Wattson walked up to me and handed me his gym badge alongside the TM for Shock Wave. I put the yellow disk into my TM Case and I placed my newly earned badge into my Badge Case.

Wattson congratulated me and I thanked him, returning Nian and putting Ralts on my shoulder.

My uncle walked up to me and shook his head with a big smile on his face. "You really have grown Wally. Don't tell your parents but-you go on that adventure. You're ready."

I started to jump up and down all over again. "Really? Thanks, uncle!"

May walked over to us next. "Wow Wally, I've never seen anything like what you just did. That was really awesome!"

My face turned red from the praise. "Th-thanks May."

We walked out of the gym together and my uncle shook my hand. "Best of luck on your journey Wally. You know you can always come home whenever you need to."

I nodded to him and thanked him again. With that, he turned and left to go to his job.

"You know Wally, you've gotten pretty strong. How about we have a battle before we part ways?" May proposed.

I wasn't pretty exhausted mentally from the battle against Wattson but I supposed a fun fight against May wouldn't be too bad.

Let's do this Wally! Use me! Ralts insisted. I'll show them what for!

"Th-th sounds good. We should probably heal our Pokémon first though." I suggested. We walked to the courtyard.

The courtyard was a nice little patch of grass in the center of Mauvile with a fancy fountain in the center. The Pokémon Center and PokeMart could be found in this little courtyard.

We walked into the red-roofed building and each got out Pokémon healed.

As walked outside, May sent out her Combusken. Combusken was the evolved form of Torchic. She was standing on two legs and was fairly tall. She had long arms with sharp talons on the ends of them. Her body had overall developed far more and he was wildly different from Torchic.

May stretched her arms. "Alright let's just keep it to one Pokémon each."

Ralts teleported off of my shoulder and flexed his non-existent muscles. Oh yeah! It's Ralts time!

May, seemingly not hearing Ralts, chuckled at him. "What a silly Pokémon. Anyway, let the battle begin!"

"Ralts use Confusion!" I said. Ralts sent a blue wave of energy into Combusken. Though the Pokémon didn't look very phased.

"Use Flame Charge!" May's Pokémon was suddenly engulfed in flames and charged at Ralts.

"Ralts use Teleport to dodge!" Duh! Ralts teleported out of the way and behind Combusken.

Combusken turned around and glared at Ralts. Who chose that moment to stick his tongue out at the fighting bird Pokémon. "Combusken keep using Flame Charge until you hit Ralts!"

This time Combusken moved far faster. Ralts barely got out of the way and didn't have time to say anything snarky.

Combusken slammed into him on his third time around and Ralts barely stopped himself from falling over completely.

This was bad. With the speed increase, the battle was mine to lose. "Hang in there Ralts! Use Confusion again!"

Ralts tried his psychic attack again but this time Combusken easily got out of the way. "Use double kick!" May's Pokémon rushed over to Ralts and kicked him twice.

Ralts flew back and slowly dragged himself up. I won't lose! I'm too strong for that!

"Ralts... it's alright. It's ok to lose." I told him. Shut up! You're wrong!

Ralts began frantically teleporting around, trying to hit Combusken. "R-Ralts! Please calm down!" Ralts ignored me and kept up with his frantic attacks. I clutched my wrist as the nerves took over. What do I do?

However, he was doing so little damage that by the time Combusken caught him the Fire and Fighting Type seemed only mildly tired.

Ralts fainted from sheer exhaustion and I returned him to his Pokeball. "Good try buddy... you win again May. No surprise though, your Combusken is really strong!"

May shrugged as she returned her Pokémon. "That Ralts of yours seems pretty determined. Once he evolves he'll be super strong, I can tell."

"P-probably. I have faith in him figuring it out. Anyway, though it was su-super fun to get to see you again." I said.

May nodded. "Definitely. Where are you headed to now?"

I thought about it for a moment. I wasn't really sure myself. "I guess I'll go to Slateport and catch a boat to Lilycove. I really want to see the beaches."

"I've been to Dewford and the beaches are wonderful. Though I'm going up north to Lavaridge Town. I've got another gym to beat."

"Good luck," I said. "I hope we meet again soon."

May nodded. "Mhm. It was good seeing you again Wally. And next time we meet we'll have another battle! Alrighty, I should get going. See ya, Wally!" She waved goodbye and turned to leave.

I went back to the Pokémon Center and had Ralts healed up. Then I started to head down south.

Running into May again was nice. She seemed a lot more toned down from how annoying she was before. I genuinely hoped to see her again at some point.

With my business in Mauvile finished I set out for the route south of it.

The route was best known for the giant cycling road it had. I didn't have a bicycle though so I would be going the long way. I didn't like the idea of being so high up anyway.

I walked along the grassy path under the giant bridge. The water surrounded me on both ends and I was already tired of wild encounters and trainers by the time I was at the halfway point.

Eventually, I reached a crossroads. I recalled my knowledge of the area from the studying I had done last night.

To my right was a strange house known as the Trick House, in front of me was a route that led to a lake. If crossed, the lake would put me close to Petalburg.

To his left was the path that would take him to Slateport City. I set down on the path and was making good progress when I came upon a trainer trying to pick up a bunch of items he'd dropped.

The boy seemed to be maybe 12 or 12 and had a white cap on over his brown hair. He was wearing an orange long-sleeved shirt and black cargo pants, as well as a green backpack, slung over his back.

The boy looked up at me with brown eyes and his expression displayed a mix of shock, fear, and franticness that I did not enjoy.

The boy stood up and was a bit taller than me. His pale white skin shone in the sunlight and the bags under his made him look exhausted. He had some sort of splint on his left ankle and didn't put any pressure on it.

The couple of potions and Pokeballs he'd been trying to pick up were scattered on the ground as he fixed his posture and tried to present himself.

He seemed oddly... familiar. Though his entire demeanor put me on edge. Something about him made me nervous.

"Hello, there trainer! Don't mind me, I just dropped all my stuff. So I'll have to say no to a battle." The boy spoke with a charismatic and inviting tone.

I gave him a cautious wave. "I d-didn't want to battle anyway. But d-do you need some h-help?"

The boy shrugged. "I guess I could use a hand." The two of us quickly gathered the boy's stuff up and he stuffed it all back into his bag.

"Thanks for your help. What's your name?" The boy asked.

"Wally." I practically whispered.

The boy stuck out his hand. "Pleased to meet you, Wally! I'm Brandon, Brandon Citrus." Wally shook his hand.

The name Brandon sounded familiar. "Hey, B-Brandon. What t-town do you c-c-come from?" I asked him.

Brandon thought about it for a moment. "Odale Town, why do ya ask?"

So that was where I recognized him from! "Well I live in P-Petalburg and I was pretty s-sure I'd seen somebody who looked like you in O-Odale Town."

Brandon nodded. "Oh, that makes sense. Well, it's been nice to meet you, Wally. Thanks again for your help. Oh hey, where are you off to?"

"S-Slateport," I said in my loudest talking voice, I began to shuffle from foot to foot and rub my wrist again.

Brandon grinned. "Well, Wally I happen to be going the same way! What do you say we head on over to Slateport together and grab a bite at a Pokémon Center?"

I couldn't exactly say no and the guy seemed fairly nice so I simply nodded and we went on our way.

We arrived at Slateport shortly after. The smell of fresh seawater filled my nose as I took in the city. It was a fairly large port full of houses, a contest hall, multiple docks, and even a museum.

Then there was a shopping center where people bought and traded various goods with each other and fought over what price was right.

The air was even fairly clean so overall I was quite happy to be at the city. The sun was pretty high in the sky which meant we'd have plenty of time to enjoy the day.

Brandon and I stopped at the local Pokémon center and we walked/limped over to the beach.

People were sprawled out on the beach. Some were swimming in the water and others were reading or sleeping under umbrellas. A few trainers were even battling each other.

We walked into the restaurant on the beach and sat down. We ordered some food and we-well mostly Brandon- began to talk.

I asked him about what he did to hurt his ankle and he grinned proudly.

"So basically I'm trying to get across the lake between Oldale and Slateport right? I don't have a Pokémon who can surf but it's pretty shallow.

Well being the highly intelligent man I am I took off my shoes and started walking across the lake. Only to discover that rocks are very sharp.

I throw my shoes back on and continue on my journey. And then I get into a fight with a couple of Magikarp, I win, I move on. Finally, I'm stepping out of the lake on the other side and I slip and bust up my ankle. Delayed my journey by about six weeks and then had I to take the long way around on top of that. I did stop and check out Meteor Falls. Really nice place."

Brandon was full of entertaining stories and overall seemed pretty fun to talk to. "So Wally, where are you off to next?"

"I'm going to catch a boat to Lilycove and check out the sights. Probably grab a boat and see some of the islands. And then go back inland." Wally replied. "What about you?"

Brandon shrugged. "I don't have any plans. Just going where I can find gyms."

I grabbed my wrist as I worked up the courage to suggest an idea I had. "W-why don't we t-travel together then? At least for a little b-bit?"

Brandon seemed like a really nice guy, and I'd love to have somebody to travel with that wasn't a Pokémon.

Brandon grinned. "Sounds like a deal! What do you say we get out of here and catch us a boat?"

I nodded and as we got up to leave two sailors walked up to us. They were buff grown men with tattoos all over their arms.

"Ey lads. How's about a battle to settle who pays for who's meal?" One of the sailors proposed. I was about to decline when Brandon said.

"Absolutely."

I sighed to myself. What had I gotten myself into exactly?

———————-

And that's another chapter down! This time featuring Brandon! Not much to say here, thanks to everybody for reading and have yourselves a wonderful day! Bye-bye!