeeveeeeen-" Liza clung on to his arm and swung it around side to side in a childish manner.

"Enough, Liza." Tate grabbed Liza and pulled her away from Steven. Steven looked as if he was trying very hard not to laugh at Liza's childish behaviour. "Don't misbehave, we have an image to uphold as gym leaders. What will members of the public say if they saw you acting like this?"

Liza pouted and sat in mock anger on the floor. "I'm still a kid, and I'm also a gym leader no matter what they say. If they have anything to say to me, they can say it to my face or just suck it up."

Tate just ignored his twin as he walked up to shake my hand. "Congrats for winning the battle. Just ignore Liza's childish behaviour. She's just a little upset that we lost, especially when we used Sunny and Moony in battle."

"I am not upset-"

"Yes, you are. We can read each other's mind, remember?"

My eyes widened slightly. "Really? You guys can do that?"

"Yes, we can. That's how-"

"-we are able to do this! To be able-"

"-to complete the sentences-"

"-our other twin is trying to say!"

Steven laughed out loud this time at seeing my awe-struck expression. "It takes a while to get used to how they speak. They can speak normally as individuals, but sometimes they do that without even realising it. I speak from personal experience." He gave a single clap of his hands to catch our attention. "It's almost past lunch time now, how about we go and grab a bite first? Your pokemons need to heal at the pokemon center too."

"Ok! I will go with Vel here! You guys catch up later!" Liza grabbed onto my left arm and swiftly dragged me with her out of the room as I barely managed to recall the bigger members of my team. Kel, Rena, and Fuzzy caught up and walked next to me. Rena gave a slap on Liza's legs with her tail.

"Oops. Sorry, I forgot your trainer is feeling a little unwell." Liza spoke to Rena as she rubbed the back of her head apologetically with her other hand. She turned around to face me and began to check all over me. "You aren't injured, are you? Are you fine? What are you sick with anyway? Do you-"

"I'm fine, Liza." I said as I reassured the energetic girl. It's nice to converse someone close to my physical age who is a little more mature than our peers. Liza may act childishly, but the fact that she became a gym leader together with her twin spoke volumes about their maturity. I glanced backwards. "Are you sure it's ok to leave them behind like that?"

"Oh, it's fine. They will teleport to our location in three, two-"

"One."

Tate and Steven appeared in a teleport beside us.

"You guys can teleport with your own power?"

"Only to places and people we are familiar with. It takes a lot of time to master such usages of psychic power. Teleporting to unknown or unfamiliar places takes up a lot of our energy." Tate informed me with a shrug.

"Alright, kids." Tate and Liza cried out in indignation at Steven's words, which he ignored. He pushed us from behind gently with his arms. "Let's just go and grab a bite. I don't know about you guys, but I'm starving."

Tate had never seen anyone like Velda Vera.

Tate and Liza had been special ever since their births. They both knew they were not normal. Kids their age will avoid them like the plague due to their psychic powers and they were unnerved at how they could read each other's thoughts. They were afraid of them. It was because of this that they both only had each other as their childhood companions and was why they were so close, even for twins. Their parents tried to give them a normal childhood, but the manifestation of their psychic powers prevented that from ever happening.

They were both six when they found Sunny and Moony, or to be more accurate, Sunny and Moony found Tate and Liza. Liza had given the name Moony to lunatone, so Tate had to go with naming solrock "Sunny" so that "they can be a matching pair", according to Liza. Moony and Sunny were attached to a small piece of meteorite that had fallen from space and landed in the ocean waters near Mossdeep, their hometown. The two pokemons found them as they were attracted to the psychic powers Tate and Liza were emitting due to the lack of control over their psychic powers when they were younger.

Sunny and Moony were of great help in assisting Tate and Liza in controlling their untamed powers. They do not possess the ability to Teleport, but they know the theory behind it and taught it to Tate and Liza. It caused endless frustration for their parents when Tate and Liza learned how to Teleport and began to teleport all around Mossdeep to play hide and seek, but they didn't scold them, merely fussed over them. They knew Tate and Liza were bored due to how mature they were for their age and that no kids in Mossdeep will play with them.

They were lonely.

Tate and Liza soon found a love for pokemons and pokemon battles. They are prodigies when it comes to pokemon battles. They are decent enough in single battles, but they are a formidable duo in double battles. Their psychic powers can synchronise very well with their psychic pokemons and they can all talk to each other telepathically. Tate and Liza are twins, they work well together naturally. It is a lot easier to command Sunny and Moony with telepathy rather than verbally, which gives them a huge advantage against the opponents they faced. Tate and Liza would often go out to challenge any trainers they find to pass the time. Despite having Sunny and Moony by their side for only a year, the twins had defeated most of the advanced trainers who came to Mossdeep for their gym challenge in their double battles. No one took them seriously at first, but they soon created a news sensation all across Mossdeep when they defeated almost every trainer that came to Mossdeep with their impeccable teamwork.

Their exploits caught the attention of the previous gym leader of Mossdeep, Spenser, a bald old man with a long white beard that reached his hips and tribal tattoos inked across his body. He tend to wear tribal clothings and have a blue wooden staff that he used to assist him in moving around. He approached Tate and Liza, and asked them if they were interested to be pokemon trainers. He will personally send in their application to the Hoenn League and register them as a duo. They agreed as they were bored out of their minds in Mossdeep. None of the trainers they faced can give them a good battle.

The Hoenn League gave the twins special treatment as they approved of the twins to be trainers despite their young age. The manifestation of their psychic powers was the main reason why they were allowed to go on a journey. Full control of latent psychic powers in humans is easier to achieve through battle experience, experience which Mossdeep cannot fully provide. The twins need to go out and see the world. Tate and Liza started out on their journey together even before they reached eight years of age and proceeded to complete the gym circuit within two years.

They both competed in the 523rd Ever Grande Conference and reached the finals. Their final opponent was Steven Stone, who crushed them effortlessly in battle.

Tate and Liza were a little grumpy about their loss, but they got over it quickly when they found a good friend in Steven Stone.

Not long after their participation in Ever Grande Conference, Spenser approached them once again to inquire them on whether they are interested to be the next gym leaders of Mossdeep. Tate and Liza were interested, to be gym leaders means that they can fight strong opponents, especially when the Mossdeep gym is the seventh gym in the gym circuit. There are many responsibilities that a gym leader has to carry but they are sure that they can handle it.

Nobody believed that the twins are suited to be gym leaders other than their parents. They are too young. To prove themselves to the world, Tate and Liza openly declared a challenge to Spenser to fight him at his full power and their battle was broadcast to the whole of Hoenn live on TV. Spenser is a generalist, and it was hard to prepare themselves against him since Tate and Liza are Psychic Specialists. They didn't have many options. However, the battle they had was a double battle.

Double battles are their specialty.

After a long and hard battle, the twins defeated Spenser much to the disbelief of most people in Hoenn. Many of them knew of Spenser and his strength, and two kids, only slightly over a decade old, had defeated him in a trainer battle to prove themselves worthy of being gym leaders.

Tate and Liza became gym leaders at 11 years old. Steven, who had became their good friend, often come over to Mossdeep to help them out in their gym leader duties. He had also recently defeated Wallace and decided to stay at Mossdeep permanently so that it was easier for him to perform his duties as a future Champion.

None of the trainers the twins faced could give them a battle as exciting as what they experienced from Steven and Spenser. Most of them weren't near their age as well. Trainers who were near their age were often sponsored trainers, but they are usually more interested in going to Sootopolis straight away to complete their gym circuit than to stay and make idle talk with them. None of them gave them an exciting battle despite having the strength to earn their recognition and their Mind Badge.

Until Velda came along.

Liza was especially excited and could not stop bouncing up and down whenever videos of Velda's battles was sent into the gym leader's chat group. She was excited to meet Velda and face her in battle. She was excited that there was finally somebody near their age who displayed the same potential as them. She was excited to finally find someone who could potentially be one of her very few friends.

Tate was excited as well, but not as much as Liza. He is the pessimist out of the two of them. Velda would probably go off straight away to the Sootopolis gym after their battle anyway. Hardly anyone would be their friend. They were freaks. That's what children their age called them.

There were several unforeseen circumstances along the way in their wait for Velda's challenge, but she still made it here. The only thing they didn't expect was for her to be challenging their gym challenge in her sleep.

Velda's pretty face and beautiful, long, blond hair immediately caught Tate's attention, even when she's asleep. She's pretty, he realised. He immediately threw that thought at the back of his mind when he realised the thoughts he had about her. He will be engaging her in a gym battle soon, it would not do any good for him to be distracted by these thoughts. He will not underestimate anyone in battle, even when they are asleep.

He just hoped that Liza did not just read his thoughts about Velda, she would tease him mercilessly about it for days if she did.

He also didn't expect for Liza and him to lose to Velda in an official gym battle. He didn't expect her to win while she's asleep. He didn't expect her to win at all when he and Liza sent out Sunny and Moony for battle, even if they aren't the strongest pokemons they have when it comes to power. They lost in a double battle.

He got a little grumpy about their loss and it was probably the reason why he reacted that way to Velda's espeon when it reminded him of their loss. Things would have gone sour until Steven stepped in and saved them all from a needless battle.

Tate was surprised that Velda wasn't freaked out by their psychic powers, but looked at them in amazement instead.

No kids their age had such a reaction to them before.

Their lunch together was pleasant. Liza was doing most of the talking among the four of them during their lunch. Tate knows that she is excited to finally meet Velda in person and that's why she would not stop talking. Velda warmed up to them after a while and started to talk more, but she was obviously still tired from whatever sickness she was experiencing. Tate tried not to look at Velda too much during their lunch, but he could not resist stealing a glance or two every now and then. Velda is just too beautiful and he was afraid to look at her in the eyes. He would probably get lost in those beautiful emerald eyes of hers.

Tate watched as Velda left their group temporarily when the nurse at the pokemon center called for her to collect her pokemon. She was the last out of the group to collect her pokemon and they will be going back to the gym later straight away after this. Liza had invited Velda to the gym to continue their conversation from where they had left off.

"You have been looking at Velda a little too much, Tate."

Tate quickly put his usual poker face back on and tried to look away from Velda as discreetly as possible. "Your eyesight is getting worse, Steven. Maybe it's time to get yourself a pair of glasses."

Steven gave an all-knowing smirk. "Oh really?"

"He liiikkeeeeesss her." Liza said in a singsong voice while bouncing up and down on her feet.

"No. I do not." Tate bit out harshly in a whisper.

"We can read each other's thoughts, remember?" Liza chirped back happily, throwing Tate's favourite phrase back at him. She walked up to her twin while giving him a pat on the back in what was supposed to be a comforting manner. "I really like Vel, I approve of her to be my future sister-in-law. She's pretty, she's fun, and she's good at battles." She then struck a 'gambatte' pose at Tate. "Go Tate! Win over the heart of the fair maiden! Bring me back a sister-in-law!"

"I can be your best man, if you ever need one." Steven added helpfully.

"I'm only thirteen!"