Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon or anything that is under their jurisdiction. I own the Chillar family though!

Chapter 1-

"Tristan, this is the third time I've called you- get down here for breakfast! It's almost 10:00! The pancakes are getting cold!" a loud female voice shouted.

"All right, I'm coming! Jeez, calm down." a male voice shouted back.

Tristan Chillar's day started off being called down to a breakfast he didn't feel like seeing this early. He is a decent looking boy (so he's been told) just past his sixteenth birthday. He is a bit on the shorter side (five-seven) with wavy, medium length brown hair and steel-blue eyes.

Tristan is the son of Sophie Chillar. She happens to be the Azure town gym leader in the great region of Hoenn. Her specialty is ice-type pokemon. She is about 43 years old now, but has a young face with long blonde hair and deep blue eyes. In addition to his mom, Tristan lives with his father and two younger brothers. His father builds and sells boats, a business his father had started right on the shores of the town way back when. His brothers are former Pokémon trainers themselves whose journeys did not work out, and now just worked in the gym and boat shop and went to school.

"Well, look what has arisen! How are you today?" she asked.

"Good." Tristan grunted.

"Great! Are you going to be eating?"

"I'll eat later."

Over intercom "Sophie? You have a challenger here."

"All right Jen, I'll be right there. Tell them to get three pokemon ready. (shuts off intercom) Well, time to start the day! Put this stuff in the fridge for later."

"OK, good luck mom."

"Thanks sweetie"

"Don't call me that- I'm sixteen!" he called out as she left.

Such was life we you lived in a gym. Challengers came on their own schedule so adjustments had to be made in whatever you were doing to accommodate them. Though Sophie did the best she could to spend as much time with her husband and three sons as possible, being a gym leader had certain responsibilities that just could not be ignored. Tristan rather liked his life, though he wouldn't complain if he got to go out and travel again.

Azure Town is a small town, slightly bigger than Pallet Town, but has started getting bigger as of late as people moved out of the big cities. It is not common for trainers to stop at the gym- one or two a day come to challenge. It is located on the coast some miles south of Petalburg City. When trainers go through the Hoenn region, they generally stop at the same eight major cities like Rustboro and Lavaridge and collect the same eight badges. However, there are several other gyms in smaller towns that trainers could go to instead, and therefore miss out on the chance for a badge as well as useful experience. Most trainers pass right by Azure in their rush to get to Petalburg, so they miss the chance at earning a Tundra badge. Of course, Sophie is a tough gym leader, and earning that badge is still a challenge.

After his mom went out the door, Tristan sat and planned out what he should do with the day.

"I guess I should get in some training. Who should it be today? I haven't had Sableye out in a while. Flygon would be good too. I can have it battle Macargo. I'll have Corsola go against Sableye."

Tristan was allowed to start his journey later than most- at the age of 12. He started out with a Staryu that he had caught when he was 11. He wanted to be a trainer of ice and water types like his mother. Over the course of his journey though, he discovered he liked a different kind of pokemon. He became fascinated by pokemon that have two types. When his Staryu evolved into Starmie, it became a water/psychic type. When he saw how powerful it was, along with the strong resistances of the steel/electric Magneton that he had caught, he started catching and training only pokemon with two types. He found that dual-type pokemon have different strengths and weaknesses than single element pokemon, which he would use to his advantage time and again to win many battles.

Tristan spent the majority of the rest of the day training. He liked to alternate which pokemon he trained so that he kept his skills sharp. He had to be intimately familiar with the differing strengths and weaknesses of his pokemon since they are different than the single element counterparts. He also had many different pokemon, so that meant remembering many different move sets.

Three hours later, Tristan was getting hungry, and he saw that his pokemon were starting to get pretty tired. He decided it was time to end this training session.

"Good job today guys. We're done for now. Return." He called and returned his pokeballs to his belt.

When made his way back to his house, he found his mom, dad, and two brothers sitting around the table in the middle of an apparently serious discussion.

"What's up you guys?" Tristan asked.

"I've got to attend a conference tomorrow up in Ever Grande City with the League. It's supposed to last two days. I don't know what to do about the gym though. I don't want to close it for that whole time, but you're the only person in this family other than me that is a trainer. We were discussing whether or not we should have you fill in as a substitute gym leader." his mom explained.

"Wow, really? I can do that!" Tristan exclaimed.

"You think you can handle it? It is a lot of work you know. It is more than the battles- there is paperwork and stuff, too…" she said

"Sure, it's no problem. After all, I will be taking over this gym some day right?" he asked

"Well of course you will, but not until you are older. So then it's settled. For the next few days, consider yourself the substitute Azure Town gym leader!"

"Cool!"

Tristan grabbed a sandwich and went up to his room. He let out Starmie and told him the good news.

"I'm going to be a gym leader, Starmie! This is awesome! I can't wait to start. I get to battle new people, act all tough and cool, and then give out badges if they beat me. Which of course they won't, right buddy?

Huuuuuuh! agreed Starmie

(A/N- Starmie's call is difficult to put into a word if you have seen the anime. That's my best shot at it.)

"Yep. And you are going to be my main pokemon. I better watch out or people will compare me to that Misty girl out in Kanto. Remember getting her Cascade badge? It was easy! Not like us. We are going to make sure no one gets the Tundra badge under our watch!"

Tristan spent the rest of the day excitedly thinking about his chance to be a gym leader, if only for a couple days. It was going to be so awesome. He would get to whoop some young trainers thinking that they could actually beat him. He would be the defender of the Tundra badge. The only way to get the badge would be through his arsenal of pokemon. Who would he use? There were so many choices. He thought about it all through dinner, not listening to what his mom was saying. He spent the whole night assembling his perfect team that could withstand any challenger's type. He was putting more thought into this than when he competed at the Indigo Plateau! When he went to bed that night he was confident that he had an unbeatable lineup ready to go.

The next day, Tristan got up earlier than ever before- 8:00! He got dressed in his favorite clothes- black long sleeve shirt and a red t-shirt with black stripes down the side over it, jeans, and black sneakers. He also put on his old red and black training gloves. He then went downstairs to see his mom off and get the last minute instructions she had.

"All right Tristan, listen up. Jen is going to help you with the paper work since there are several League forms you have to fill out after each battle. The badges are over on the counter, and the experience pills are there too. You are familiar with the gym rules- no changing them! And remember, this is an ice gym so use ice types. I've left for you Glalie, Dewgong…."

"Wait WHAT? I have to use ice types only? But I am a dual-type trainer. That's not fair."

"I told you this last night at dinner! You never pay attention! If you had just followed in my footsteps and become an ice-type trainer this would not be a problem." she muttered. "No questions mister. Trainers come here expecting to battle ice types and that is exactly what is going to happen. I can shut the gym down instead if that is what you would prefer."

"No! I-I'll use ice types, mom. I promise."

"Good. Now have fun and try not to lose too many times! Bye-bye!"

"Mom! I'm a good trainer- no one can beat me! Bye."

With that his mom walked out the door and drove away to the airport to catch her plane. In the meantime, Tristan was stewing with unhappy thoughts.

Great, now I'm stuck using one stupid type. What rotten luck. I might as well just give the badges away. "Try not to lose too many times!" For Mew's sake, I've only gone on how many journeys now? And she knows exactly how well I did too. I can't believe her- "if only you were an ice-type trainer…" Will she ever let up about that? Sorry to be the big disappointment mom. She can't go more than three days without complaining about it.

Wait… she never said I couldn't use my dual- types, just it had to be ice types. In your face mom! Well, trainers, get ready for a lot more than just ice! Let's see, which ones can I use…

Tristan had only gotten about an hour to think when…

intercom "Tristan? Your first challenger is here!"

Oh boy…