In Need of Healing

Ace walked through town with Levina and her Umbreon, both of them wanting to heal their Pokemon after a quick friendly battle. Ace knew his Pokemon weren't hurt that badly and that he most likely had potions at the gym he could have used to heal their Pokemon, but he always liked a good walk through town and he also needed to get out more. He'd been spending too much time inside lately.

"You should move here," Ace suggested after listening to Levina complain about the small village where she lived. "It's far more exciting." He waved to someone he knew across the street. "See? You can wave to friendly people."

"Nah. Not worth it. Especially after all the stuff I had to do to get an officially sanctioned gym. I don't think anyone'd be too happy if I just moved the gym now. Or worse. Make it a traveling gym and make trainers have to find me. It's not too horrible up there anyway. And by that, I mean I have Pidgeot who can just fly me away whenever I'm bored."

Seeing the Pokemon Center nearby, she sped up a little, wanting to get her Charmander healed. He hadn't fared too well in the battle, and Levina knew it was time for a healing. And the faster he was healed, the sooner she could continue his training, and hopefully, the sooner he would evolve. She was determined to figure out just what was going on with her little fire Pokemon.

When she got inside the Pokemon Center, she was disappointed to see that there was a line. Not a horribly long one, but long enough that she knew she was going to get impatient. "Ugh... can't we just cut in line? We get special gym leader privileges, right?"

"Lucky. I want a Pidgeot. Or something that can fly me around."

Ace followed her inside the Pokemon center and wasn't too surprised to see the line. Agate was a large city and there were tons of trainers around. Lines at the Pokemon Center really were not uncommon and Ace was used to waiting a bit to get his Pokemon healed. "Just be patient," he said. "They'll get to us eventually. It really isn't as bad as it looks."

"I always get priority in Obsidian," Levina said, not caring if it made her sound like an arrogant jerk. She really was most of the time anyway. "Of course, I think they just want to get rid of me there. Maybe if I make a scene here..." Even thought he idea was tempting, she restrained herself. At least she had a friend with her. Two friends, counting Ace. She glanced down at her Umbreon, who looked as unhappy about the line as she did.

"Sucks, doesn't it?" Levina asked. Umbreon nodded, agreeing with his human.

"Spoiled," Ace said. "It's not that bad to wait in line." Even as he said that, he glanced at his watch, wondering if that would hold true. Sometimes in the past, it had been quite a while before they could get to his Pokemon. It didn't look that bad at the moment, and shortly after checking his watch, the line moved forward.

"See? It'll move quick enough."

"Guess we don't have a choice, right?" Levina sighed, wondering when she had become so impatient. She really wished she had thought to bring a potion or two from home. That way, she could simply heal her own Pokemon, although she really preferred the hospital's way of doing things. It seemed like they always did a much better job than what a spray potion could do. The line moved again, and soon enough it was their turn, and Levina quickly put her Charmander's Pokeball on the counter before Ace.

"Just needs a bit of healing. Normal battle injuries." She told the nurse what she needed to know and then thought for a second. "Any idea why a Charmander wouldn't evolve? He's strong enough but he just doesn't."

"I wouldn't know," the nurse said, quickly turning her attention to Ace. It was a busy day and she didn't want to waste time on idle chatter. "Do you need any Pokemon healed?"

"These two," Ace said in response to the nurse as he put Absol and Sneasel's Pokeballs on the counter next to Levina's. "Sneasel thinks he's burned but I think he's fine."

After handing his Pokemon over, the nurse handed them each a slip of paper with a number and told them to wait until their number was called to receive their healed Pokemon back. Ace walked over and found a seat and sat down to wait.

"You see?" Levina asked as she half fell into the chair next to Ace. "We could have totally been out of here if we pulled the, "We're busy and important gym leaders," card. But here we are waiting with all the idiot trainers who probably tried taking on something too big for them."

With that comment, she got a dirty look from one of the trainers, but before he could try defending himself, Levina spoke up again and said, "Don't even bother. I don't really care how you got your stupid little Pokemon injured. All I know is that you'll never be able to challenge me in a battle so screw off."

Umbreon growled a little, in agreement with his trainer, but mostly because he just felt like growling. Like his trainer, he didn't like most other trainers, finding them to be quite ridiculous or just plain idiotic.

Ace looked away, a bit embarrassed. In general, the people of Agate liked him and he wanted to keep it that way, which meant not getting involved when his friend pissed off other trainers. He knew trying to defend the other would be pointless, as he knew Levina wouldn't take that well and he didn't want to get an earful from her as well so he kept his mouth shut and pretended he wasn't there.

"You don't have to be so mean," Ace muttered. "You and Umbreon are so much alike, it's kinda scary."

The trainer walked away in a huff, and Levina turned her attention to Ace. She never understood how he could be so patient with everyone. That was something she definitely could not do, but she also realized it was his patience and friendliness that allowed them to become friends in the first place. He wasn't as good a friend as Umbreon, but he was as close as any non-Pokemon was going to get.

"Well, we've been together for most of our lives. We rubbed off a lot on each other over the years." She reached out to pet her favorite Pokemon on his head, and he accepted the attention from his trainer. Had anyone else tried to pet him, he would have bit them, but he did love his trainer. So much that he decided to jump in her lap and sit there.

"Or maybe you two have always been similar and that's why you get along," Ace said with a shrug, looking away from them. He was actually a bit jealous, since he didn't think he'd ever have such a close relationship with his Pokemon. They got along great and battled well together, but he wanted that extra something that Levina and her Umbreon had. He didn't have long to think about such things as he heard their numbers being called, letting them know their Pokemon were fully healed.

"Let's get out of here. Before you make some kids cry." Ace got up and went to retrieve his two Pokemon he had sent to get healed.

"I used to be like you Ace, all friendly and stuff, and then after spending so much time with him, I started to become more like him." She had wanted to keep a straight face as she said that, but she just couldn't do it and started laughing at the end. "But you might be right. Course, I don't really remember what I was like as a kid so I really have no idea."

Levina sprang up when she heard her number called. For some reason, she felt like she was in a hurry, although she really had nothing else to do that day besides hang out with Ace. She collected her Charmander and waited for Ace to get his Pokemon before heading outside.

Ace was having a hard time believing she was serious, and when she laughed, that confirmed that she was just joking with him. He really couldn't imagine Levina as being very friendly. It just wasn't her. Ace collected his Pokemon and followed Levina outside, a bit surprised at how fast she was moving around. She hadn't mentioned needing to be anywhere at a certain time.

"So what now?" Ace asked.

Once outside, Levina slowed down again, fully realizing that she had no where to go and nothing to do since her Charmander was healed. She did want to find Professor Spruce at some point, but it really wasn't a pressing matter and she didn't feel like flying down to Talc Town at the moment.

"I don't know," she said. "I got nothing to do today but hang out here until you're sick of me. Guess I could try training Charmander a bit more. Maybe pick on some trainers. Not that he'd get any stronger doing that. Probably make him want to evolve even less. You doing anything today? Or do you have to go do boring gym leader stuff?"

"Boring gym leader stuff?" Ace asked, a bit confused at that, not even sure what she was talking about. "I'm really not doing much today. I was probably just going to hang out at the gym and see if I get any challengers. I don't think I will. Haven't had a battle in forever."

"Yeah, you know. Stuff." Levina just shrugged. "All I know is the Pokemon League sends me paper stuff and they want me to fill it out or something. I don't know 'cause I don't do it. I let my Pokemon take care of all that stuff. And if you think you haven't had a battle in a while, you should see how long it's been for me. I had a flood of trainers the first month I was an official gym but after that... I've had two challengers. Two. But at least we got an interesting city here."

Levina looked around, wondering what there was to do in Agate. Not caring as long as she found something, she picked a random direction. "Come on, Ace," she said, grabbing at his hand. "We're gonna go find some excitement."

"Oh, that." Ace had actually been filling out some of those papers before Levina had showed up. Although he thought it was important to get done, he did prefer to hang out with his friend instead. He didn't mention that she should be doing them as well, knowing she never would. Instead he let himself get dragged along, curious about what she had in mind.

"What are we doing?" he asked.

"I don't know," she replied with a shrug and a smile. "But seems like a nice day to go wandering about town, don't you think?" Having spent so much time at home lately, the city seemed far more exciting than it really was. Obsidian Village really was too small for her, but she really couldn't see herself moving. Oh well, at least it didn't take long to fly around to more exciting places in Lareni.

As they walked down a major street, Umbreon picked up an interesting scent and started running to follow it. Levina hurried after him, not because she was worried he was going to run away, but because she wanted to know what he had found. It wasn't all that exciting for Levina. Just a small stand where a person was selling Pokemon treats. Knowing that Umbreon wanted one, she bought one for him which he slowly ate, holding it in his mouth until he found a nice place under a tree to lay down and start eating it.

Ace was much slower to follow Levina and Umbreon, sure they weren't going to go far. By the time he had caught up with them, Umbreon was already under the tree and beginning to eat. When he saw what had caught Umbreon's attention, he thought his Jolteon might want a treat too, so he bought one and stuck it in his pocket, hoping he didn't forget about it.

"He sure can smell out a treat, can't he?" Ace said as he watched Umbreon eat his treat. "Got one for Jolteon. He likes his treats too."

"Jolteon..." Ace's mention of Jolteon made Levina realize she should probably get one for her Jolteon as well. She didn't want her to see Ace's Jolteon getting a treat and not get one herself. So she returned to the stand and purchased another treat, putting it in her pocket before Umbreon saw, as he would probably want it for himself.

"Okay, now that that's out of the way, I'm hungry."

Jaida had run down to Agate City from Dolomite City. There wasn't any good reason for her doing so besides the fact that Agate City had a deli that made the best sandwich she had ever had. Being a shapeshifter, it wasn't too hard for her to simply shift into a fast form and run down. She could have rode over on her Rapidash too, but she really did like to run on her own. Once she made it into town, she shifted back into her human form, as it was rather hard getting around as a horse. As she was walking down the street, she thought she saw two familiar people. The Umbreon running confirmed it - there weren't that many blue and black Umbreons around and given the fact that there was a dark-haired person chasing after it, she knew that had to be the Obsidian gym leader, Levina, which meant the blond haired man with her was most likely Ace.

Although she wanted to get her sandwich, she also really wanted to go say hi to her fellow gym leaders. She didn't get to see them nearly as much as she would have liked to. Levina had just purchased a treat from a stand in the street when Jaida made it over to them.

"Hi Ace, hi Levina," she said cheerfully, a huge smile on her face.

Upon hearing the cheerful voice, Levina turned and glared at the pink-haired gym leader. She really did not like that woman. Unlike most people she didn't like, Levina actually had reasons for not liking Jaida, although the fact that she just didn't like anyone was still a large part of it.

"Jaida," she grumbled, acknowledging her presence. She wasn't sure why she was even bothering to do so, thinking the better option would have been to just walk away. "We're kinda busy right now."

Ace was about to suggest a place they could get something to eat when he saw Jaida approached. He smiled at her as she greeted them. "Hey Jaida," Ace said. "We're not as busy as she'd have you believe. We were just about to go get something to eat. What brings you to Agate?"

"Funny that you mention that," Jaida said, ignoring Levina. She always got the feeling that Levina didn't like her, although she was often cold to everyone, so Jaida wasn't entirely sure about that. But at least Ace was friendly. "I actually came down to get a sandwich from this little deli down the street. It's the best. You two should come over with me."

"I think I know the place you're talking about," Ace said with a nod. He didn't eat out much, but he did like that particular deli. "I'm down for that. What about you Levi?" He knew the shortening of her name was likely to annoy her, but he knew she was more annoyed at Jaida's presence than anything he could possibly do.