Author's Note: Just so you all know, the random trainers are from the actual game – I'm too lazy to make up OCs, unless I have to (like the 'new' rival OC I made for Cynthia). Let's just pretend it's normal for kids/people to dress up exactly alike in and around the Pokémon world if they're in the same "trainer-class" – okay?

Oh, and just so you readers know, all the Pokémon in this will know at maximum six movies instead of the original four, since I seriously doubt a Pokémon would only know four moves in a life-like scenario. Sorry if you guys don't like this change, but deal with it. (Besides, it made the probability of Cynthia guessing one of Gible's moves correctly more realistic.)

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.

Battle 4: Rose and Thorn
New rivals, as you fight for survival.

"I can't believe you! How could you take the Professor's...," Cynthia flailed around for a word, gesturing her arms at the object with an incredulous expression.

"Shiny Stone," Steven supplied, almost smiling at her antics.

"Yeah, that!" Cynthia shot a furious glare down at the culprit, pulling her hands back and onto her hips.

Gible grinned up mischievously, dark eyes alight with laughter as she fiddled with the implied, glowing stone in her royal-blue forepaws. She arrogantly tossed it in the air, obviously mocking the wound-up blonde, and caught it.

Once. Cynthia's eyebrow twitched.

Twice. Cynthia closed her eyes and took a deep, calming breath.

Thri – Suddenly Cynthia angrily lunged for the rock, snatching it in mid-air and Gible immediately released an adorable pout, knowing her fun was over. Cynthia really couldn't take a tease without snapping, could she?

Cynthia huffily examined the palm-sized Shiny Stone in her hand. It was surprisingly smooth and the glossy texture felt similar to washed-away sea glass. A brilliant, blurry glow emitted from the center of the translucent rock – much so that Cynthia herself could only squint as she studied it – as if the innards were hollow and the golden light inside was defying gravity, floating in the central spot with no energy whatsoever. It was beautiful – and someone had stolen it.

With a final cross glare at a still-smiling Gible, Cynthia glanced over her shoulder in dread, tightening her fist around the Shiny Stone as she considered the seemingly endless narrow trail behind them. She nearly wailed outwardly as she turned a miserable look onto Steven. "Should we retrace our steps to the Professor's laboratory?" she whimpered. How did we not notice Gible playing with it this whole time?

"Nah," Steven broke into her thoughts, shaking his head faintly and stuffing his hands into his pockets as a chilling wind passed. He looked on forward and began walking. "We're already close to Jubilife City, so we'd be wasting our time going back."

"But we can't just waltz off with his stuff!" Cynthia retorted, crossing her arms indignantly as she quickly tailed him. Gible looked up as she noticed the two continuing their light trek and followed loyally with an inaudible snicker.

Steven gently rubbed his neck, seemingly uncaring as he silently noted the surrounding trees passing by with lazy amber pools.

"I'm sure the Professor can find another Shiny Stone himself. They aren't necessarily too hard to find." His lips suddenly pulled into a excited grin, the drowsy glint disappearing instantly as he finally dragged his full attention onto his blonde companion, eyes alight as he walked.

"In fact, I have quite a fair amount of these peculiar rocks. Shiny Stones glow miraculously with dazzling, mysterious light as you've seen, and I'm still trying to figure out how it shines without any source of known energy. It's beautiful, like an Ember captured in translucent glass, eternally radiant. The stone is surprisingly smooth, like real glass or crystal, and usually vary from the size of an adult human's thumbnail to the size of one's entire hand. So far, the stone itself is scarce in the wild, as many jewelers love to collect and sell them as females' trinkets, and there aren't too many known Pokémon that use it for their evolution. From my knowledge, Pokémon that need to be exposed to these stones to evolve are Minccino, Togetic –" he cut off, either ignoring or oblivious to Cynthia's suspiciously raised hand (which may or may not have been about to clamp onto his mouth) and suddenly pointed north-east of the blonde.

"Hey, there's another one over there!"

"Eh?" Cynthia had been this close to shutting him up again – with her trusty right palm, since her left was occupied – until her interest was piqued.

She whirled and caught a faint blur of pastel pink and baby-breath blue by a thick trunk of a nearby fir tree. She blinked once, now fully revolved towards Steven's focussed direction. Cynthia lightly cocked her head to the side and furrowed her thin brows in confusion. She could have sworn to Mew she saw the same vivid colours back at Twinleaf Town and smell the same tantalizingly sweet scent from the garden.

But that didn't make sense.

As was stated by the Pokénav in Cynthia's black satchel, Steven and Cynthia were on Route 202, a winding path that twisted through grassy fields and tall fir trees.

The small device also warned them of the young trainers that liked to test their battle skills round the road but so far Cynthia hadn't seen one, excluding her amber-eyed companion. Instead, the Ponyta-tailed blonde observed with interest of the Shinx and Bidoof giddily frolicking in and about the bushy undergrowth, noting that not one came by for a wild battle, much to Cynthia's evident dismay.

On the journey, she had slowly resolved to truly try in Pokémon battles from then on. Perhaps her virtuous opinion before had been biased: the fact that battles seemed unethical and such. Because during her sort-of battle with Gible and that spaceman freak, Cynthia realized afterwards that she had somehow enjoyed it – and Gible did as well – and now they both seem to like each other more. Like Steven insisted on before, battles somehow levelled-up bonds of friendship.

Though, perhaps it was a sign of luck that no battle-ready trainers were near at the moment, since she didn't exactly have a Pokémon to battle with.

Gible didn't count – she was a friend and companion, nothing more and nothing less.

Cynthia wildly shook her head from her contemplations, drawing an amused glance of amber orbs, and retained her determined search. Maybe she should see the eye doctor in Jubilife City. She couldn't find hide nor hair of any Pokémon in the general direction Steven indicated. At all. Her sight was only encompassed with green shrubs and looming firs.

"What does it look like?" Cynthia asked, returning her attention to Steven after a minute of futile pursuit.

"Can't you see? It's –" Steven gestured over with one hand, crooking his head over in the previous direction, before his full attention was stolen. "What the–?" he furrowed his silver brows, lowering his arm, "Bu – but I swear, I thought one was there. Even if almost none of them live in this area…" He narrowed his eyes confusedly, "Huh. Maybe you frightened it away, because I swear, a Ros– "

"Me?" Cynthia narrowed her eyes, perhaps taking the expression a bit too seriously. "I'm sorry, but I don't think I caught that right."

"What? That maybe you frightened it away?"

Cynthia gaped. "How could I have frightened it? If anyone's scary around here, any human that is, you'd be at the top. I mean really, silver hair and bright, unnatural yellow eyes? Where'd you even buy those contacts?"

"Hey, for your information, I was naturally born with these eyes!"

"Right..." Cynthia trailed off disbelievingly.

"I'm not kidding!" he huffed before a comeback lit up his golden eyes. "We'll, at least I didn't bleach my hair blonde. I like my hair natural, even if it's gray." He raised his chin smugly, running his large hand through his silver-blue hair as if to prove his point.

"What? This is natural! I've even seen people with natural blue hair, not to mention bright purple hair in my life."

"But exactly how many natural platinum blondes exist?"

"And exactly how many natural granny-haired guys exist?" Cynthia pointed out.

"This isn't granny-haired!"

"No? Then what else can describe gray?"

"You just said silver before!"

"Did not." Cynthia denied, pouting faintly.

"Did too."

"Nuh-uh."

"Yeah huh."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"No…?"

"Yes!"

"Yes!" Steven cheered.

"No!" Cynthia quickly cried.

"No?"

"Yes!"

"So yes?"

"I said no."

"No?"

"Yes."

"Yes!" Steven grinned triumphantly.

Cynthia exasperated, slapping a hand onto her forehead despairingly. "You know what? Even rolling my eyes would be a waste of time and energy on you."

"Aw, thanks Cyn." Steven placed his hand onto his chest, "That really means a lot to me."

"Y-you – Argh!" Cynthia stormed off ahead, Gible in full out laughter behind her.

Suddenly Gible looked up, sniffing the air. Cynthia, noticing the sharp straightening of the Land Shark Pokémon at her side, threw a questioning glance at her.

Before the blonde could attempt to ask the blue-and-yellow Pokémon, Gible abruptly broke into a dash for a bushy patch of grass a few steps ahead of her, wading through the tall, thin undergrowth with a determined glint in her black eyes before nearly vanishing into the shrubberies, save for her ultramarine shark-fin above the bushes.

"Gible?" Cynthia drew her blonde brows together in confusion.

After a short breadth of silent pause, the tall grasses shook more and more violently as Gible scampered rowdily through them.

Strangely, the Pokémon stilled a few lengths away, near a large tree trunk, and Cynthia swore she heard two Pokélanguage voices erupt quietly – a cute one for Gible, and another more melodic sounding one, though she couldn't make it out – until the Land Shark's fin bobbed once, quickly sped off into a different direction and halted once more undoubtedly several yards away. A noiseless moment passed before Gible's fin sharply streamed through the tall grasses before popping out of the bushes with a clumsy trip. Thump. Cynthia automatically smiled as she observed Gible, yellow-bellied stomach face down in the pathway dirt with a palpable scowl tugging her mouth as she glared adorably ahead.

Cynthia squatted down, lanky knees side-by-side and barely balancing on the balls of her feet, her arms folded into her stomach. She cocked her head to the side with an amused and teasing grin. "You alright Gible?"

Said Land Shark scowled at her mocking comment and quickly scrambled onto her feet with as much dignity as she could gather before huffily craning her head away from the human in front of her, as if repulsed. "Gib," she sniffed.

Cynthia lifted her brow in question, drawing an inquisitive look as Gible unfolded her paws, which she had only then forced forward after snuffing the still-entertained blonde.

A red spray-can. That was all there was to it. Although it was approximately the size of a typical window-sprayer and shaped oddly at that, with a bell-like red bottom, white-over cover and a tiny, mahogany-hued nozzle, the bottle was sort of cute. A small pokéball symbol in the same shade of rubicund was stamped on each side of the white part, and Cynthia deduced them to be the buttons to start spraying whatever was inside. It was shoved closer to her as Gible moved her arms – though the Land Shark Pokémon was still facing away from her.

Cynthia smiled.

A gift for her.

Gible sent a backward glance from the corner of her black eyes, curious of Cynthia's reaction. She grinned almost victoriously as Cynthia uncrossed one arm and reached over to pluck the gift from her paws.

"Gible, Gib-Gib!"

Although Cynthia had absolutely no clue of what Gible exactly said, she caught the general gist of it, and immediately swathed the mini-shark in a quick hug.

As Cynthia stood up, an afterthought crossed over, and sent a look to Gible. "Don't think you're off the hook on that Shiny Stone incident, though."

Gible made a noncommittal sniff.

Steven watched them in amusement as he caught up to the blonde, taking a curious peek over her shoulder at the remarkable present. "So Gible picked up a Super Potion for you? Huh, I thought only Pokémon with the ability Pickup could do that," he nosily leaned in closer in snooping examination.

"Oh yeah! That's what it's called! A Super Potion – a good wound remedy, just slightly more effective than the regular Potion," Cynthia beamed happily down at the medicine item, "Ha, maybe those brief Pokémon School lessons weren't that bad," before decisively slipping it into a wide pocket in her shadowy-black satchel.

After Cynthia zipped up the fold and flipped the bag's front flap over, she slowly bent down, lightly patted Gible's head (who scowled sulkily at the pet-like appreciations) before scooping the Land Shark Pokémon into her arms (as Gible yelped in surprise).

"You went to the Pokémon School?" Steven asked curiously as the threesome began walking once more.

"Yeah, but I dropped out – as did most of the class – at age ten to go on our Pokémon expeditions. Of course, as you can see," Cynthia mockingly gestured herself, keeping Gible stable in the crook of her other arm.

"I didn't go anywhere in particular. Anyway, the rest of the class who did stay wanted to be more prepared instead of learning by personal experience out in the world. I think most of them, which were in my class, would either be graduating in a year or two now to start their journey or going to Pokémon University for more technical schooling. Some I know had great dreams to become Pokémon Breeders, Rangers, Professors, Coordinators or even the Champion of Sinnoh, so it's expected they stay. But," Cynthia placed a finger onto her jawline wondrously, "a few of the dream-Professors left early like the would-be trainers," she lowered her hand and gaze, "I guess you can become whatever you want even without a diploma," she muttered in afterthought.

Steven nodded in understanding, "So what did you do instead if you didn't leave for your jour–"

Suddenly a young Lass, perhaps fourteen-year-old trainer – with typical poufy brown locks, a white dress-shirt, a navy-blue vest and an über short skirt to match her school's mandatory red-ribbon – by accident collided into Steven, who almost lost his usually sturdy balance and fell.

Keyword: almost.

Before Steven could intake a breath for any form of comment once he had instinctively stabilized the Lass, the petite girl burst into bawling waterfalls.

"I'm s-so so so sorry!" she snivelled with almost exaggerated remorse as she unabashedly burrowed into Steven's open arms.

Steven appeared to be uncomfortably stark still before he awkwardly wrapped his arms around the weeping school-girl, patting her lightly and gently on the back as he tried to console her in his own way. He lightly whispered his obvious forgiveness and comforting nothings, even though the Lass was ultimately soiling his silky, t-shirt-like jacket.

Cynthia smothered the impulse to laugh.

However, just before she wittingly commented about Steven's legitimately suggestive position (especially to the fact that he was possibly three years older than the tiny girl), she suddenly noticed the small, utterly limp ball of brown fur in the young trainer's arms. With a red nose. And buck teeth.

"Sweet Arce – I mean Dialga! Is your Bidoof alright?" Cynthia exclaimed, raising her slender fingers to her widening lips in concern.

The Lass-type trainer turned big brown, tear-glazed eyes onto her and abruptly left Steven (much to his obvious relief) to bawl endless amounts of tears into Cynthia's sweater-clad shoulder.

"S-some passerby trainer beat me! Me! Of all the new trainers in my school, not even one has been able to beat me – well, except for Tristan and Logan, but they don't count!" she wailed, thumping one balled-up fist into Cynthia childishly because the other occupied her fainted Bidoof.

"Well it was kind of expected. Males are a superior species when compared to females." A faint scoff. "It's a proven fact."

The threesome (and Gible) spun their full attention to the apathetic voice before Cynthia and Gible's eyes narrowed at the insult.

Brilliant, ocean-blue eyes glittered like cold crystals under the evening sunlight; however, those were probably the most expressive feature to the (around her age) passerby, despite his evident stoicism. His lips were thinned out under high cheekbones and an attractive long nose, and his strong jawline was set in tedium. Midnight blue-black hair framed his fair-skinned face under his black newsboy cap, which shielded him from the bright rays of sunshine.

He casually sported a white t-shirt with a matrix of swirling black designs crawling up from the bottom-left hemline to top left shoulder, along with the same vine-like patterns circling the border of the pre-cut sleeves. Underneath that he wore a navy-blue long-sleeved chemise rolled up to his elbows (likely because of the recent vestiges of summer heat), a pair of stone-washed, baggy blue jeans and some white, tinted-cobalt converse. Cynthia frowned internally as she silently noted the small, silver-circle earring in his left ear – for she herself didn't wear earrings. At all.

She thought they were too girly to wear.

How ironic.

The anonymous teen flicked his startling blue eyes over to the Lass, pulling one hand into his pocket while the other shrugged his sagging knapsack back in place. "So don't blame yourself that you were born female. Maybe blame Arceus – if it even exists. Legends and myths aren't always right, plus they're boring." He walked closer at a leisurely pace.

The Lass flinched visibly at the sight before she instantaneously sped out of Cynthia's arms, sobbing rather stridently as she raced down the winding trail. Cynthia absently noted her stumbling at one point as she indignantly traipsed through the entrance of Gible's treasure-hunted area, practically screaming about stupid, brightly coloured weeds that nearly tripped her, before running off in an even more miserable state. A faint sting of pity and strange compassion prickled Cynthia, and she turned to the still-unresponsive culprit in their midst.

The blue-eyed boy gradually tilted his head, mussing his Murkrow-hued hair to the runaway before blinking at the other two in blank indifference.

Cynthia gritted her teeth. "You know, that wasn't very nice." Cynthia scowled, narrowing her thin brows as Gible crossed her stubby arms and nodded in glaring agreement.

"I'm only speaking the truth though;" the boy shrugged, hands in his pockets. "In all physical and mental things, science has shown that men are better, so to speak."

Really, this guy was seriously grating on her nerves. First he dared to say myths were boring and he was still spouting on about females being inferior? Euh. Cynthia instinctively squeezed Gible closer (who started slightly at the unexpected contact). He's such a sexist!

"Why? Do you want to prove me wrong?" He cut straight into her maddened thoughts. However, this time she noticed the aloof air around him faintly simmered down and his lips twitched slightly. "Another girl wanting to beat me?" He raised an ebony eyebrow in open question.

Cynthia directed a daring look to Gible, who easily caught it with a secretive grinning nod.

Oh this guy is so going down.

"Sure. Gible, a female Pokémon, and I will win – hands down." Cynthia lifted her chin almost arrogantly.

If Cynthia didn't know better, she could have sworn she saw ghosting amusement flit across his glass-like eyes. As the male teenager swung his chrome orange – which by the way clashed horribly with the dark blues of his outfit, Cynthia mentally added – backpack onto the ground, quickly unzipping one of the smaller-sized pouches stitched to the side, he drew out a miniature-sized pokéball into his large hand. Then swiftly, as if in afterthought, he dug into one of the large pockets attached to the lower-half of his baggy-jeans for another red-and-white sphere, bringing forth two pokéballs between three long-limbed fingers.

"Alright, how about we do a simple two-on-two battle?"

"…two-on-two?" Oh no.

"One-on-one battles aren't satisfying and any more than three Pokémon will take a while – I have to check-in a room at the Pokémon Center before they fill out – so two-on-two is best choice." he rationalized with a lifeless shrug. Suddenly something seemed to occur to him. "Hold on, do you not have another Pokémon to battle with other than that Gible?"

"Well – I… I well…" Cynthia casted her humiliated attention to a rather interesting tree.

"You're kidding right?" When he didn't receive a proper answer, he sighed disappointedly, slipping both his pokéballs back into his pant-pocket.

"And to think I believed you to be good, considering you had Shiny Pokémon in your arms. Guess it goes to show that females only rely on guys for anything and everything," he smiled bitterly, glancing over at Steven. "Bet your boyfriend over there caught that Gible, and you begged for it, and in the end you got it – right?"

"Wha – he's not –"

He sighed with a dissatisfied shake of his head, purposely cutting off her words. "You know, you shouldn't even consider being a trainer if you can't catch your own Pokémon. What's the point? For them to be your pets?" his frown intensified. "You disgust me."

Raging fury boiled in Cynthia as she clenched her fists tightly, but she smothered her almost instinctive cusses from erupting.

"Hey, now –" Steven started towards the boy, knavishly furrowing his eyebrows before he was abruptly cut off with a sigh.

"This is all a complete waste of my time. Unless a Pokémon magically appears in the next moment, to help her," he indicated towards Cynthia with a detached wave, "I'm leaving."

Cynthia's nails were digging into her inner palms, forming angry red crescents from them as she tightened her hold. She nearly broke skin. Gible glowered angrily at the boy and instantly leaped out of Cynthia's tightening embrace to snarl at him for actually hurting her blonde, human friend.

The boy shook his head once at the sight, ignoring the hostile Pokémon, and easily stepped around Cynthia and her, obviously indicating his father exasperated departure.

All of a sudden he jumped hastily from his spot, strangely reversing those few paces he took in instinctive recoil. Then, seconds thereafter, a flurry of violent pink rose petals swirled down like a deadly, miniscule tornado – directly onto his previous position.

He still retained his analyzing poker-face in his crouched form, though Cynthia smiled in satisfaction as she noticed him narrowing his brows oh-so-slightly. Yes, some sort of emotion! But...

"What in Rayquaza's name just happened?" Steven voiced Cynthia's exact internal thoughts. Well, almost. Hoenn people tended to swear in their own regional Legendries, as did all the other regions, though many used Arceus and Mew when it was truly dire.

Yeah. Cynthia needed to break off that habit of using Origin and New Species Pokémon profanes.

...But really, what exactly had happened here?

"Rose, Roselia."

Cynthia quickly turned to her left, surprised eyes locking with black pearls which seemed to beam at her with secretive triumph. Her whole body immediately tensed.

It was a small-framed Pokémon, with two in-bloom roses placed elegantly on each of its tiny green hands: a blushing pink flower perched perfectly in its right appendage and an oceanic blue one balanced proudly in its left. A narrow dress-like, spring-green leaf was curtaining modestly over its soft, evergreen body and arrow-like legs. Dark leaves the same hue as the 'dress' extended from its shoulders like nifty epaulettes and a pointed streak of sun-yellow clawed straight from its neck down the forefront of its leaf dress-shirt. Three deadly-looking thorns rose on top of its cranium, the same grass-green as the dress-shirt, though the Pokémon's face was far from deadly – in fact –

The woodland Pokémon seemed to be smiling eagerly... at her.

It was a good thing. Yes – a very good thing. Cynthia slowly breathed in and out, slowly chanting the mantra in her mind that this Wild Pokémon was not going to hurt her. Will not. Not like the others. Not like the before. Not like–

"Rose?" It – Roselia, Cynthia easily recollected – batted its eyelashes at her.

"Huh. So you do have another Pokémon to battle with."

Both immediately reeled towards the undesirable guest's voice. Said annoying blue-eyed boy lifted an eyebrow in blatant query and raised three fingers – with two tiny pokéballs held between them. "I don't take getting attacked easily, but no matter how despicable females are," Roselia instinctively growled (Cynthia guessed the Pokemon was also a female at that point), "it is ungentlemanly for one such as myself to hit one. You ready for battle?"

Cynthia locked a stern, inquiring gaze with the Land Shark and their supposedly newest comrade, Roselia.

Although Cynthia was still questioning of the why's and how's of the Thorn Pokémon's presence, she in the end decided to let the indefinite facts slide as of the moment. Instead, she silently sought through and into those two black pearls and blinked twice at the strange, almost bonded friendship-like love in them. Cynthia sighed, but resolved to ask questions later.

"I asked: are you ready?" His voice held a faint, very faint impatient tone.

"Hold on a moment please." Cynthia emphasized with a quick flashing, overly sugar-coated smile.

The blonde flipped open her black shoulder-bag, unzipping a rectangular pocket quickly and pulled out her black duel-screen Pokédex electronic. Using that, she swiftly scanned Gible and Roselia for their move-types (Steven had taught her that before the Gible Incident). First she had to go through with learning the facts of their species, and Cynthia felt an impatient tick appear as she heard the slow, monotone of the computerized duel-screen Pokédex.

"Gible, the Land Shark Pokémon. Gible attacks using its huge mouth. While its attacks are powerful, it hurts itself out of clumsiness, too." After the deadpan voice speaker finished, Cynthia's brows lifted once she scrolled down with the stylus to check up Gible's moves.

So far, Gible had Dragon Rage, Dragonbreath, Sand Attack, Slash, Dig and Sand Tomb.

"Roselia, the Thorn Pokémon. Roselia's aroma can bring serenity, but the thorns on its head contain a vicious poison." Cynthia scrolled down, and her eyebrows further rose at Roselia's moves: Magical Leaf, Petal Dance, Aromatherapy, GrassWhistle, Synthesis and Extrasensory.

They're both actually… really, really strong! No wonder Gible easily defeated that Zubat before. Cynthia acknowledged with an astonished gape as she skimmed through the moves' information. But I don't own any Gym Badges yet – and I heard Pokémon caught at a higher level than you can manage won't listen to your orders… Cynthia observed the two still-Wild Pokémon with a worrying pout.

The small pair caught her look, and cocked their heads simultaneously in evident curiosity and question.

Cynthia took in a breath, "Will you two follow my instructions? No matter what?"

"Gible, Gib." Gible snorted impatiently and rolled her eyes, as if saying: No duh. Can't you trust me?

Cynthia smothered the urge to smile, easily able to read Gible's actions rather than her intelligible speech, and turned to Roselia.

The Thorn Pokémon crossed her tiny arms and grinned bemusedly. "Selia. Roselia." An familiar glint brightened her small, glassy eyes and Cynthia felt a warm flashback sharpening into focus.

"Any moment now would suffice," the boy irritably tapped his foot while his low voice and face remained surprisingly impassive, slicing her musing moment in halves.

"I'm usually patient, but not when it's quarter to six. Many people and Pokémon tend to prepare something called dinner right about now."

"Fine, fine." Cynthia rolled her eyes, indicating that she was ready for battle. Suddenly a thought occurred to her, "Hold on. I don't think I ever caught your name."

The boy sighed, "It's not proper to ask for someone's name without introducing yourself first."

Cynthia scowled.

Steven nodded towards Cynthia, amusement dancing in his amber gaze. "Yeah, she did the same to me," he turned towards the boy, bringing forth his hand for a shake, "I'm Steven. You?"

For the first time since she arrived, the black-haired, blue-eyed boy smiled – a polite, greeting smile – as he took Steven's hand. "Call me Sasori."

Cynthia lifted her brows to her hairline as something seemed to dawn on her. She lightly thumped her fist into her palm as she realized her blunder, "Ohhh! I get it. You're gay!"

If either of the boys had drinks in their mouths, they would have automatically sprayed it all over the girl.

"What?"

Steven (unsurprisingly) dropped his hand as Sasori's inexpressive face showed emotion: a jaw-dropped, incredulous gape with brought together brows on the top.

"What did you say?"

Cynthia smiled obliviously, "My apologies. I'm didn't say my name. I'm Cynthia."

"No, not that – I meant your previous… comment."

"You mean that you're a homosexual? Oh don't worry. I'll try not to go all preacher on you, though I can't say I'm going to root for your team. Plus, I think interacting with your opposite sex is a good thing, even if you think lowly of them for unjustified reasons. I don't really think Arceus had same-sex relationships in mind when he made both males and females. I mean, there's gotta be a reason why only straight people have babies, right?"

Both males were silent, though you could distinctly hear very faint, muffled laughter from a certain silver-haired boy, who had his hand suspiciously over his mouth.

"Do I look homosexual to you?" Sasori eventually managed in visible disbelief.

Cynthia slowly eyed his one (though notably small) silver circlet-earring and quietly noted the silver-plated name-tag necklace hanging at his forefront. She instantly nodded with a bright smile.

"Yep!"

Sasori quietly groaned and Steven unleashed his laughter. Cynthia furrowed her brows at them in confusion.

"You know what?" Sasori flicked his exasperated blue eyes to her, "Let's just get this straight – I'm straight – heterosexual. Got it? Now let's battle."

Before Cynthia could blink, Sasori quickly enlarged one of his red pokéballs and effortlessly tossed it into the sky.

"Prepare yourself – Dratini!"

The spinning pokéball abruptly popped open its lid and a bright crimson light shot onto the grassy field ahead of them, taking on a snake-like shape, before Cynthia perceived its actual physical characteristics.

It appeared to be a serpentine Pokémon with white, wing-like fins similar to ears on its head, as well as a small, white circular dot on its forehead. Leathery, periwinkle-blue skin seemed to glow marvellously as it upstretched itself into the evening sun, exposing a long, snake-like body with a white-skinned underbelly. A pair of loyal, intelligent dark violet eyes stared curiously at her over its large, round silver-hued nose as it lifted its head before it craned over to its trainer. "Dratini?"

Cynthia smilingly gawked at the adorable mini-dragon and scrambled for her black Pokédex, locking onto the serpent-like Pokémon with ease.

"Dratini, the Dragon Pokémon," the computerized voice droned, "Dratini is often called the 'Mirage Pokémon' because so few have seen it. Dratini also sheds its skin as it grows, regularly doing so while hidden behind large powerful waterfalls."

"Huh, that's neat," she scrolled down, "and Sasori's Dratini... is a male," Cynthia tch-ed under her breath, "Typical. As if he'd own a female."

She turned from her duel-screen to the two Pokémon at her side. An impatient-looking Gible sucked in her cheeks as she painstakingly waited with hands behind her back, rocking back and forth on her feet with a compulsory, out-of-tune hum. However, Roselia, calm and collected, instead crossed her arms elegantly at her chest, opposite-hued roses tucked under her elbows with a watchful, keen eye towards the battlefield. Cynthia rearranged her face to an inviting beam. "So who wants to go first?"

"Gible!" Gible frantically waved its tiny, chubby arms like an excited grade-school student. Roselia merely lifted her gaze at Cynthia, the stifled hopeful glint not bypassing the blonde.

"Okay, why don't you go first Roselia?" Cynthia requested politely, smothering her impulsive giggle at Gible's jaw drop.

The Thorn Pokémon complied with a superior smirk shot at Gible, who glowered in disbelief. The Land Shark whirled onto Cynthia. "Gible Gi, Gi, Gible!?" Obviously, even to the two male bystanders, Gible was protesting about why Cynthia chose the newbie over her.

Cynthia respired, casting her gray-eyes onto the defiantly scowling blue-and-yellow shark. "Gible, I know you're powerful and all, but if we just battle Sasori with you, I'll never learn about Roselia's battle style." Gible immediately stormed off, sulking rather noticeably with the occasional dark mutter. Cynthia almost smiled at her endearing antics and before she marched off to the battle ground, she softly casted over her shoulder with a slight smile; "Besides, if Roselia's knocked out in this round, you could show her up by beating both of this guy's Pokémon."

Gible blinked owlishly up at Cynthia, processing her words, before an almost sinister grin stretched her face.

"Alright, let's go Roselia!"

Roselia readily leaped onto the grasslands with her thin arms tense like a boxer's and her duel-roses poised and dutifully prepared. Dratini glanced back from his trainer, noticing the initiation of the battle and in doing so, quickly slithered into battle ready formation, dark-violet eyes narrowing into determination.

Sasori pulled up his black newsboy cap and nodded, almost to himself. "Okay, I'll go first. Dratini, start off with a Twister."

Dratini acknowledged the command and immediately conjured up a small, though violently chaotic, tornado hurtling towards the Thorn Pokémon opponent.

"Roselia, swirl a Petal Dance to negate it!" Cynthia recalled a recent battle contest on television that had used the same move, and it worked wonderfully. Hopefully it would work now.

Roselia nodded and quickly spun around to face the Twister head on, unleashing pink flower petals out from her opening rose blossoms into a whirling spiral towards the small hurricane. The two spiralling attacks met and clashed, fighting each other until the excess power caused a loud booming smokescreen.

As the aftermath breeze cleared the field, Cynthia narrowed her eyes as she noticed Sasori slowly, mockingly clap his hands. His face was impassive. "Well done. You actually made it through my first move. However, you can't win with merely draws."

He pointed towards Roselia. "Dratini, use Twister once more!"

"Dodge it this time Roselia!" Cynthia quickly cried out as another, but much swifter cyclone whirled towards the Thorn Pokémon. Right as Roselia leaped into the air to dodge, Sasori ordered on the spot, as if he had predicted her decisive order beforehand.

"Now use serial Dragon Rage!"

Said blue-and-white snake Pokémon leaned back slightly as his little forehead dot/sphere glowed before he released a swirling, smoky blue-flecked-yellow beam of spheres at the airborne Roselia.

"Dodge it!" Cynthia quickly shouted, but it was too late. Roselia couldn't evade in the air in the first place.

"Seee-lia!" the Thorn Pokémon howled as it was blown back from the electrifying forces.

"Oh no!" Cynthia automatically exclaimed as she saw Roselia dragging across the grassland, leaving a trailing indent before she stopped, helplessly flopping onto her back with a puff of dust. "Get up Roselia," Cynthia hysterically gestured over towards a smirking Dratini as she regarded Roselia laid down and panting severely, "or else you'll get hit again!"

Sasori almost grinned, almost, but didn't. "Dratini, slither up and use Aqua Tail."

With a light grunt, Roselia got onto one knee, one pearl-black eye twitching in slight pain as the snake-like dragon zigzagged over to her. Cynthia quickly bellowed out, "Roselia, use Magical Leaf!" Roselia nodded and conjured up glowing, rainbow-hued leaves from her roses before firing them at the close-ranged Dratini. The Dragon Pokémon, unsuspecting of the attack, hurtled back at the quick and accurate blows.

"Keep doing it until you can't see through the aftermath smoke Roselia!" cried Cynthia, thumping the air with her fists. Roselia acknowledged the command and kept swirling luminous leaves at the Dragon-type opponent. "Drat-iii-n-" Dratini yelped as it felt the shower of leaves hurtling at him senselessly.

"Bat away the leaves with Dragon Tail, Dratini."

Dratini willingly endured the sharp, hammering leaves for a moment longer as his tail glowed a bright, electrical blue before he used it to swat the incoming leaves from further advance until Roselia finally ran out of energy.

Sasori graced his Pokémon with a thin smile. "Use Thunder Wave on Roselia now, Dratini."

The Dragon Pokémon dutifully complied, quickly diming his Dragon Tail to swiftly slide towards the weary Thorn Pokémon with a determined glint in his eye, even in his rather battered state.

"Roselia, watch out!" shouted Cynthia, the worried tone not going unnoticed.

The Thorn Pokémon instantly looked up and a rapid moment passed as the Dragon-type got closer by the second. Roselia quickly glanced over to Cynthia, awaiting a fast order to intervene, but heard none coming forth until Dratini was undesirably a yard or so at her front.

"Roselia – umm, use… use," Cynthia fought for a move under the intensely high pressure, "use Extrasensory to stop Dratini!"

But Cynthia was much too late as she finished her stressed command. Dratini had already charged up a feeble jolt of electricity and released the lesser charge straight for Roselia, who instantaneously flinched as the weak voltage flowed through her, slowing her movement dramatically.

"Follow it up with some successive Agility."

Dratini quietly closed his eyes in front of a paralyzed Roselia, slowly relaxing his muscles and thus making then lighten dramatically, until his small eyes snapped open and his whole body illuminated a bright whitish light. Suddenly the serpentine Pokémon flashed forward, sideways, backwards and so on, his speed increasing by the second around the Thorn Pokémon.

Roselia whipped her head side-to-side, trying her utmost hardest to follow the tremendous speeds of the Dragon Pokémon, but failing horribly with her paralysis state and almost confused herself.

Cynthia's eyes widened, knowing that if she didn't act soon, Roselia wouldn't even be able to go through with an attack, not to mention hit the speedy Dratini. She racked her brain for something, and soon an idea lit up. "Roselia, use GrassWhistle once you can move!"

Sasori almost rolled his eyes, but forced his countenance into questioning stoicism. Really, was Cynthia in her right of mind? GrassWhistle had very low accuracy, so the probability of the green physical notes hitting his extremely fast and agile Dratini was low, very low. However, if she did somehow hit Dratini, then Sasori knew he'd be in a fix. Sleep-induced Pokémon were never good to keep battling with, but Sasori wanted to beat this girl with his weakest Pokémon.

That would show her.

No, he will show her. Cynthia didn't have a chance in the Distortion World to actually land the sleep spell.

As Roselia faithfully complied as she felt her body stop tingling for a moment – with slight hesitance because of Cynthia's previous incompetence, but quickly hit herself for doubting Cynthia's orders – and opened her mouth to release beautiful melodious green notes into the air to hit Dratini. However, once she did release the large notes, Roselia once again questioned why Cynthia had made her do so, when it was obvious that the notes wouldn't even be able to catch up to Dratini, not to mention hit him.

"Quick Roselia, use Magical Leaf!"

It was instantaneous. Roselia's hand-roses glowed white and released a swarm of mysterious greenish-rainbow hued leaves, and being the never-missing attack it was, directly tailed Dratini for contact. Roselia's eyes widened along with the other two opponents as the luminous leaves speedily and unintentionally scooped up the GrassWhistle notes along its path towards Dratini and hit dead on to the unsuspecting Dragon Pokémon.

The Dragon-type immediately felt the intense wave of drowsiness crash onto him despite the Magical Leaf's recent painful damage as a few green GrassWhistle notes burst onto him. Dratini's eyelids became excruciatingly heavy before they inevitably closed as he fell to his side. Little Z's gradually escaped his nose.

Dratini was fast asleep.

Cynthia breathed out her relief and casted a grin to Roselia. The smile quickly dissipated as she perceived the paralyzing sparks still dancing across the Thorn Pokémon's body. Something prickled Cynthia's mind and suddenly she snapped her fingers.

"Oh yeah!"

Steven almost smiled (again) as he heard Cynthia's bright exclaim, before he quickly halted. He noticed then that he seemed to have been doing that a lot as of late – smile, laugh, even prattle on like it was the easiest thing to do in the world. Usually it wasn't. Well, at least for him. However, Cynthia was somehow capable of dragging that strange side out of him, unintentionally too, unlike the various girls in Hoenn who sent him polite smiles and false flatteries.

Steven fiercely shook his head as if he could physically remove those thoughts and looked back onto the battle field.

"Okay, Roselia, once you can move again, use Aromatherapy!"

Steven was rather surprised. Most beginner trainers didn't typically remember their Pokémon's moves until they were completely used to them. In fact, most trainers couldn't even remember what some of the moves did. It was shocking in itself that Cynthia was able to remember name, move and information of it all after only a glance from her duel-screen electronic, as if she was born to do this.

A saccharine aroma scented the air, bringing Steven from his contemplations.

Roselia's duel roses were glowing bright gold, gently emancipating sparkling green-yellow powder from the flowers into the air above her. When the delicate dust began floating down onto her, glittering in the sunlight beautifully, her body outlined itself in a light green and temperate waves of light green rippled up her body, calming her muscles and restoring movement from paralysis.

Cynthia grinned triumphantly and zealously punched the air. "Alright, now use Petal Dance! We have to knock out Dratini before he wakes up!"

Roselia's roses stopped shining their golden glow and opened up counter-clockwise to unleash a flurry of swirling pink blossoms from the insides straight at Dratini. Each blushing petal swept through the scent, leaving a sweet-smelling trail of stardust.

"Dratini, dodge!" Sasori ordered, his lips thinning at the incoming attack.

However, Dratini did not budge nor voluntarily move anywhere in particular, even as the monsoon of pink petals pelted him. Even as the floral tornado sent him flying into the air. Even as he freefell onto the earthen grass, causing a loud whump sound as his neck snapped to the ground.

Dratini was fast asleep.

Sasori was oddly quiet as he surveyed his Dragon Pokémon with narrowed brows. He was quiet from then on, staring solely at Dratini.

Cynthia took this as a good sign, a sign of her ultimate win of the round. "Keep it up Roselia!"

Roselia complied with an honest smile and discharged another typhoon of dangerously swift sakura blossoms onto the still-sleeping Dratini. But even as the floral whirlwind viscously whipped the Dragon-type into the sky once more, neither Dragon Pokémon nor his trainer moved.

Wait. Did Sasori's lip twitch just then?

Cynthia bit her lower lip. Does this mean Dratini's going to awaken soon? But how could he know… no, that doesn't matter –

Her previous train of thought was shattered as a sudden pink windstorm of blossoms soared towards Dratini, weakening the blue serpentine Pokémon greatly once more. However, there was one problem with this. Roselia had initiated an attack – without her order.

It wasn't that Cynthia minded. In fact, she was quite happy that Roselia could take on independency during the battle. Surely this was good, since she had been drifting off into her thoughts previously, and that wouldn't have been good during battle. One always had to keep up, so she either had to think faster or rely onto instinct. However, Cynthia believed she deserved some sort of explanation. Really, Dratini was asleep! Was there really a problem with thinking during such a time?

Cynthia frowned. "Roselia, why did – !?" Her words were instantly broken off as pink petals whirled past her, only and exactly an inch to her left side. Cynthia's steel-gray eyes widened.

Roselia's once pearl-black eyes seemed to have spiralled into some sort of blank puzzlement and the strange unknowing grin proved it.

"Roselia?" Cynthia's brows knitted together.

The Thorn Pokémon looked up towards the opposite direction of her voice. "Roselia? Lia, Lia?"

And right after, Roselia seemed to have gasped appallingly and quickly freed another flowery Petal Dance from her duel roses into a random direction. This happened several times. Then, during one of the attacks, she actually side-stepped into one of her own attacks, and buffeted herself.

"Roselia! What are you doing? Attack Dratini, not yourself!" Cynthia cried, which appeared to only confuse the Thorn Pokémon even further.

"And I thought you were good since that Magical Leaf-GrassWhistle combination. But now I see it must have been a fluke, nothing more."

Cynthia whirled to the deadpanned voice and wasn't surprised to meet cold, unfeeling blue eyes. She exhaled heatedly. "What did you do?"

The blonde could have sworn she saw the flickering smirk, but perhaps it was her wild imagination. "Really, you are such a beginner. Don't you know your own Pokémon's moves well enough yet? Even though I myself don't have a Grass-type, even I know the side-effects of Petal Dance."

"What did you say?" Cynthia's words were bitten out. Seriously. This guy… he's so…

Sasori lifted one brow, and Cynthia couldn't tell if it was out of either amusement or question at her snapping attitude.

"Petal Dance may be powerful," Cynthia slowly turned towards Steven who spoke in a most sympathetic tone, "but it comes at a price. If it's used a second time in a row, the move almost possesses the Pokémon to use it a third or fourth time, and straight afterwards, the user of Petal Dance will fall victim to Confusion." At Cynthia's puzzled face, Steven carefully explained. "Confusion is a volatile status, one that makes the Pokémon 'confused' within its surroundings. People, places and things are not the same when under the ailment. But, on the bright side, it should only last about a minute – the longest a Pokémon can be affected by this status is four minutes."

"Yeah, but Roselia's going to have fainted by then."

Cynthia whipped her head back to a certain stoic black-haired, blue-eyed boy.

Sasori rolled his long neck, stretching the muscles while rubbing it gently. "Actually never-mind," he flicked his startling blue eyes from Cynthia's steel grays, "Roselia's probably going to faint… during this very minute."

Cynthia furrowed her brows and followed his line of sight. She instantly bit her lip.

Dratini's eyelids squeezed once, crinkling the edges of his eyes, before they fluttered and immediately snapped open. Well, at least one did. The other was still slightly swollen from the previous Petal Dance attacks from – Roselia!

Cynthia quickly skimmed the battleground to find Roselia still blankly grinning at nothing in particular and still on her confused rampage of attacking everywhere and everything. Countless sakura-like rose petals littered the grassy field perhaps two or three metres out from Roselia – a fully coloured circle of pure pink with the occasional strand of grass green.

Yeah. Cynthia still didn't like pink.

"…atini, finish Roselia with Dragon Tail."

Cynthia snapped out of her thoughts instantly as she caught the simple order, but it seemed the Dragon Pokémon was already a step ahead of her. Despite his rather injured physique, the numerous amounts of Agility moves used by Dratini beforehand were still ingrained in his muscles and subsequently, he was able to slide off towards Roselia merely a breath after his trainer intoned his quick command. As the Dragon-type slithered speedily towards Roselia, his tail beginning to glow a bright azure-blue, Cynthia believed she had lost all hope. But then she noticed something: Roselia had stopped releasing Petal Dances and the Thorn Pokémon seemed to have begun blinking – blinking coherently, not blankly.

Roselia snapped out of confusion.

Cynthia cheeringly smiled, her mouth wide opened, "Yes! Roselia, hurry and use Extrasensory! Dratini's still far enough away! "

Roselia shook her head from her capricious status and quickly began undertaking Cynthia's orders. Dratini glided in closer at an alarming speed, his tail now a stunning aquamarine blue and his eyes narrowing in determination to defeat her. Roselia's pearl-black eyes blazed up into a sunshine gold light and she repositioned her duel-roses to her front, opens the blue and red petals counter-clockwise. Dratini speeded himself and only absently noticed his glowing tail leaving a small trailing ditch in the grass behind him. Roselia bit her inner cheek as she began to release a multicolored circular beam with white crescents around it at the opponent.

"Dratini, Arrow Formation, tail first."

Cynthia blinked confusedly at him. Arrow Formation? "What do you mean by that?"

Sasori cut his brilliant blue-eyes at her, his face returned to its impassive state. He said nothing, but he lightly inclined his chin towards the battle. Cynthia casted her steel grays back, and widened them dramatically.

Dratini had followed Sasori's command and had curled up before springing into the center of the beam, in the very middle, glowing bright-blue tail first. Somehow he had gained enough velocity to leap in arrow straight through the Extrasensory beam, like a deadly harpoon. Arrow Formation! Cynthia realized.

"Roselia watch –" But it was too late.

Roselia's glowing-gold eyes widened a second after she saw Dratini in her rainbow-coloured attack, and before she was able to dodge, it was only a second later Dratini was onto her. The bluish glow from his tail illuminated her shocked expression milliseconds before the tail speared into her face, the impact so strong because of the speed Dratini had gained from Agility and his Arrow Formation.

Cynthia gaped.

Dratini had soared through the fifteen foot beam in merely two seconds, only propelled by his own spring and was able to heavily damage Roselia, who was still flying backwards in the air.

"Rose-eee-li –" The Thorn Pokémon was cut off as she landed onto the grassland, stomach first, before her plant-like limbs snapped into the earth with her.

"Roselia," the duel-type Grass/Poison Pokémon groaned, before Cynthia noticed the swirls in her eyes. The blonde lowered her brows in worry and quickly ran over to her, finding it quite hard to run in her heels on grass and… tripped.

Lucky for her, she quickly landed in a sitting-knee position, so it kind of looked on purpose. Kind of.

"Are you alright Roselia?" Cynthia scooped up the small Thorn Pokémon in her arms, her worry overriding her current embarrassment.

"Rose," Roselia squinted one pearl-black eye back from her fainted state and smiled blushingly, before she winced in pain.

"Roselia is unable to battle. Pokémon trainer Sasori wins the first round!"

Cynthia spun to Steven with a deadly glare.

Steven smiled sheepishly, lowering his neck, "What? I've always wanted to see what it was like to be a ref. Hey, you've got to admit, I sounded pretty professional there."

Cynthia sent him a palpable scowl.

"Gib, Gible Gib?"

Cynthia casted her steely gray-eyes to her side, only now noticing the slight tugging of her dress pants, and her frown washed off as Gible craned a smile up at her.

Cynthia returned the inquisitive beam. "Alright. Let's show him what you're made of Gible!"

Author's Notes

(16/06/12): Okay, that's it. After I found out that the reason why the Cynthia and Steven pairing is called Lolishotashipping… I have decided to make up a new title. I call it Blacksteelshipping – don't like it, don't care. But I am completely opposed to calling them Lolishota. Look it up on Google if you want, maybe you'll agree with me.

(PS): Some of you reviewers told me that Cynthia's wardrobe made no sense – since she's "wearing it in the game," so why does it still seem brand new? Well, if you guys read it carefully, Cynthia actually isn't wearing what she wears in the game/anime/manga. Her cape-like sweater is not made of leather or fur-trimmed – plus it's not actually that cape like that it's at her ankles (just her thighs or waist or something) or else I would have mentioned that. Plus, her heels don't have any yellow embellishments, and are old, hand-me downs from Lucas's mother. (Maybe I didn't imply it that well…) The only thing that is relatively close to her original garb is her tank top – though her in game one is black, not white like in my story. However, her black dress pants are the same – but all black dress-pants are the same… – and her hair baubles are. Everything else is different.

(PPS): Sorry for the late update. This chapter took a while since it's ~9,600 words. So basically, if the chapter's long, the update will be longer. However, if I make the next chapter short (4,000 to 6,000) then the next one will be posted up in a week's time – hopefully.

Oh yeah, could someone give me pointers on how to write battle scenes? This is my first time. Ever.