As the gang entered the Pokecenter, Aro watched as Lark made himself at home, finding a corner of the open space and sprawling himself out along several seats whilst still somehow not taking his gaze off his phone. Aro shook his head and chuckled as he made his way over and sat down.

“I’ve been thinking about these gyms and honestly my team has pros and cons against both leaders. I think Luna and Shade will do fine regardless...” Aro trailed off as the noise behind him seemed to get louder.

He looked behind him to see Challenger Bede had finally touched down in Stow-on-side. His smug grin gleamed from his face as he walked up to the counter. 

“Not this guy again, he’s just so... annoying” Aro said with a sigh.

It wasn’t long before Bede had noticed the gang and headed towards them.

“Hey losers, I see the other gym leaders must have taken pity on you if you’ve gotten this far...” Bede said before looking at Shade who was hovering around Aro. “You still have two Pokemon and it doesn’t look like your dreepy is getting any stronger.” Bede laughed as he continued

Aros fist clenched tighter as his anger built towards the cocky challenger, suddenly he felt Luna trying to calm him down in his head. Aro knew Luna was right and stood up. He turned to Bede and looked him straight in the eye. 

“We were about to have a friendly triple battle as a group, how about we make it a four way battle and a little less friendly? One Pokemon each, last Pokemon standing wins. Unless of course...” Aro paused and looked Bede up and down. “...Rose was wrong about you?”

Bede’s face went from pure white to a deep red as Aro spoke, he had clearly had a few buttons pressed. His breathing became heavy and his whole body began to shake in anger.

“Meet me outside in 10 minutes, you guys won’t know what’s coming for you.” Bede replied before storming out of the pokecenter in a violent rage.

Aro turned to the group and shrugged.

“Seriously... that guy!” He shook his head as he noticed a few people looking at him.