Ira rolled over off her pillow and into the dewy grass underneath. It was almost literally a cold splash of water to the face, so it woke her up without problems. She shivered and opened her eyes.

"Good, you're up," said Elron, stretching out. "Get your stuff packed back up and let's go."

"Already?!" She pulled a poketch out of her bag and tapped it on. "It's only seven in the morning!"

"Welcome to being a trainer," he said with a smirk. "I'm just passing on the tradition."

"Some tradition," she groaned, sluggishly standing up and stuffing things into her bag.

"You'll get used to it. I'm surprised you're not used to this sort of schedule from working in business."

"We generally don't go hiking as soon as we wake up in the business world."

Elron smiled. "Maybe you should change that then."

As soon as Ira rolled up her sleeping bag and hastily packed everything else into her bag to the point that it looked like it would explode, they headed out. It was a few hours before they reached the bustling city of Nimbasa.

Neon lights and the smell of cotton candy plagued the senses before they even crossed the city limits. Not the entire city was like this, but the tourism industry attacked people soon as they got close enough. Mimes and clowns were just normal civilians here, earning their small wages painstakingly throughout the days.

Elron immediately set his eyes on the gym across the city, as if he had a gym radar built into the back of his head. "Well, time for a gym battle! Are you ready?!"

She looked at him wide-eyed. "I haven't even had my first battle yet, let alone my first gym battle! Isn't this supposed to be the fourth gym in a trainer's path upwards?"

"Oh shoot." He shook his head at himself with his hand on his face. "I can't believe I forgot about that. We'll have to go all the way back to Striaton City to take care of that first!"

"A-all the way back?!" She panicked. "But it was tough enough walking here! That's several times the distance! And we'll have to backtrack!"

He laughed nervously. "Oops. Guess I'll have to let you fly sooner than I planned..."

That made it all better. "What are we waiting for?! Let's go!"

"Not yet!" He looked back across the city. "There is a gym that's calling my name!"

-----

The loud pop music permeated the walls of the gym, letting the steady bass drum beats pulse through the passerby.

Elron was gleaming. "Ready to go in?"

"Why are you asking me? I'm not the one battling."

"I don't know!" He, clearly giddy from the upcoming chance to show off, walked forward and the doors slid open.

There was a clerk at a lectern who was writing on some notecards. He was a middle-aged man by the looks of him, and he stood out amongst the scores of teenage girls behind him in the crowd and on the stage. He saw the two and didn't greet them all too kindly. "What do you want?!"

"I wish to challenge the gym leader, Elesa," Elron responded as politely as possible.

"Aren't you a bit old to be doing this?" he asked, not impressed. "I can't have any of you virgin fanboys getting up close and personal with Elesa. I'm sorry, just a security precaution."

Elron exposed the inside of his cloak, displaying rows of badges from several different regions. He smiled condescendingly.

The clerk's jaw dropped. "Well... Alright then. What's your name?"

"Elron."

"Okay Elron, after this performance you've got your battle. You can sit in the audience until then."

Elron turned to Ira. "Let's go sit down."

I knew he had a lot of badges, but seeing them in person is a totally different deal! She nodded, and the two of them found seats.

The pop music was far louder here than before, and the room was mostly black except for the yellow, blue, and pink lights that flashed over the stage and catwalk. There were several girls playing in a band on stage, the singer being the gym leader, Elesa.

She had abnormally long black hair that was twisted into sticks like cartoon lightning bolts, and what appeared to be light pink and blue striped antenna on the side or her head, and she had matching shoes. Her yellow jacket was poofier than an Altaria's feathers, and her blue and yellow swimsuit looked like it was straight off of a Quick Ball's design, yet somehow her outfit was considered fashionable.

At last she finished her song, and Elron was called to the stage. Ira watched quietly as he stood up and walked over to the stairs and down the catwalk, spotlight focusing on him.

The other band members scattered with their instruments behind curtains, and the gym leader had her pokeballs wheeled over to her on a cart by an assistant.

"I hear you have a lot of badges, so I presume that I don't need to go easily on you?" she taunted.

"Yes, go all out please. It wouldn't be fun otherwise." He pulled a pokeball off of his belt and tossed it up in the air, catching it stylishly as it came down. "I'm even giving myself a huge handicap, so you better not disappoint me!"

She struck a pose for her adoring fans. "Don't let your mouth get too big! Come on out Emolga!" She picked one of the pokeballs off to cart and tossed it out in front of her.

A white bodied, brown eared flying squirrel came out, and soared around in the air majestically when it did. The crowd squealed from its mere cute factor alone.

"I figured you'd go with that! Gyarados, come on out!" He pressed the button on the pokeball in his hands and a giant blue serpent came out and balanced tediously on the ground.

The crowd burst into laughter, as did Elesa.

"You're kidding right?! You can switch out your pokemon if you want, just this once!"

What are you thinking Elron?! Ira swayed nervously in her seat.

Elron shrugged. "I'll just attack first then. Sandstorm!"

The crowd went silent. Everyone in the building cringed at his choice. There was no sand to kick up in this building.

Then, some mischievous DJ behind the scenes started blasting a staple dance party song over the loudspeakers. Its heavy electronic beats and lack of voices set the pace for the battle to come.

Elron grinned wildly. "There we go! You've got a legit DJ here, I'm impressed! Then again, I guess everyone in that profession knows Darude." His face suddenly got serious. "Well, are you going to attack?"

His overwhelming confidence struck an odd chord with the gym leader. It was almost like Elron was the one with the Intimidation ability and not his pokemon. She could tell that this wasn't going to be a normal battle. "Thunderbolt."

The small electric squirrel built up nearly all the electricity it could and released it in a bolt at the opposing Gyarados.

The electricity landed head-on, team Elron not even trying to dodge it. The crowd gasped as they waited for the damage to become apparent.

"How are you feeling Gyarados?"

His pokemon swung around its tail menacingly to show that it had all the energy it needed. The room once again went silent minus for the music drilling into their heads.

The model idol of a gym leader glistened in the stagelight, getting nervous.

"Thought so. Let's show them what we can do. Twister!"

Elesa's mind raced as the serpent's mouth gaped open and a cloudy grey wind swirled around in its mouth. Everything was happening in slow motion. If it continued as it was...

"Stop!!!" she shouted to everyone's surprise.

Gyarados canceled his attack.

"Fine! I'll just give you the gym badge, okay?! We can't fight at that level with an audience in this small building!" She knew that if that attack was unleashed here then not only would she lose, but it could turn out dangerous. Emolga could tell that it had dodged a bullet, and it flew behind her trainer and latched onto her back.

Elron's pokemon turned around and looked at him.

"Did you not hold back? I thought I told you to hold back indoors."

The pokemon hung its head, ashamed.

"Way to scare everyone! Get back in your pokeball!" Elron retrieved his pokemon and tucked its ball away. He walked across to the stage and held out his hand.

The gym leader's eye twitched and she unwillingly dropped a badge into his hand. I can only image what could have happened if he went all out.

"Come on, Ira!" he called out to the crowd, walking away.

Ira's face turned bright red as she stood up and chased him out of the building, trying to avoid all the prying eyes.

They passed the clerk, who was in a little bit of shock, and exited the premises, leaving the repetitive music looping in the arena behind them.

"You'd think they'd just all hand me the badges first thing at this point," joked Elron. "I'm surprised more gym leaders don't know about me yet."

Ira sighed. "I'm not sure that's such a good thing, Elron." She thought back to the instant that Gyarados was charging its attack and Elesa's composure changed. I know he has been through a lot, but what kind of things has he been through to get that terrifyingly strong?!

-----

"Can we go to the amusement park?" asked Ira, cleaning up her face from the spaghetti sauce. She had a very ladylike composure when eating, even despite the fact that she had a bad habit of dropping food off of her utensils and otherwise causing legions of micro-messes. Perhaps it was the way that she cleaned up the problems with a quick and graceful swipe of napkin that created this effect.

"I've got a better idea," Elron replied, tossing his wadded up napkin on the plate. He quickly noticed that in comparison to Ira he was being rude, so made up for it by carrying both of their trash away.

"And what's that?"

"Let's fly to Striaton! I mean, you'd like that better right?"

She had never been to an amusement park, but she had never been flying either. She judged that they would pass through Nimbasa eventually somewhere down the line anyways, so the decision seemed obvious. Plus the idea of holding onto the back of Elron as they flew didn't seem like too bad either. "Yeah!"

"Alright then, let's go!" He whipped out two separate capsules and let out their inhabitants. Out came two almost identical Salamences. "You can ride Bagel, and I'll ride Baguette."

"Which one's which?!" There went her little daydream.

"Duh! Baguette is the girl!" He hopped onto the backs of one of them, who gave him a strange and dissatisfied look. "Oops!" he said, jumping off the back of it. "Sorry Bagel!" He laughed, not making it apparent if it was intentional or not. He then mounted the other and waited.

She walked over to the other dragon and looked at him. He was too tall to get on easily.

"Just swing your leg over with a little jump in your step; it's not that hard!"

What if she couldn't do it and made a fool of herself? What if she fell over in the process?! She struggled to mentally prepare herself until she saw Elron's smile encouraging her. She took a deep breath, then in one fell swoop jumped and slung her body over the horse-sized winged creature. In a slight stroke of luck she made it on.

"Wow! I didn't expect you to make it on your first try!" He paused. "But you do know that you're far too far back on his back to fly, right?"

Surely enough, she had managed to get on far from the dragon's neck, and in a few swift movements scooted forward awkwardly. Her heart pounded violently as the time of takeoff drew closer and closer. She clasped onto her ride's neck and hoped for the best.

"All set! Into the skies you two!"

In a combined jump and flap of wings, the Salamences gained air and started their ascent. They picked up more and more speed and height until even the top of the amusement parks' ferris wheel was far below them in the distance. Ira's arms felt weak, but despite the trembling of her muscles she grabbed on tighter and tighter, luckily not strangling her host. The world didn't even look real this high up.

Once they stopped rising into the air, it didn't feel so scary anymore. For the next few minutes they felt the wind pressing up against them, trying to make them fail, and the exhilaration of fighting back and winning the fight.

"How is it?!" yelled Elron across the sky.

"What?!" Ira yelled back, the wind not allowing her to hear.

"I said, how--oh, looks like there's Striaton!"

The scaled monsters tilted down and went into their descent.

There was an opposite uncomfortable feeling than last time, and Ira felt scared again. To her, it looked like the land was gunning straight for her. She had seen what she needed to see, and this was difficult to watch, so she closed her eyes.

A few seconds later she felt herself slow to a stop, and felt a thud. She felt something touch her shoulder and she forced her eyes open.

"Are you okay?!" Elron stood with her with a terrified look on his face. "Was that too much for you?!"

Ira let go of the beast and sat up, shaking her head. "I'm fine." Why is he so worried?

"Thank goodness!" He sighed of relief. "You looked like you were scared to death."

"I'm fine, really. Coming back down just scared me a bit."

"Would you fly again?"

"Heck yeah!"

They laughed.

"I figured. Come on, your first gym battle awaits!" He started rushing off towards the town.

Ira chased after him. "Wait up! You're having me do everything too quickly."

He stopped and smiled. "Na, you can handle it."