It could not be denied that Erika was ready to attack, her Vileplume heading straight for me at the south end of the white-lined barrier of the field, almost like she was intent on allowing her Pokémon to end me where I stood, like a murderer intending to end my existence.

Her narrowed eyebrows fixated on me, telling a story that she was serious and intended to take me off guard and unprepared.

"I don't know what got you so fired up, but Luna, come on out!" I shouted with a swift flick of my ball, and out appeared the red-colored three-tailed fox that was genuinely prepared to fight her this time around.

"You have the right Pokémon to face me, but get ready; Vileplume will come after her with full force, Petal Dance!"

By the time she arrived at the halfway point at the end of the field, she had let out a barrage of leaflets from the top of her plumage at close range. Scattering them in many diverse points of impact, they cut across the poor little Vulpix's soft coat, and each time the leaflets would release, they would hit in succession for several turns.

Hang in there, Luna

This fight was already making me nervous. Her Pokémon had already done quite a bit of damage to her coat, and she was already halfway low on energy. If she could throw an attack in time to lower her speed, she would prove rather difficult to strike fast.

I didn't know all of Luna's attacks since I barely got her on Route Seven, so I immediately went to my pocket and pulled out her PokéDex entry from the device. It provided four listings of attacks on the digital display that I could use for the power ball to count in my favor.

Roar, Quick Attack, Confuse Ray, and Ember...

Ember?...

As I sifted through the Dex further, I read on the digital encyclopedias displayed further info about the attack using the yellow down button key.

So this thing can provide all the info I'll need as a trainer to complement my strategy?... Professor... What other unique information do you have on this device?

I didn't know it then, but the PokéDex proved more valuable the more I read on.

Ember is a move that deals damage and has a ten percent chance of burning the target. There are better strategies than a ten percent to use, but a Confuse Ray...

"Pardon my intrusion, Leaf, but what is that device in your hand?" Inquired Erika with a confused look on her face.

"This?" I pointed toward her rather perturbed observance, clipping the device's fold within my pocket.

"It's called a PokéDex; Professor Oak gave it to me."

"A PokéDex—you mean! You're a Dex holder like Red and Blue?"

I nodded to her answer as briefly as my head could shake and, without further utterance, carefully engaged Luna to the North end of the field with pointed fervor toward her foe.

"Confuse Ray, Luna! Target the Vileplume in front!"

The Princess gasped at my sudden selection and uttered out loud in astonishment.

"A move with one hundred percent accuracy!?"

"You may be confused after each turn; the PokéDex has its share of benefits. My own and Red and Blue will help us become the greatest Pokémon Trainers the world has ever known. My goal Erika is to help unite the world of Pokémon, and the Professor's device will help me with this task!"

An intense beam of light pillared open toward the Grass-Type and struck across the Vileplume. Wandering around with little polar direction to go and was uncertain of her administration of her surroundings.

"Snap out of it, Vileplume. Use your Poison Powder move!"

After the attempt to try and release the powdery substance between her round red four cloves above her head, she struggled to maintain the release above a certain height. Which only limited the powder's range to land upon her. She inflicted damage on herself more than it did her opponent.

"I am a student in flower arranging, but you! You tried to inflict damage on me early on to prevent my Petal Dance... Tell me, why did the Professor pick you of all people to hold onto that PokéDex?"

"Same reason I came here to improve my training—

"Talk is cheap; a student only learns from her opponents Pokémon and not from a student of technology alone."

"It's not a novelty, Erika. It's a breakthrough in the field of science. This man provided the key to our victory, to all of us—

"Ember!" I declared with vehement rage.

Who was she to declare that I was only a student of technology?

A circular blaze of fiery darts blasted toward the flower Pokémon's cloves and set them ablaze in a somewhat super-effective strike that knocked her Pokémon's energy out of commission.

Pokémon don't advance without innate knowledge of the other. To me, Erika's circular logic was insulting. If she's a student of flower arranging, then I was a student of technology. Since I was little, I've thrived in that environment and learned to tinker with gadgets. If anything, the PokéDex was a tool to help unite our progress of understanding each other as equal partners.

My success in burning her Pokémon while keeping her in a confused state would prevent further attacks from being afflicted toward Luna, and the PokéDex had proven that I had the upper hand when I was limited in my knowledge of Fire-Type move-sets.

She reluctantly retreated that Pokémon back into her red and white capsule and admired her most prized partner in the field of flower arrangement with care.

"You did wonderfully, Vileplume; please rest for the moment."

She then sifted for her next throw and tossed another Pokémon out on the field, one I was keenly familiar with and one that had resurfaced back bad memories of a Pokémon I had stolen.

Victreebel...

But it wasn't just the Pokémon that she had that was different. This one had eyes glazed of anger and hatred toward me, almost as if this Pokémon remembered the horrors it had endured.

"Do you remember him, Leaf?..."

I couldn't believe who was before me, the victim of my own hands, staring me down with Ill will toward me. All while I was trying to put together the pieces.

"He's the one you stole while you were a member of an organization that used such technology to manipulate him. Tell me again why a novelty of science is so important for a Pokémon's growth?"

"I—I......" I couldn't muster what I wanted to say, and I certainly never expected that this Victreebel in the hands of Erika would be the one rehabilitated by her steady, healing hands.

I felt defeated and humiliated by guilt around my friends and those Gym Trainers around me after she shared this information. It got to the point that many of them turned their back on me and were rather angry along with her. I couldn't even move nor utter a word of explanation; it was as if I was proven criminal in a court of law, and all I was, was the crime.

"The MK device caused so much damage to the internal organs of this Pokémon that I had to try and heal his wounds. You've allowed an organization to harm Pokémon, and you were the one that was the cause of his suffering."

"Acid!" She declared with powerful condemnation as the Pokémon that I had caused harm to had swelled toxic liquid from underneath its flytrap mouth. He completely doused Luna with a powerfully critical Poison-Type move.

After sullenly retreating my Pokémon, I bowed my head in utter defeat. I felt ashamed of the party in question, and my heart fluttered and sank with deep sadness and anxiousness.

"I—I am sorry... I'm—

"A trainer like yourself doesn't deserve the honor of the Rainbow badge..."

"Especially to one who is a student of technology."

Once she had said those words, I felt nothing but retreat and cowardice. I ran away from my problem and dashed toward the Pokémon center as quickly and efficiently as possible. At the same time, both my friends looked on with worried faces.

"Wait, Leaf! Where are you going?" Yelped Yellow as he ran after me, and then Red tipped his hat down, and his lack of utterance was about the same as mine, and I felt at that moment. Maybe he was also disappointed in me.

"............"

You're right, Erika; I am a student of technology, after all.