Chapter 35

As morning rolls around, I slowly descend from the world of dreams. The warm scent of cinnamon fills my senses as I sleepily nuzzle into the comforting scent. A warm hand softly pets my hair as I purr slightly in contentment. I tightly hug the soothing presence nearby, not wanting to break out of my sleepy state.

"Good morning cutie." A voice from above sounds, threatening to take me out of my extremely comfortable state.

"Five more minutes…" I whine, refusing to wake up.

"No can do, we got our matches today."

I lift my head while opening my eyes into a wakeful glare with a small pout on my face. A sexy face with a pair of shimmering rubies stares back at me with a smile in her eyes. I stare at her for a while before I bury my face into her neck again. "No."

Flannery giggles at my antics. "If you don't I'll attack you."

"You wouldn't dare!" I say lifting my head again in abject horror. She replies by wiggling her fingers on one of her hands with an evil smirk on her face. I scoot away, giving her a full pout as I roll out of bed, under a massive amount of protest and unwillingness. I stand at the edge of the bed with my back to her as I do a stretch before heading to the shower to get ready for the day. I leave the door open to the shower as I clean myself under the cool water lifting my face into the oncoming stream. A moment later I feel a pair of hot hands rub my body, doing equal parts of washing and groping, causing me to smile and lean backwards into Flannery.

What should have been a quick shower, takes us nearly an hour before we step out of the water, letting the air dry while we grab our outfits for the day. I pull out my dress that I wore during my battle in Pewter and go about getting ready. In the meantime, Flannery leaves my room and ducks into hers to get ready as well. I fuss around with my hair, trying different styles to see what works with my outfit, but I decide on the crown braid style I wore previously and then carefully do my makeup with the same cat's eye treatment as well.

It takes a few tries until I am happy with how I look before grabbing my stuff and calling my pokemon to let them know that we are leaving. Skadi and Lono follow me out the door as we head down for breakfast. Stepping into the Lobby I see Bea sitting at a table waiting for us, signaling just how late we are this morning. Bea isn't a person that sleeps in, but I am normally up well before her. I slide into my seat as Skadi hops into my lap and Lono lands on my shoulder.

"Mornin'. Ready to win your badge today?" I ask as I get settled and order my breakfast and ambrosia. 

"Morning~. You know it! I can't wait to battle today!" Bea answers with enthusiasm. She has a huge grin on her face as she seems to bounce in place.

"This win should be easy! I know I trained extra hard to beat Brock as I was at a major type disadvantage, but this water type gym should be a breeze." I match Bea's smile with one of my own, anticipating my win in a few hours.

"Save the cock for the bed babe. If you don't pay attention, you will come up short." Flannery calls out as she approaches the table and nearly sits on my lap if not for Skadi giving her a tiny nip. I make sure to pet the heavenly fluff of her fur to calm her down again. Flannery just gives her a look and then sits down next to me, on the same seat which earns her a look from me that she just returns with a cute smile. Damn this cute little thing.

"Don't worry, I'll keep cool during the fight. Honestly though, I don't see any of us failing to get this badge on the first try." The two of them just flash me a confident smile. We fall into our usual chatter and banter while we eat our breakfast before heading towards the gym. 

As we approach the gym I can see a huge crowd of people filing into it despite the early hour. We find the line for challengers and join it. As we wait, I start to slip my mind into my battle mode, as I have been in fluff mode for the past few days, as I relax the muscles in my face and fix my posture to stand tall and proud. Flannery notices my change and raises an eyebrow at me in an unspoken question that I answer with a slight shake of my head. She just shrugs and stands beside me and playfully bumps my shoulder with her own, trying to make me crack.

After about fifteen minutes and a quick check-in at the desk, the three of us find ourselves in the waiting room with a number of other trainers. Some of the trainers have their eyes closed like they are sleeping while they wait, while others are pacing around the room and some others are reading a book or talking to themselves trying to remember whatever plan they have. When we enter the room, most people glance at us before turning away, only for the guys to snap their eyes back for a double take and stare at us. I suppress a shiver as I feel their eyes on me but I ignore it.

We find a place to sit down together where we can watch the muted screen showing the current challenger that is fighting Misty. The three of us have our fights back to back and I happen to be first on the list. I still have three trainers ahead of me, or about an hour, to wait. I watch the fight on the screen with some curiosity as the trainer is currently using rock type pokemon to battle in a water gym. I actually feel kind of bad for them as Misty is handing their ass to them in a methodical manner. It only takes another two minutes before the trainer's team is defeated and he leaves the arena while sulking. To make matters worse for the poor kid, Misty only used one pokemon the entire fight, talk about adding insult to injury.

I turn away from the screen and close my eyes while leaning slightly against Flannery. I turn up the music on my music player as the songs shift from a lofi mix into an alt rock playlist which causes me to lightly tap my fingers in time with the music. As I am listening to my personal concert I lose track of time until the song that I am listening to suddenly stops and changes to MWTWB causing me to pause and look around. I see a league trainer coming towards me so I gracefully stand up.

"Give her hell Frost!"

"Go kick butt!"

My girls cheer me on as I look back over my shoulder and give them a small smile. I follow the league trainer towards the door that leads towards the arena. She points me down a hallway where I can hear the crowds cheering coming from. I give her a nod in thanks as I start walking down the corridor. I just stop my eye from twitching as the song on my music player changes again to 'Under the Sea' as the volume lowers as I get closer to the arena. Whomever else has access to my music player likes to be a troll.

"Please raise a warm welcome to our next challenger! Hailing from Pallet Town, the ice type specialist that caused quite the sensation at Pewter City for her field control, Frost Oak!"

The sound of the announcer echoes as I step out of the corridor into an extremely brightly lit arena. I couldn't tell earlier, but now that I am in the arena I can smell the scent of the ocean lingering in the air. I take a moment to look around as the crowd cheers as I gracefully walk to my spot in the arena. The whole gym has a slightly blue tint to it and the glass overhead creates a rippling effect to the light, like you were under water, and in the other corners of the gym there are waterfalls that keep the water fresh. The arena itself is a huge pool with several 'islands' spread around for any pokemon that cannot swim. One in the center, one in each corner and a few smaller ones that could just fit a medium sized pokemon, scattered around. I frown slightly as I quickly try to plan how to handle the field that is ninety percent water.

"Welcome Frost. This battle will be three on three with two switches. Any moves that intentionally cause lasting harm or are knowingly lethal will result in an automatic disqualification for one month from any gym. Challenger, are you ready?" Misty asks as I finish taking my spot in the arena.

"I am ready." I answer calmly.

"Both trainers are ready. Please send out your first pokemon!"

Misty and I both grab a pokeball from our holsters and toss them into the center of the arena.