2/2

'The wind is traveling southward and the arena has a slight tilt to the south,' Lee thinks silently as the stone inches closer to the ground and his nervousness transforms back into high-strung tension. 'The area is sparse grass, mostly dirt. Little danger of a wildfire. The other Pokemon in the corral have backed up, so little danger of collateral. Mudkip is about fifty feet out.' The stone is almost to the ground. 'Start strong. Debuff, stack DOT, then use Vulpix's speed to play keep away. The Mudkip line has unreal physical attack, so we'll start out with...'

Thud! The stone bounces off the ground.

"Vulpix, Baby-Doll Eyes!" Lee orders before Brendan or Mudkip can even move.

The vixen lets her hackles fall and looks intently at Mudkip with wide, sparkling eyes filled with false innocence. Her chocolate orbs faintly glow with Fairy energy.

Mudkip falters, as if suddenly having second thoughts about fighting. At the same time, the sunlight suddenly becomes sweltering as Vulpix's Drought activates, and Mudkip flinches and sways on his feet.

"W-What gives?" Brendan calls, shielding his eyes from the harsh sun with a grimace. "How did Vulpix use Sunny Day and Baby-Doll Eyes at once?"

"That wasn't Sunny Day," Lee calls back, fighting back his own grimace as the oven-like heat makes his burns throb. "Vulpix has the ability Drought," Lee debates ordering an attack immediately, but holds off, not wanting to come off as a bully in a friendly match.

"I've never heard of Drought before..." Brendan mutters, wiping at his sweaty brow. "Doesn't matter. We've got a match to win. Mudkip, Watergun!"

Lee watches carefully as Mudkip steadies himself and takes a deep breath in the same windup as Vulpix, his eyes locked onto the fox. Just as Mudkip stops the brief charging and starts moving to launch the attack, Lee reacts.

"Vulpix, dodge left now!"

The vixen darts to the left in a deft hop just as Mudkip's Watergun leaves his mouth. The water gouges into the ground with a muddy splash.

"Now, Confuse Ray!" Lee follows up.

Vulpix's eyes glow a sinister red with a growl from her.

Mudkip suddenly reels back with a cry as if struck and screws his eyes shut. The poor mudfish stumbles and opens his eyes, revealing them to be unfocused as he staggers around almost drunkenly. Mudkip then trips over his own feet and falls to his side, squirming helplessly.

"No, Mudkip!" Brendan cries, reaching out with a hand. "C'mon Mudkip! Get up! I know you can do it!" He pleads with such hurt and desperation that forfeiting instantly comes to the forefront of Lee's mind.

Mudkip grimaces and wobbles to his feet, struggling to maintain balance. It's a perfect time to attack, but Lee can't bring himself to issue an order. Vulpix looks back at him, her tails whipping impatiently as she waits for the call to strike.

"I told you, Brendan. Vulpix and I aren't good first opponents. Maybe call this off and find another trainer to challenge?" Lee asks, crossing his fingers behind his back.

"No way! No rough start can scare us!" Brendan roars. "Mudkip! Watergun the ground and cool off with some mud!"

'What?'

"Mud!" Mudkip calls in his high pitched voice. In a lucid moment, he takes a breath and Waterguns the ground below himself, kicking up a plume of muddy water and obscuring himself.

"Now Tackle!" Brendan calls over the roar of the water.

Mudkip charges out of the mud plume in a full sprint, eyes clear and form refreshed. He locks onto Vulpix, who freezes up.

'Shit shit shit!'

"Vulpix, Quick Attack to dodge right!" Lee frantically calls.

"Dodging with an attack..?" Brendan questions with a blink.

The vixen snaps out of her shock just in time. A white energy envelopes her form as she jukes to the right as little more than a blur of red. Mudkip just barely misses her and skids to a stop, looking around.

'If I don't do something, Vulpix is going to get hurt, but if we fight back, Mudkip is going to get trashed...' Lee takes a shaky breath. The choice is neither hard or long. 'Sorry Mudkip.'

"Now, Quick Attack into Mudkip!"

Vulpix's eyes gleam at finally being on the offensive. She lands from her dodge with Quick Attack still active, then in a flicker of red, crashes into Mudkip at full speed.

The mudfish's eyes go wide and he can't even cough the air from his lungs before he's thrown a solid fifty feet across the field. He bounces once, twice, then skids to a painful stop on his side, a shallow trench in his wake.

Lee can feel his heart stop as Vulpix tips her head back and howls in victory. The sunlight fades back to normal as the battle ends.

"Mudkip!" Brendan cries, rushing towards his motionless Pokemon.

'Jesus Christ. What have I done?'

Brendan skids to a stop by Mudkip's still body with slumped shoulders. Lee numbly follows, trying to not let his rolling stomach vomit. The younger trainer picks up the limp Mudkip with a sigh. "You did great, pal," he murmurs, holding Mudkip to his chest.

Then Mudkip suddenly twitches in Brendan's arms and lets out a groggy "M-Mudkip?". The water pokemon shifts in his trainers arms in a clear sign of life and looks around, blinking stars from his eyes.

Lee's stomach uncoils as quickly as it came and he lets out a breath he had no idea he was holding. "He's okay?"

'They aren't common animals. You know that,' the niggling voice in the back of his head says. 'You can't permanently take down a pokemon without making a deliberate effort.'

Brendan nods as he looks down at his pokemon. "Yeah," he replies in a more subdued voice. "I guess you were right. Vulpix is way too strong and you're too skilled," he says with a sigh. Brendan fishes out Mudkip's pokeball and enlarges it. He smiles down to his starter and says; "You did great Mudkip. You hung on where others would have crashed and burned. Enjoy your rest, okay?"

"Mudkip..." Mudkip murmurs, looking away with melancholy in his eyes before he's returned to his ball in a flash of red light.

Brendan clips the ball to his belt before standing and turning to Lee, then in a surprising show of maturity, holds out a hand with a smile. "Good match. Don't expect it to be that easy next time."

Lee takes the offered hand and shakes it weakly. "Yeah, sure. Anytime."

Vulpix takes time to slide up beside him, pressing herself into her trainer's leg as she looks up at him with worry.

Lee bends down and pulls her into a light hug, murmuring a congratulations for her victory.

'Am I overthinking it? Am I treating them like animals? Are pokemon just that durable?'

Day 9

'Pokemon are stupid durable.'

Mudkip catches Vulpix's Quick Attack to his side, and despite digging his feet in, is still rocketed off his feet. He twists mid-air and roughly lands on all fours almost sixty feet away from his lift-off point.

"Baby-Doll Eyes."

Mudkip tries to look away on impulse, but Vulpix's eyes light up with Fairy energy too quickly, and he lets out a frustrated cry when he feels his muscles slacken.

"Mudkip don't give up!" Brendan calls from his side. "Use Watergun! Quick!"

Mudkip takes a breath to build up Watergun, but before he can fire, Lee's voice calls out across the field with; "Confuse Ray!"

Vulpix's eyes light up again, this time an evil red, perfectly fitting the smirk on her muzzle.

The building Watergun in Mudkip's throat suddenly loses cohesion and just explodes out of his mouth as the confusion ensnares Mudkip's mind. The mudfish chokes and panics, forgetting his ilk can breathe water in his confusion.

Brendan growls and grabs at his hat in frustration. "Confuse Ray is such a bullshit move!" He yells to the heavens.

Across from him, Lee can only shrug. "Embrace the bullshit. It works."

Ever since their first match several days ago, Brendan and Mudkip would come out to challenge Lee and Vulpix whenever the younger duo would see a lull in the training of their seniors. Each day, Mudkip would be soundly defeated, and each following day, he would be right as rain. Brendan was unbothered by the losses and Mudkip, being a little glutton for punishment, gladly threw himself at Vulpix no matter how much he was brutalized the day prior. All of Lee's fears about either pokemon being hurt beyond help evaporated like a puddle on a hot day thanks to Mudkip.

The spread on Vulpix's ranged attacks closed by a fraction of a degree each day, and now her Ember could reliably hit objects her size at about fifty feet. The little fireballs raced a little faster and exploded a little harder with the repeated practice as well. Firespin, being the signature move of Vulpix, is already powerful, more powerful than the games give it credit for. For how aloof the little vixen usually is, she's taken to Lee's training with aplomb, and the results are already beginning to show.

Back to the battle, Mudkip barely has enough time to hack the water out of his lungs before Vulpix leaps into the air, coats herself in the shimmering aura of Quick Attack, then shoots down upon him like a meteor

CRASH!

Day 12

Lee huffs and wipes the sweat from his brow as he focuses on his running pace around the corral. Vulpix has lapped him at least seven times, even with the convoluted, zig-zagging course of he's set up for her. He stops for a moment to watch his pokemon weave between spots he's marked into the ground with agility and grace that would make a mundane fox green with envy. She skids at a particularly harsh turn, but quickly corrects herself and is back in a full sprint in hardly a moment. As Vulpix runs, she pants short tongues of flame in an effort to cool off some. Then something strikes Lee as strange.

The flames aren't in sync with her breathing. The fire licking at her lips ebbs and surges independent of the movement of her chest. It's almost like it doesn't even correspond at all.

'Wait, no. No way in hell. It's such a leap, but if it's true and this works...'

"Hey love!" Lee calls, making Vulpix skid to a halt and look towards him. "Let's head inside for a short break. I've got a few things to look up, then we can keep training."

The vixen doesn't verbally reply, but walks to Lee's side as she tries to steady her breathing. Now up close, Lee can see for certain that the flames she's panting aren't matching up with her breaths at all.

Both man and vixen walk towards the lab at a sedate pace, letting Lee think's sure there must be a high level trainer out there somewhere that has already discovered this, but after recalling the Emerald dex entry on Vulpix, he has to try it.

...But how much can gamedex entries be trusted?

Lee lets out a relieved groan as he and Vulpix step into the air-conditioned lab. Vulpix fans her tails and does a full-body shake, airing out her orange pelt with the cool air.

"You look tired."

Professor Birch walks in to the lab's main room with a clipboard under one arm and a plastic bottle of water held in the other. The stocky man tosses the bottle to Lee, who snatches it out of the air.

"Running around during the heat of the day does that," Lee quips, unscrewing the bottle cap and kneeling so Vulpix could latch onto the bottle and greedily drink. "Mind if we use one of the PCs for a bit? We've got a bit of research to do."

"All yours," Birch smiles with a wave of his hand. "What about, may I ask?"

Vulpix chooses that time to let the bottle go, now looking very refreshed with a few water trails down her chin and into her breast tuft. "Vulpix!" she says with a smile, nuzzling Lee's hand.

Lee smiles and gently strokes his fox before tipping the bottle of water back into his own mouth, drinking the remaining half in just three mammoth gulps. "Phew. To answer you, Prof. There are some..." Lee hesitates, trying to think of a good descriptor other than 'gamedex' "...legends about pokemon from my 'home' that I wanted to fact check. If some regarding Vulpix and Ninetales are true, then Vulpix here is in for a treat, and any future battlers are in for a nasty surprise."

Birch instantly understands and smiles. "You can't just give me the bare minimum like that and not expect me to ask more," he replies, his smile widening into a grin. "Whats the 'legend' say about the Vulpix line?"

"That they can freely control fire, and how that's how they control Will-o-Wisp," Lee begins. Vulpix jumps to his shoulders as he stands and turns to Birch. "I noticed when Vulpix and I were out exercising that she was panting flames."

Birch crosses his arms and nods. "Yes, that's pretty standard with a lot of Fire types."

"Here's the 'but' to that," Lee says with a smirk. "The ebb of her fire was not synced up to her breathing. It was close, but there were distinct points where she was inhaling and the flames would grow, or exhaling and the flames would shrink, usually right at the end of her breaths. That's why I think the legend holds water."

Birch's eyes widen a fraction. "Truly? Could the breathing be just a placebo for Vulpix then? If she is able to actually manifest fire regardless of body movements to control it..."

"She could cast attacks with zero warning," Lee finishes with an excited grin. "But if she really can freely control fire like described, then she can control any fire and manifest it from anywhere."

'Fire attacks against her would be worse than useless. She could shoot attacks from any direction, or even manifest it right on her target with no travel time. Hell, with skills like that, no Fire move would be outside her reach. She might even be able to make new moves.'

The professor's jaw slowly drops, the implications are not lost on him. Vulpix likewise looks at Lee with wide eyes before looking away and furrowing her brows in thought.

"So I need to look up the mechanics behind some Fire moves and see if Vulpix can remotely manifest them. Something on the simple side to start..." Lee mutters out loud.

Day 16

"Don't force it, love. Rome wasn't built in a day."

Vulpix growls and closes her eyes as yet another tiny fireball fizzles out before it can leave her mouth. She leans her head back and opens her mouth as a tiny, flickering candlelight of fire is born between her lips. The little flame wavers as it shakily tries to hover away, but it flickers and dies in a flash hardly an inch into it's travel. Vulpix opens her eyes again and looks at the grassy ground with a smoldering glare that Lee didn't expect to see on her usually aloof self.

Lee sits off to her side with his notebook in hand, jotting everything he watches down. When he sees her staring a hole into the ground, he sets his notebook aside and scoots closer, tenderly placing a hand on either side of her head and lifting so their eyes meet. "Hey, no need to look so frustrated. This is a whole new thing we're trying here. Your moves seems so easy because they're instinct. This? This is totally unexplored territory that we're working with," the man quietly murmurs, petting his vixen's cheeks gently. Vulpix slowly melts into his touch as she listens. "You've already made incredible progress. Just making flames at will with no move being used first is great. Now we just have to practice. Lets take a breather to clear our heads for a moment, yeah?"

Vulpix sighs. "Vullll. Vulpix, vul." "Four days of no progress is good?" He can practically hear, but she closes her eyes in contentment and nods into his hands.

'She's so much more reasonable than a lion,' Lee thinks fondly as Vulpix crawls into his lap and nuzzles her head to his stomach with a smile. She opens her eyes to reveal them glowing. He then feels her fledgling psychic powers touch his mind for a moment, just long enough for a burst of raw gratitude. 'She lets me get away with so much.'

Lee picks his notebook back up and looks over the corral with a smile. The gentle sea breeze from the south drives away the sun's oppressive heat and makes the short grass of the corral roll in mesmerizing waves. Pokemon of all sorts lounge and play in the field, and an uncountable number more watch and rest in the shade of the forest where the corral fence vanishes into the treeline. The breeze, the rustling of the distant leaves, and the happy calls of all the pokemon mingle into a tranquil background noise There's not an ounce of conflict to be found.

'How strange it is to think any one of these adorable things could rip me in half,' Lee muses, idly stroking Vulpix's back all the way down to her tails. He notices a black spot on the edge of his vision and looks over.

In the grass just in front of the depression where Vulpix was seated previously, there's a small burnt spot. The grass is limp and blackened, but not ash, like it was only exposed to a flame for a moment.

'But Vulpix didn't let any of her flames touch the ground. Hell, she hasn't even faced the ground in the last two hours besides...' Lee furrows a brow. 'Besides when she got frustrated and glared at the ground.' He stops petting the vixen as he thinks, making her whine and paw at him.

"Are we going about this the wrong way?" the man thinks aloud, making Vulpix open her eyes and look up at him. "Vulpix, lets try something else. We might be doing this wrong."

The vixen reluctantly extracts herself from his lap with a full-body stretch and a jaw-cracking yawn. "Pix..." she murmurs, standing ready.

"Alright, lets try this," Lee begins, opening his notebook and ripping a page out. Vulpix looks on with a raised brow as he holds the paper up. "Now, no more meditation or all that jazz that Medicham suggested on this. I want you to focus on this paper as hard as you can. Focus on seeing it go up in flames. All you want in the world is for this paper to burn because it's wronged you, so you give it more focus than anything in the world has ever gotten."

Vulpix gives Lee a dubious look, but focuses on the paper intently. She narrows her chocolate eyes and flicks her tails in concentration.

Several long minutes pass with nothing happening. The only movement is from the rolling grass and the swap of the paper in the wind. Lee's arm begins to grow tired, and his cross-leg seated position makes his legs fall asleep, but he dares not move least he spoil Vulpix's concentration. Vulpix begins to grit her teeth, her frustration beginning to surface again.

Slowly, the middle of the white paper begins to darken and smoke, and the sun's rays grow a little hotter.

Lee looks between his almost-snarling pokemon and the sheet of paper in his hand. "You want the paper on fire more than anything, Vulpix," he whispers just loud enough to make her twitch an ear. "It wrongs you, mocks you by existing. Take your feelings and show it who you are. You are Vulpix, the one who will one day be the strongest Fire type-no, the one who will one day be the strongest pokemon. Take all that passion to grow and succeed, and show everyone you have what it takes to master fire!"

Vulpix growls and her eyes glow faintly. The sunlight becomes so hot that Lee's burns tingle in pain.

The paper bursts into flame, making Lee yelp and drop it.

For a moment, both trainer and Pokemon stare at the paper in open surprise. When it burns down to naught but ash and blows away in the wind, Lee can't help but grin and snatch up Vulpix in a hug.

"You did it! You actually did it!" Lee says with a joyful laugh and a beaming grin. "I know you could do it. You have no idea how proud I am of you! We've been here for like, what, two weeks and we're already pushing limits and breaking rules? You're the best, love."

Vulpix can't help but smile herself and wag her six tails as she sinks into her trainer's arms. She gives him a lick on the chin and nuzzles into the crook of his neck.

Again, Lee feels Vulpix poke his mind with hers, and this time comes a pulse of raw adoration.

He hugs her just a little tighter.

Day 18

Lee peers at the new scars on his side and drops the unwrapped gauze to the bathroom floor. The glass cuts had healed nicely and evenly courtesy of the Oran extract infused gauze, but the largest ones still scarred over, giving him a new set of tender pink lines in his side. He touches one with a grumble, noting the lack of pain. He looks further up in the bathroom mirror to his face.

The trio of linear burns are mostly healed, again thanks to Oran infused ointment, but they are definitely leaving scars. The skin on the left side of his face feels pinched and taut, and just smiling pulls at the lines. A childish part of him thinks the scars look fearsome, but that part is quickly beaten into submission by the more practical part of his mind. While not too painful, they're definitely uncomfortable.

Definitely not as painful as losing the Zoo and everyone there.

Vulpix suddenly appears in the mirror as she hops to her favorite perch and settles cross Lee's bare shoulders. She looks over herself only briefly in the mirror before turning her attention to Lee's visage. Her eyes wander over his front, her eyes stopping at the few scars and marks adorning his front. She then looks back up this face.

"Ugly, aren't they?" Lee sardonically asks.

Vulpix twists her head and quickly nips Lee's ear, making the man suppress a yelp. Then she presses her cheek to his and purrs.

Lee sighs and reaches up to rub behind her ear, a half-smile that doesn't pull at the scars forming on his face. "Can't you let me have just a little self-pity?"

The vixen snaps her teeth, then goes back to purring.

Lee sighs dramatically. "Fiiiiine. Let me get breakfast for us whipped up then we can head out and get some supplies for your pyrokinesis practice."

"Vulpix!"

Now - Day 22

Lee's thoughts return to the present as he and Vulpix approach the lab... which is clear on the other side of town from the library, making Lee blink. "Oh jeez, have I been spacing out that whole time?"

"Vul," Vulpix affirms, nosing his cheek from her usual spot on his shoulder. "Vulpix vul."

He sighs. "Yeah I know. Sorry about that, love. The last few weeks have been something else. I guess I'm still a little out of sorts."

Vulpix says nothing, but curls around his neck like a furry scarf.

"Lee!"

Lee turns with Vulpix in tow to find both Brendan walking their way with a wave. "Heading to the lab?" Brendan asks, no breaking his strike as he walks up.

"MmmHmm," Lee replies, falling into step with the boy.

"So what have you guys been up to all day? Myself and Mudkip were out in the woods doing that strength training you told us about," Brendan grins. "I never knew Mudkips could actually smash boulders! When he gets to Swampert, he's gonna be unstoppable!"

The ball on Brendan's belt shakes.

"You'll need to beat Vulpix first if you actually want to be unstoppable," Lee quips, taking the wind right out of Brendan's sails and making Mudkip's ball go still.

"Easier said than done..." the young Birch grumbles. "Vulpix is freaky strong, and how does anyone fight you without getting Confuse Ray spammed to death?"

'Vulpix just learned Feint Attack last week, so she can only be mid-20s in level. I guess that would be tough to a definitely-below level 16 pokemon. Though, Mudkip has to be on the cusp of evolution. He's grown so much since his first ass kicking and just begs for more. Little masochist.' Lee muses. "Look on the bright side," Lee starts with a smirk. "Mudkip can snap himself out of confusion in seconds now."

"That doesn't really matter when you and Vulpix spam Confuse Ray so much."

"It'll matter against other trainers," Lee says as the pair enter the cool, air-conditioned lab and spy Professor Birch on the video phone in the corner. "Imagine the shock on some random trainer's face when Mudkip barely stumbles after being confused and knocks his pokemon into the stratosphere."

That makes Brendan grin and makes Mudkip's ball shake again.

"-tually, both just walked in now, Samuel," Birch says as Brendan and Lee approach. Birch turns and waves both over with a wide smile. "Brendan, Lee, I'd like you both to meet Professor Samuel Oak, The Pokemon Professor!"

Birch moves to the side to show both of his trainers the screen of the vid-phone, and on it is none other than the legendary Professor Oak, who peers at both of them with aged, wisdom filled eyes.

Lee has to struggle not to smile at the man he's always wanted to meet, but Brendan has no reservations and openly grins. "Nice to meet ya, Professor! I'm Brendan Birch, and this is Lee Henson! Don't be too upset if we thrash any of your trainers in the Ever Grande Conference!"

Birch chokes and blanches. "Brendan! I-" he stops when he hears laughing from the phone.

Oak chuckles a few more times and calms, but his smile remains, showing the lines on his aged face from how often he must smile. "My oh my. It's not often I see such bold enthusiasm," he says. "Well, I'd certainly not hold a grudge over a proper victory. Tell me young man. Who did you choose as your starter?"

"Mudkip of course!"

Oak nods with a hum. "A sturdy, powerful pokemon. As your Mudkip grows, you'll likely find him to be a pillar of strength for your whole team. An anchor that would never let you be swept away, and a frightful tsunami in battle. Swampert are revered and feared for their sheer might. An excellent choice, young Brendan," Oak says, his words carrying impeccable strength and certainty even over the phone.

Brendan flushes and mutters a quick, "Thank you, sir."

Oak then turns his attention to Lee with a raised brow. "Well well, Mr Henson. You look quite seasoned already. Why take a sponsorship?"

"Would you believe me if I said I was born on a small island nation with no pokemon?" Lee lies through his teeth, spooling up his story. "We had legends, but I didn't know pokemon were real until about a month ago."

Oak's eyes widen a fraction and his smile dims somewhat. "Truly? What was this place called?"

"The United States, a series of small states under one controlling body. I ended up on Hoenn after... Unfortunate circumstances," Lee grimaces, his burn scars flaring with phantom pain. He tenderly rubs the raised skin and continues. "Vulpix, being a sweetheart, found me and stuck with me. We came here to Little Root and met Professor Birch, who was kind enough to stick his neck out for us. The rest is history I guess," he finishes, reaching up to stroke Vulpix's neck.

Oak peers at both Lee and Vulpix with great scrutiny, making both man and vixen tense up from the intense, almost judging stare, then Oak returns to his grandfatherly smile just as quickly. "That's quite a tale. I have to say, would your home be open to communication?"

"They're pretty militaristic and isolationist..." Lee trails off. "Now that I'm out, I can't return. Not that I know where the US is from here anyway."

The smile on Oak's face falls some. "That's a shame. I would have loved to have a trainer like yourself. A trainer with a fresh new look at pokemon? Oh yes, now that would make for a fascinating study. I assume Professor Birch added such a study as a stipulation to your sponsorship?"

Birch freezes up.

"Oh Nigel, don't look like that," Oak gently chides with a shake of his head, making Birch slump. "Any pokemon researcher worth their salt would want to secure such an opportunity. I certainly can't blame you." Oak turns back to Lee, now looking at Vulpix. "Vulpix, hmm? A rare pokemon, even in their native Kanto. Revered as tricksters and mystics, Vulpix and the venerated Ninetales are difficult to raise pokemon who thrive under skilled trainers. Her excellent health and demeanor speaks volumes about your ability to raise pokemon, young man."

"That's just good genes on her part," Lee asserts with a shake of his head. Vulpix harshly jabs his cheek with her nose, but he ignores it. "I don't do much. Just what needs to be done." Vulpix jabs him again.

Oak raises a brow, his smile deepening some. "Vulpix are finicky as they are rare, so that loyalty of her does you no favors here. Just your willingness to hold a dangerous pokemon so close says a lot."

"..." Lee says nothing in reply, so Vulpix growls and paws him right in the eye. "Ow! Dammit love, don't do that!"

Oak laughs and turns back to Birch. "Anyway Nigel, one of my trainers, Ash Ketchum, just finished up his final preparations for his journey to Hoenn after the Silver Conference. Could you update his Pokedex once he arrives? He should be in Little Root in the next week."

'So it's some sort of mix between the games and anime here,' Lee thinks to himself, rubbing the smarting eye Vulpix bapped. 'Why the League website didn't have the Silver Conference results I have no idea, but at least I know now.'

"Of course Samuel," Birch says, visibly relieved his senior didn't hold tying Lee down against him.

Oak smiles at everyone. "Nigel, it was nice to speak to you again. You're doing wonderful despite your short tenure so far," he says, making his junior smile. "Brendan, Lee, I'll be looking forward to seeing you both in the Ever Grande Conference and how well you stack up against my trainer, Ash. Have a wonderful day everyone!"

And with that, Oak hangs up.

Lee hums as Vulpix settles again.

'This is where it all starts I guess.'