For The Longest time

Chapter 15: Red and Leaf VS the Champion

It was a bright and sunny morning as Leaf crawled out of bed.

As she made her way downstairs to the living room, she heard Red talking to someone on his PokeNav "Yeah I know it would be a great idea, but still it's been a long time…..uh-huh…..not official huh…..well…alright you're on!" she overheard Red say out loud.

"Good-morning Red!" Leaf greeted causing Red to jump in surprise.

"Oh Leaf! Don't sneak up on me like that!" He huffed.

"Who was that?"

"Well…" Red began "Remember you once asked me when you would get to meet the actual champion of Kanto?"

Leaf nodded "Yeah, you told me to get all 8 badges, beat the elite four…and then proceed to laugh at me….if I remember correctly" she replied.

Red patted her shoulder "Well you're gonna meet him sooner than that! That was Lance, the champion himself, on the phone."

Leafs eyes widened "R-really! What did he want?"

Red smirked "He heard I was back in Kanto and has challenged me to an exhibition match at the Indigo Plateau!"

Leaf scratched her head "What's an exhibition match?" she asked

"It's just a match without champion status on the line." Red explained to her.

Leaf was shocked that Red was so calm about all this "Still…aren't you nervous…I mean….you're fighting the current champion" Leaf noted.

Red shrugged "I've beaten Lance once before…and so has Blue….." The more he thought about it, the more he realized "You know….now that I think about it…Lance isn't really that great at all!" Red laughed as he and Leaf walked out the door.

As Red was about to get on charizard, he looked over to see Leaf giggling to herself

"What's so funny?" he asked

"Oh nothing" she responded "It's just…after all the time we've lived together; this will be the first time I'll be seeing you battle someone and I'm excited!"

Red smiled "Well, if that's the case, you're in for one hell of a show!" he stated as he helped her up.

It had been a few months since the zapdos incident. Leaf was finally given the doctors permission to partake in gym battles again and thanks to her two new teammates, was completely dominating any gym she came across. By the time of her 6th gym battle, word had begun to spread about the girl, who trained under Red and had possession of the mystic birds of legend. As such, Leaf tried to not use articuno or zapdos as much…but she couldn't help it. Now, with 6 gym badges in her possession, Leaf was waiting for Red to arrange her 7th gym battle. Red, meanwhile, was attempting to locate the whereabouts of the final mystic bird, moltres, but all leads ended up being inaccurate. He wanted to continue looking for the mysitic bird, but now that would have to wait until after the exhibition fight.

Charizard touched down at the Indigo Plateau and as the two dismounted, Leaf took a deep breath.

"So this is where the big boys play huh?" She stated as she looked around.

"Is this your first time here Leaf?" Red asked while he petted charizard.

Leaf chuckled as she shook her head "Me? Heck no! When you're a thief, a place like this is the perfect spot to get loot" She then proceeded to point out certain vendors "Let's see….stole from there, there and there…..chairman of the league caught me stealing over there…stole from the chairman of the league over there."