Reborn As Barry

Chapter Twenty-Three

With one more day to go until the tournament, Gabe set to training his teammates so he could prepare for whatever adversity he might face during the weekend long event. According to the information he'd been given, the partners were chosen at random the day before the tournament began. To Gabe, it seemed rather nerve-racking as it did not provide the participants much time to prepare for the battles they would face.

He supposed it was all part of the challenge. Learning to think on one's feet was something a trainer would need to know how to do if they were to succeed. Gabe watched as Houndoom, his newest addition, sparred with Jamie, casually avoiding a few Iron Tail attacks before spitting a few flames her way, prompting her to leap aside to avoid the assault.

Houndoom flashed Jamie a toothy grin, something that didn't go unnoticed by Gabe. Jamie responded by snapping off a Thunderbolt from her tail. Houndoom canceled it out with a Dark Pulse. Turning his attention elsewhere, Gabe watched as Aron and Tropius battled it out with Psyduck switching in on occasion to spar with Aron. It was a tedious process to oversee, but Gabe knew that it was important for his Pokémon to sharpen their skills.

"Alright, that's enough!" Gabe called out, bringing their battles to a halt.

Houndoom trekked over to Jamie and gently nuzzled the side of her face with his muzzle. Jamie gave a purr of approval and returned the gesture. Psyduck looked up at the fruit growing around Tropius's neck, and tried to jump to grab a piece of the fruit. Seeing the trouble his comrade was having, Tropius lowered his neck and allowed Psyduck to pluck the fruit off.

Plopping down on the bench in Amity Square, Gabe sighed contentedly and looked up at the sky. The previous day had been rather exciting, yet at the same time... stressful. He had three badges at this point, and was already concerned about the fourth. However, he would need to put that aside for one very big reason.

"I think we've done enough training for now. Today is when we find out who our partner will be. Sadly, I can't use all of you in this tournament. Depending on who I am paired with... well, you get the idea," Gabe sighed.

Reaching down for his gear, he began to search his messages for any sign of the pairings. None were posted yet.

That's fine, he thought. It's still early in the morning, there's plenty of time. Hopefully I'll be paired with someone I'm familiar with like Dawn or Lucas...

Gabe knew their teams very well. He also noticed that Lucas had a candidate for Mega Evolution on his team. Should he decide to disclose what he knew to Lucas, later on, he could be a big help in his efforts to battle against the threat that was Team Galactic.

Gabe crossed his arms and began to think of possible pairings should he be teamed up with either Dawn or Lucas.

So Dawn has Prinplup, as far as I know... and I saw a few more on her belt which means she's been doing some recruiting. Houndoom could cover Prinplup really well should Grass-types come into play...

Lucas already has Grotle, along with a Piloswine as well as Rotom... Psyduck could cover Grotle and Piloswine, but so could Tropius.

Gabe groaned as he continued his strategic planning. Planning wasn't exactly something he enjoyed doing without knowing what or who to plan for. The only three he knew were entering were Dawn, Jupiter and Lucas. Mars, for whatever reason, was not in the list, which was both a relief and a concern.

Weren't those two practically joined at the hip? Gabe didn't have the time to get into unraveling how bizarre it all seemed. As he was about to stand up, he heard a sound coming from his gear. It was a notification from the tournament committee. Glancing down, he pulled up the message and looked through the list of pairings.