Please REVIEW. Thanks to the 14 viewers so far. I really do appreciate it, and there were a couple of gaffs with the beginning of the work, that I missed because I was too excited to release it. If Colress thinks he could defeat Mei with a Magne"mite"...he clearly should have just given her the Master Ball from the start. I also will stick with her Japanese name for this work.

Reversal Mountain, Northeastern Unova.

"Interesting, I never expected a scientist to scale these heights. The lab coat looks great on you though."

Colress turned to face the source of the voice. A woman about his age, long blonde hair, in all black dress was scaling the heights with a Garchomp. The fearsome dragon-type reminded him that he needed to ditch his original team and the find Pokemon that were more adaptable to rugged terrain. The amused expression on the woman's face was clearly evident, but lacking judgment. She was different than the younger trainers he would have pegged to have adventured up the slopes. Different, but an icon nonetheless.

"How interesting. Your choice of mountain climbing methods is far superior to mine. May I ask who died?"

The trainer laughed in a short, professional manner. At the release of her heel at the Garchomp's back, the dragon kept pace with Colress, who was climbing up using only his own strength. It had been days since he had flown into Lentimas Town, his food supply was thinning, and the rocks grew more and more challenging to traverse. Pretty soon, he would have had to blow his cover and call in the Frigate, likely frightening the adobe village miles below. It may have been a blessing for Cynthia to have shown up.

"So, is this some part of a diet-and-exercise thing you have going on there, Professor?"

"No, If you want to find the Skarmory, you have to climb as high as they would. I don't remember the sherpa mentioning anything about a poor gentleman in distress up here."

"Haha, well, I did run into you slaving away by your lonesome." she retorted, fully invested in continuing the banter.

She had got him with that one. At least, for the meantime.

"I don't need a ride, but feel free to recall your Pokemon and join me."

"Fine, Good job, girl. Rest up" she replied curtly, leaping gracefully onto the ledge above the toiling researcher's, returning her ally to it's vestibule.

"I'm impressed, most guys my age would have kept up the smug trash-talk for as long as you have. Is something wrong?"

"Well, I am growing quite tired. Thanks for your concern. As for your comment, I have better things to do than pursue those who can be satisfied by others who have the time to lust over region darlings such as yourself." Colress snipped. All he cared about now as reaching a place where he could sit down and drink from his flask (of water).

"Yeah, those were the days, but every time I get brought up now, people talk about Dawn. She took must of my fan base." Cynthia muttered.

"That's...interesting."

"You think so?"

"Absolutely not. Sorry to disappoint." Colress smirked, adding with his sucker-punch dialogue a burst of intensity from his limbs, and now the pair were climbing neck and neck with each other. Cynthia smirked in return.

One-to-one.

"You gonna give me a name with that lip, or do you like it when I call you Professor?" she asked, focusing on the climbing. He could make out that she was beginning to lose her strength quickly, indicating that her Garchomp probably did most of the work. Still, he had to admit that she was a fighter.

He liked that.

"My name is Colress..."

"-like your complexion?"

"As if I haven't heard that one before. You might want to try again."

"Mine's Cynthia, but you already tipped your hand that you knew that.."

All Colress did was grunt in agreement.

The pair scoured the crags for what seemed like hours. Colress maintained his stamina in case his black-clad counterpart felt weary and needed a hand. However, just when it seemed that the forehead of her's was plastered in perspiration, she shook off her weaknesses and matched his determination. Much of the climb since the proper introductions had been wordless, and aside from the occasional heavy breath, lacking of noise in general. Finally, a pair of goals had been met.

The first, was the leveling out of the slope. He gave Cynthia the right of way in allowing her to reach it first. He wasn't about to let on that he did so in order to receive her hand in pulling him up as well, and masked the action poorly as trying to be a gentleman. She had read him like a book, to be quite honest.

The second was that there was a nest of the metallic bird Pokemon of the researcher's desires at that particular spot. The two wasted no time in preparing for battle. However, there were so many fowl to choose from, and Colress didn't know if any of them were willing to accompany him without a fight. He analyzed the brood of avians to draw this conclusion, he was not going to earn a fair fight by charging their home.

"Well, what do you see, Doc?"

"With all due respect, my name is not Doc, nor is it Professor. I hold no title. Only a vision."

"Fine, what is it Colress? I'll bite."

"Right now, it's to catch Skarmory."

"I can see that...Well, I heard from the grapevine that Skarmory are territorial birds."

"I already knew that." The professor dismissed, only to receive another burn from Cynthia.

"Just because you wear a labcoat, you feel entitled to dub yourself a genius. Yet, you have no idea to obtain your immediate goal."

Colress had remembered Cheren saying something like that a while back, then remembered that Cheren had the same looming vision that he was pursuing according to Mei. He figured that if he was going to reminded of that information often, he needed to pay the gym leader a visit and learn from him some.

Of course, he decided against it. The guy still needed to print his dissertation of his experience before Colress would be caught dead using them in his own forays of research.

"I don't suppose you know how to adequately engage a contest with one of the Pokemon here, do you?"

"Tell me what you seek, and you just might receive it." The former Sinnoh champion remarked. She seemed bored, revealing that once again, he had been reflecting to himself for extended amounts of time again.

He didn't know where to begin, but luckily, Cynthia was patient.