Piper was looking forward to the Gala for weeks. Her family had traveled all the way from Saffron City to view the different events and booths that would be available. While she was excited to witness the battling, Piper could honestly say the thing that she was most excited for was the actual viewing of the pokemon. She had even brought her notebook so that she could write down facts and observations about them (someday she hoped to have a pokedex but they seemed to be more expensive than she could afford at the time being.)

Piper and her family were checking out the different booths on breeding and pokemon care when Piper looked at the schedule and saw that a presentation was going to begin soon. Better yet, it was going to be a presentation that involved Sarah Smith, a well known pokemon gym leader! Piper thought that she could surely learn some tips from the gym leader.

As she said goodbye to her family, Piper separated from the group and made her way over to the seating area near the stage. Piper watched excitedly as Sarah released her pokemon from their pokeballs. All of them were very cool and well-trained pokemon, though she did have to admit that she had a bit of a bias for Sarah's ditto. The idea of a pokemon being able to transform into other pokemon was too cool!

Suddenly, though, something happened. Volkner called out to Sarah before their pokemon fell down in pain! Piper watched, eyes wide, as they were unable to be called back to their pokeballs. She also watched as ditto and haunter were sent out and instructed to look around. 

Piper pushed through the small crowd closer to Sarah. She may be very new to having pokemon and battling, but Piper wanted to see if there was anyway she could help out. She couldn't just stand by while somebody was trying to hurt pokemon.