Gabe took a deep breath and sat down after the long battle he had with the pack of Houndour and their ferocious leader. Jamie remained by his side, nursing her wounds while the other Houndour observed her. It was then that one of the Houndour padded up to her and began barking.

Jamie looked up at the Houndour and gave a calm response to the canine. After a brief exchange, Houndour gave a respectful nod before returning to his pack, barking for them to fall in line. It appeared as though that particular Houndour had become the new leader. Looking back, Houndour glanced up at Gabe with a look that seemed to say "take care of him" before walking off with his pack in tow.

"And so the torch has been passed..." Gabe said to himself with a smile.

"That was AMAZING!" came a startlingly loud feminine voice, causing Gabe to nearly jump out of his skin.

Standing in front of him was a young girl around fourteen years of age, with bright pink hair done up in what appeared to be a single long pigtail with a hoop-like style on the opposing side of her head. She had brown eyes and wore a white school uniform with a red skirt and white stockings.

"Where did you-"

"First the pack of Houndour had you cornered, but you were all, 'naw I got this,' and sent out a blue Psyduck. The pack was all rawr! and Luxio was all growl! and Psyduck was cool too I guess," the girl went on, prompting a confused reaction from Gabe.

"The pack closed in, thinking they had the advantage, but suddenly, SPLASH! ZAP! Luxio and Psyduck repelled the pack in defense of their Trainer!" She added.

"I know, I was just-" Gabe began, only to be cut off by the girl.

"Then, just as it was looking good, SURPRISE! the pack leader sprang into action and pulverized Psyduck with one mighty blow, and Luxio was like 'oh no you didn't!' and thus the smack talk began. And soon the two were locked in mortal combat! Luxio seemed to have the advantage but, spoilers, Houndour was hiding his true power all along! FWOOSH! HOWWLLLL! Houndour evolved into Houndoom!" she continued energetically.

Sweat trickled down the side of Gabe's face as the girl went into a dramatic reenactment of his battle with Houndoom.

"Houndoom and Luxio were both exhausted, and with the remaining energy they had, they fired off two epic attacks that clashed for a power struggle! and even though Houndoom had become stronger, Luxio prevailed and blasted Houndoom away, weakening him enough for her Trainer to capture him! It was incredible!" She squealed.

With a smile and a sigh, she looked up at Gabe and tilted her head to the side.

"I'm Mira, by the way, what's your name?" She beamed.

"It's Gabe... I mean, Barry. My friend's name is Gabe," Gabe replied hastily.

"Barry huh? Nice to meetcha!" She giggled.

Gabe breathed a sigh of relief and wiped his brow.

That's right, Mira was in this cave wasn't she? Strangely enough, she's not speaking in third person. Good, I found that annoying anyway...

"So whatcha doin' in here Barry?" Mira asked with a raised brow.

"Well, I was training. But as you just saw, that pack of Houndour had other ideas," Gabe remarked.

"Cool! I was training too! I'm training so I can challenge the Pokémon League! I've got two badges so far and I'm gunning for my third!" Mira chirped.

Ah... I remember now. Mira has a pretty powerful team from what I recall. The headliner of it being an Alakazam.

"The League huh? That's cool. I happen to be aiming to take on the League myself," Gabe admitted proudly.

"Really!? Awesome! We could be like... rivals!" Mira exclaimed.

"Rivals huh? I like the sound of that," Gabe stated with a smile.

"Hey I know, why don't we have a battle!?" Mira proposed excitedly.

Taken aback by the sudden challenge, Gabe politely declined.

"Two of my team are down at the moment. I'm not exactly sure I wanna-" Gabe paused upon seeing Mira's expression.

Her smile slowly faded. Seeing how disappointed she looked, Gabe let out a sigh and grabbed Aron's ball.

"But... I could use a sparring partner to train up for my next gym battle," he said with a smile.

"You mean it!?" Mira beamed, reaching down to grab her partner's ball.

"Sure do. Show me what you've got Mira," Gabe grinned. "Aron, let's get to work!"

Aron cooed as he emerged from his spherical home. Upon seeing the opposition in front of him, he prepared his defenses for the impending battle.

"Yay! Alright Kadabra, help me out!" Mira commanded, launching the psychic, spoon-wielding feline into the fray.

Inside the Galactic Headquarters in Eterna City, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn were gathered inside the main lobby and were in deep conversation about recent events.

"Our ventures thus far have been successful, wouldn't you agree?" Saturn asked as he looked over his notes on his laptop.

"Indeed they have been. However, it appears as though things didn't exactly go as anticipated in regards to the museum. The Lustrous Orb was nowhere inside the museum. It appears that we must search elsewhere for it," Jupiter replied, crossing her arms with a frown.

"You don't suppose the museum knew we were making a move do you?" Mars propositioned, raising questions in Jupiter's mind.

"How could they? It's not as though we've done anything too significantly noteworthy up until Floaroma Town that is," Jupiter responded. "Besides, who would have that kind of information?"

"I dunno, maybe that guy you met? what was his name again? Barry... yeah, him..." Mars stated in an amused tone.

"Barry? What's blondie got to do with this?" Jupiter blinked.

"Don't know. But he seemed to know about Mega Evolution," Mars informed her and Saturn.

"That would be troublesome if that were true," Saturn interjected. "Not many know of its existence as it is not widely used here, save by a select few, one of whom is to be steered clear of for now," Saturn stated in a serious tone.

"Just out of curiosity, what makes you believe an amateur like him would know about something like this?" Jupiter remarked.

"Because he called it by name before I could explain it. He claimed he only knew the terminology I was using, but I'm not so certain I buy that anymore," Mars muttered.

"Is that so?" Jupiter smirked. "Interesting..." she mused, crossing one leg over the other.

"As intriguing as this sounds, we ought to be preparing for our next mission. So far, Charon is working on using the power generated from what we gathered in Floaroma Town to create our Galactic Bomb. When he'll be done is anyone's guess," Saturn added with a sigh as he leaned back in his seat.

"If Charon's working on it, I'm sure it'll be done in a timely manner. But you can bet he'll try to boast about it if it works," Jupiter inputted.

"Finally, my creation is completed! Maybe now Master Cyrus will notice my genius!" Mars joked.

"Notice me senpai!" Jupiter chimed in, giggling at her own impression.

Saturn simply shook his head and palmed his face.

"You two are too much sometimes you know?" Saturn mumbled.

"Oh lighten up Saturn, we're just having a little fun," Mars retorted.

Saturn rolled his eyes. Meanwhile, Jupiter's mind had gone elsewhere.

So Barry knows about Mega Evolution huh? Maybe he's not as big a fool as I made him out to be...

"Hooray! I won!" Mira exclaimed happily as Gabe returned Aron to his ball.

"Yeah, you sure did a number on us," Gabe admitted with a nervous laugh.

That Kadabra is disgustingly strong...

"That was fun! I wish I could have battled your new Houndoom though," Mira added with a hint of sadness in her tone.

"Maybe next time we meet we can do that," Gabe replied.

"That would be fun!" Mira grinned, bouncing on her heels with excitement.

"Agreed. In any case, I need to get going. I'm on my way to Hearthome City for my next badge, and my team needs some major relaxation time before that," Gabe stated with an exasperated sigh.

"That's understandable. You've been through a lot since you got in here," Mira beamed. "I'm gonna go train some more and get tougher. Hopefully we can meet again!" She said in a cheery tone.

Gabe nodded and smiled back.

"We can battle again if you want. So train hard until then. I'll do the same so that next time... I'll come out on top," Gabe smirked.

"Not if I get tougher! You'll need to really work hard because I won't make it easy," Mira declared, placing her hands on her hips.

"Neither will I," Gabe replied with a grin. "See you then," he waved as he turned to exit.

"Bye Barry! I hope we meet again so we can battle! Don't forget, you promised!" Mira called out as Gabe made his way to the cave entrance.

After a few moments, Gabe released Tropius, hopped on and took to the skies. Mira stood at the exit and watched him as he flew towards Hearthome City, hoping to meet and battle her newfound rival once again.