In Need of Healing

"You came all the way here for a sandwich?" Levina asked in disbelief, although she knew she'd done crazy things like that before. But at least she was able to fly from place to place. Last time she checked, Jaida had nothing that could fly. "How about you guys go to the deli and I find a bar?"

"Come on, Levi," Ace said, grabbing her arm. "Bars aren't even open yet. Besides, this deli is awesome."

Umbreon growled at Ace when he grabbed his trainer, but a quick look from Levina calmed him down. Not wanting to upset Umbreon, she pulled away from Ace but walked with him to the deli. "Fine," she grumbled. "But I'm going to the bar as soon as it opens."

"Great!" Jaida said with much excitement when she saw that they were going to go with her. "I've probably been coming down here once a week for the past year. Sometimes more, but it's definitely worth it. I can't believe that they can make a sandwich so delicious! Back in Ecruteak, all I really had was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. But that's what I get living with a gym leader. Morty never had time to waste making awesome sandwiches. And I was training with him all the time too, so I was pretty busy as well. It was great and I wouldn't give it up just for a good sandwich, but I sure am glad I found this place."

Jaida talked the entire way to the deli, only stopping when they made it inside and she had to stop to order her sandwich. She told one person what she wanted and then walked down to the end of the counter to pay another person.

Levina couldn't help but roll her eyes as Jaida spoke - that was one of the things Levina didn't like about her. She spoke too much. And what she talked about was also a cause for annoyance. Sometimes, Levina wished she would just shut up about Morty. Having met, battled and defeated Ecruteak's gym leader, she didn't see what was so special about him, but she also didn't entirely understand relationships and why everyone seemed to treasure them so much. As they walked, Levina mouthed, "Morty, Morty, Morty," in silent mockery of Jaida, while Umbreon had a similar annoyed expression on his face.

When they made it to the deli, Levina was glad that Jaida's mouth was directed elsewhere, giving her relative peace while she looked over the menu and decided what she wanted. Not really caring for any of the regular menu items, she decided to go with the "Build Your Own" option, and ordered a sandwich with five types of meat and a little bit of cheese.

Ace elbowed Levina, noticing her mouthing. He liked Jaida and wished that Levina would at least try to get along with her. Even not mocking her would be a start. It was a battle he'd never win, he knew, but he could always keep trying. Maybe by some miracle, Levina would grow a nice bone. He patiently listened to Jaida, although even he thought she talked about Ecruteak and Morty too often.

He raised an eyebrow at Levina's order, although he knew he shouldn't have been surprised. She definitely was a strange one. He ordered a sandwich as well, although a much more sensible one than Levina. Once he paid, he went to sit down at a table to wait for his food to be ready.

Jaida crinkled her nose when she heard what Levina was ordering. As a shapeshifter with all of her animal forms as herbivores, it was no surprise that she was practically a vegetarian. She didn't like most kinds of meat and ate it extremely rarely - only when she had that rare craving for meat did she even bother, even if there was a kind she liked available. She had ordered a veggie sandwich for herself, as she loved the variety of fresh vegetables available at the deli.

She followed Ace to the table after filling up a cup with soda. "I was talking to Morty just the other day," she said, continuing along on the same line of thinking as before. "He said he might send one of his Gengars out here for me to train. Wouldn't that be great? I mean, I know I'm a gym leader too, but I guess it's like he's a much better gym leader than I am, so I feel honored he'd let me train one of his Pokemon for him. Of course, I only like ghost types because of him. Not really my thing. But if he thinks it's a good idea, I'll do it. Plus, I can train one of his Pokemon!"

Levina was tempted to sit at a separate table, but she know Ace would either drag her over or move to sit with her. She was still tempted to do it just to make him go through the trouble, but with a sigh, she sat down next to Ace, wishing Jaida would stop talking.

"You know, Morty's not that great of a trainer," Levina said, deliberately trying to stir some trouble up. "He's just average for a gym leader. I beat him in a best of five battle with one Pokemon. Don't even think Umbreon got injured in that match."

Jaida turned to Levina, a rare dirty look in her eye. Under most circumstances, she would have tried to be nice about it, but she had a feeling that Levina was just trying to rile her up. Unfortunately, she couldn't resist a comeback. "Maybe he can't beat you in a battle, but at least he doesn't walk around acting like he's the best trainer in the world just because he has a lot of victories. And face it, you're not the best either. I know you've been defeated before and you will be again. Because you're not the best and you never will be because you're too much of an ass."

With that Jaida, turned her attention away from Levina and looked back to Ace, grateful there was a more pleasant conversation partner present. "How's Agate treating you?"

As soon as Levina started speaking, Ace groaned. He knew whatever she was going to say was not going to be good. He should have known it was a mistake to keep the two women together. It seemed like they always got into an argument, or Levina would at least make some kind of rude comment. But he was friends with both of them, so he hoped they might eventually learn to tolerate each other. He didn't want to have separate times in which he could hang out with each of them.

He found Jaida's response amusing, glad that someone had a good counterargument for Levina. Not that it would make her rethink her behavior or even temporarily put her in her place, but at least she would get that nice little reminder that she was not undefeated. Sure that Levina would only escalate things, he was quick to respond to Jaida.

"Same old, same old," he said. "Only with less challengers than usual. In fact, it's starting to get rather boring around here. But at least I have people dropping in on me to say hi. And challenge me to pointless battles." He smiled at Levina as he said that last part.

Levina was about to make a smart ass reply, as she was full of them, but then Jaida started talking to Ace and she decided to just drop it. At least Jaida had stopped talking about Morty. At least for the moment. That would have to be good enough. She ignored Ace's comment about pointless battles, but only because their sandwiches had arrived. Levina grabbed hers immediately and shoved a large bite into her mouth, not caring if she was eating like a hyena.

Jaida was just as eager to dig into her sandwich, but she at least had the thought to thank the person who brought their food to them. Then, she took a much more reasonable sized bite, wanting to savor what was possibly the best sandwich in the world. After chewing and swallowing the first bite, she turned to Ace.

"Maybe I should stop by more often," she said. "If you've got nothing else to do. Or you could come up to Dolomite if you want. But do you have a way to get up there easily? I can just turn into a horse or ride Rapidash, but you're human. Oh, I know! I could send Rapidash to you and you could ride him up and then back down and just send him back! If you'd even want to come to Dolomite. It's not quite as exciting as Agate, I don't think."

Because the sandwich was so appealing, she silenced herself by taking another bite.

Ace managed to take several bites of his sandwich by the time Jaida had stopped speaking. "I'd like to go to Dolomite," he said. "I like it there. Bit quieter than here, but that's nice sometimes. This place is too... cityish sometimes."

"Too cityish?" Levina asked, almost wanting to laugh at Ace's words. It sounded quite ridiculous to her, as she had been sure that Ace loved his hometown. She stuffed another bite of her sandwich into her mouth and continued speaking, not caring that her mouth was full of food. "If you don't like the city, don't go to another city. Come to Obsidian if you wanna get away. I'm not sending you Pidgeot, though. Find your own way up."