"Sometimes people forget that things like 'blindness' are just barriers, not stops." Callie had seen many people with 'disabilities' do great things in her time.

"You're a good person, Doug." Said to him a second time, and Callie meant it just as much as she did the first. The boy was sweet. Stepping back, she loosely motioned for her Beedrill to take spot.

"I haven't had a chance to train her very much... I might win against a Gym Leader's pokemon." But she didn't seem bothered, just amused.

John Sullivan

She sighs, shaky, and comes back to herself.

Liam is still there.

She nods, vaguely, to Cillian Quinn.

"Yes. Calliope Marks. Thank you, again, for the battle."

Another quick nod before she turns to leave.

She needed to sit down for a minute.

Oh, not the MYSTERIOUS tag... Callie was really in it now.

"Something like that." Since they had taken the win, she called back her own tired bird before walking over to Zac Ramsay.

She offered her good hand to the other man to shake.

"Thank you for battling me. It was fun."

Callie was pleased by the praise.

"Thank you. I used to be..." Her words caught. She cleared her throat. "... a very good trainer." Was finished kind of lamely.

Pushing himself fully back to his feet, the Pidgeot fluffed himself up and seemed ready for whatever attack the Doduo would throw at it next.

It was a nuclear explosion.

Except not really, since it was a Doduo crashing into a Pidgeot and puffing up a giant cloud of sand and dust from the battlefield.

Callie coughed up some dust as her Pidgeot laid there... motionless...

"Hmm... Should I call someone?"

She sounded concerned.

EXCEPT PIDGEOT SUDDENLY JUMPED UP WITH A GUN.

Okay, not really, but he DID push himself up and try batter the Doduo with a Hurricane.

Callie raised a hand to her press fingers against her lips.

"Hm."

The Pidgeot tried to get a Tailwind going. Callie was more interested in watching the Doduo, though.

"I've never seen a Doduo do that before."

When Rowan Wrynn turned to leave, Callie gave one final nod to the young man.

"Goodbye." Was what she said, then turned to leave to find her next match.

Maybe someday Rowan would meet the Champion again when she had built her empire back up.

"Most people don't recognize me now." Most people thought she was dead.

The public execution rings in her mind. Her sister screaming against the gag, tears down her face.

Callie had been forced to watch.

Her sister was just a schoolteacher.

Just happened to share her face.

There isn't suspicion there. Just a kind of vague out of body feeling.

Callie had been fully prepared to leave. A quick exchange, move on, much like other battles with unfamiliar people.

This makes her waver, makes her spine straighten to something tall and still, like a string pulled taunt from the top of her head.

She looks at Cillian Quinn.

And she looks.

And doesn't see what was there.

She doesn't avert her eye.

"I was."

"That does sound rather intense." Looking back, she could fondly remember such bets between herself the rest of the Elite Four. While she never got to interact with the Gym Leaders as much, their duties differed after all, she knew of such things happening. They were precious memories from friends she wasn't sure were still around.

Seeing the Butterfree, Callie plucked one of the pokeballs from it's place, releasing the butterfly pokemon's counterpart- a Beedrill hummed in the air, wings flapping as she assessed John Sullivan and his pokemon.

"You have students?" Which is what stuck out to Callie the most, out of all of that. Something pleased settled in her chest at the thought. "What sorts of things do you teach them?"

---

beedrill - female - swarm - twin needle, poison jab, fell stinger, endeavor, pursuit, agility

As fun as a bird on bird rodeo would be, sadly for Big Habernero, Pidgeot has some Tangled Feet. The big lug could barely keep himself upright when he was landed, far more graceful in the air. He wobbled and cawed like a chicken, flopping over on his side from the sudden weight of the Doduo on his back.

A startled laugh crept out of Callie, a hand clapped over her mouth to stifle the noise and hide the smile.

From the ground, Pidgeot flapped his wings and mostly just kicked up a lot of dust, forming a small Twister.

Zac Ramsay

The feint strikes. Charmander cries out again, flames on her tongue fading to embers as she falls. The pokemon whines but can't bring herself to get up. Everything hurts too much.

Callie knows when she's lost. Calling her pokemon back into her ball, she finally lifts her eyes from the battle to the shark looking to swallow her whole.

"You win." It's simple and fact. There isn't a hint of soreness there, nothing soured from her loss; she was a gracious loser. Maybe that would make it worse. "Thank you for the battle."

"That's how good trainers usually feel about it." She hummed, thinking back on her own experiences before becoming Champion in Kanto. She had never wanted to win. It was more that she just fell into the position, more excited by the idea having blood-pumping battles and testing out her pokemon. It just so happened she was very good at it.

"I do wish you luck if you have more battles today."

Rowan Wrynn