Friendly chat

Winona was a rather strange individual in that she took her whole lifestyle and centered it around the flying type. Her outfit was modeled after the aviator outfits from decades back on earth , she refused to be romantically active unless the man was willing to take that whole till death do us part bit extremely seriously. Most specialists were much more normal in comparison since while they took after their typing or theme they were still just normal people in most cases. The only real exception to this rule was psychic type specialists but i was fairly certain that was because of their pokemon causing their minds to act weird.-

In Winona's case she was just that obsessed with the flying type so I went to this meeting fully expecting some strangeness. The gym itself was a bit special as Winona had fully customized it to benefit her typing the most. I'm talking retractable roof, blue walls with clouds painted on them and a constant breeze blowing through the area all the time. The arena was actually on the roof of the building so that her pokemon could soar through the sky freely.-

The terrain of the arena beyond that was a simple flat stone one and Winona had a table and chairs set up there for the meeting. She was waiting with a smile on her face as she watched her pokemon fly overhead. "Why am I not surprised that our meeting is up here?" I asked with a chuckle as I walked across the arena. "And why am I not surprised to see that you are still half naked?" she sent back with a smirk. "Touché , mind if I let my pokemon out? They dislike being within their balls more than absolutely necessary." I said and she nodded.-

By league regulations an official arena needed to be very wide and large to accommodate even the largest of pokemon so even with Gaia being out there was plenty of room for everyone. Six red flashes later and the whole team was free. Hades immediately hissed threateningly at Winona but i just picked up his keystone and set it in my lap "Hush, this one is an ally not an enemy." I scolded the ghost and it shrunk a little and pouted like a child. "So you really do have that pokemon under control like Flannery said." Winona commented with an interested look.-

"Spiritomb are a bit misrepresented , they are like any other pokemon and have their own personalities. Hades here is really just being protective is all and usually doesn't cause much trouble so long as I keep an eye on it." I explained while calmly stroking the keystone which Hades enjoyed for some reason. "I see , that is good to know in case I ever come across one myself. There have been some rather interesting rumors regarding the rest of your team as well. Perhaps you'd care to clear the air with those as well?" she said changing the subject.-

I shrugged "Not sure which rumor you mean specifically as there are quite a few last time I checked but if you are referring to those accusations made by those spoilt golden spooners then the league is free to run a full investigation if you want to, I have nothing to hide in this regard." I said calmly. "But you do have something to hide then?" She asked latching unto that part of what I said. "Everyone has something that they would prefer to keep to themselves and I am no different but my "secret" about how I have a full team of nonrelated variants that actually gets along is not on that list."-

"I have figured out what makes me so special and thus why I can pull this feat off. It's that I am quite literally better than nearly everyone else in the world. I have shown five abilities publicly , I have several skills that would take many a lifetime to master and I have a personality and ambition that gives me the right to command my team as their leader. You can ask any of them and they will likely tell you the same. I am simply superior and that is my secret plain and simple." I said with grin.-

"Rather an arrogant idea don't you think?" she asked with a smile. I shrugged "perhaps it may seem that way but arrogance is unfounded pride and nothing I have said is incorrect so is it really arrogant in this case?" I asked and she looked thoughtful for a moment before shaking her head. "No I suppose not. I doubt many will want to accept this reason for why you alone seem to break the rule though." she said honestly.-

"Accept it , deny it , it makes no difference as all that matters is the truth in the end no matter how bitter it is." I said seriously. She nodded "You wouldn't happen to be interested in settling down would you?" she asked seriously and I laughed. "Not even a little , I have too much I need to do to stop here. Good try though." I said with a smile. We chatted casually after that for a couple hours while our pokemon socialized. At the end of our meeting Winona passed me two badges , the heat badge and the feather badge.

Flannery had forgotten to give me her badge after our match and had sent it over via express delivery. As for why I didn't need to battle Winona for her badge it was because I was simply beyond the point where it made any sense to test me as a trainer. As a result I simply needed to meet with the gym leaders to get their badges and otherwise wouldn't be battling all that much with them unless that was what they themselves desired. That was how the exhibition match worked with Flannery and likely how it would work with the last three.-

The badges themselves didn't really serve much purpose for me either since I was way overqualified to participate in the end of the season tournament. At my level I was eligible to challenge any regions elite four for a shot at the current championship tournament instead. I planned to challenge the four too but not join the tournament because I knew for a fact that I wasn't even at the elite fours level yet much less the champions. I was only just into the elite tier of trainers but the four were near the top instead and the champion was even higher up.-

This wasn't to make the mistake of saying that the four were much weaker than the champion as in most cases that simply wasn't true. Most champions were in fact only slightly more powerful than their regions elite four. It was actually why it was quite common for the champion to be challenged and defeated by a member of the four historically speaking. I wasn't even remotely close to that level yet and needed to bring my whole team to elite level before I could even consider moving forward to challenge the four.