Author's Note: My first SoulSilvershipping fic is here at last, after restarting Chapter 1 about 5 times! I love reviews and I hope you all enjoy. I have chosen to have NO CONTINUITY between this story and my HoennChampionshipping fics (Steel Water and Fire and the Islands, check them out too!). I also don't follow the game plot.

With that said, here goes:

Lyra.

Battle Factory, Johto Battle Frontier

…

"We'll take your Pokémon in exchange for the rentals, now, Miss,"

"Right here," I handed her two pokeballs, one holding a Quilava and the other a female Nidoran.

The attendant gave me a bored nod and waved me into the pearl white hall that stretched on behind us, filled with blue lights. With that over with, I crammed my hat tighter on my head and dashed into the heart of the Battle Factory to select my tag partner.

…

There must have been at least 12 people in that room; Mostly Ace Trainers that competed in Frontier battles all the time. Each face there was unfamiliar and absorbed in their partners, and as more and more people partnered off, the room grew less and less cramped. Even after 10 minutes, I stood alone.

One person was left idle, sitting on the couch with his head hung forward. His red hair was strewn in a long, messy curtain over his face as if he was asleep. He had a lonely, unapproachable aura about him that seemed to fill the room up and drag me in. Even in the midst of the two girl's loudening debate over whatever, the boy's shoulders would rise in fall in a steady 3 second rhythm, lost in sleep.

All of a sudden, one of two girls in a heated fight in the corner let out a shrill scream and recoiled away from a taller girl with a hand clenched over her eye. I shot a wide-eyed look at the boy on the couch in fear he'd woken up.

He sure had.

With a gasp, he shook his hair out of his face wildly, and as the red strands fell out of his face I could see the hateful, cold gray locked in his eyes.

"When did I get here?" I heard him mutter.

I rushed up to the dangerously attractive redhead, stumbling with excitement.

"Hey! Mister, uh… red-haired boy! Remember me? You're my partner, congratulations!" I planted myself right in front of where he sat and hoisted him up onto his feet. I had learned, knowing Ethan's own tendency to nod off at random times, that a just-woken person was as gullible as someone who had been born yesterday. Not to mention that playing off of his confusion qualified as breaking the ice to me.

"If you were my partner," his voice was low and bored - he'd only just woken up, after all. "Then you would know my name,"

I wasn't in the least stifled by his low spirits. This is me we're talking about. I took his arm and hauled him toward the elevator. "If you had the capacity to remember whether we were partners or not, you would at least know how you got here,"

He closed his eyes in frustration as I began to tug him, in the same way you would drag a sack along the ground, toward the elevator. "Wait, what?"

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, just come on," I really wished he would cooperate. He was heavier and a little taller than me, and dragging him across the room, despite it being a short distance, was turning out to be a chore. "Wait, what is your name?"

"Silver," After responding, the boy called Silver looked somberly at his other options, who were now rolling around on the floor slugging the sense out of each other and screeching obscenities. Then, suddenly, he broke my grip and strode to the elevator, practically punching his fist into the black button on the wall to activate it.

He raised a hand and beckoned to me with defeat as the elevator slowly rumbled to a stop and the doors opened. "Just hurry up, and don't drag me down in the battles,"

...

"You each will have 2 Pokémon to battle with in each consecutive match. You have the option to exchange one of your pokémon with one used by the opponent that has been defeated. No items may be used on the Pokémon besides held items. Understood?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but Silver cut in first. "I'm aware of how the Battle Factory works," he snapped.

The woman's smile went from pleasant and genuine to forced and hurt. I glared up at Silver for being so rude, but he paid no attention. She continued.

"I'll be informing you on two of the pokémon your opponents will be using between matches. These opponents will be using a Salamence and a Haunter. May I suggest you select your pokémon after appropriate deliberation?"

I smiled at her for her valuable input, tipping my hat and nodding in thanks.

On the table were 8 pokeballs. In front of each one was a small card with the species, held item, ability, personality, and moveset of the pokémon inside.

I watched Silver observe the pokeballs on the table. Slowly, without my consciousness about me, my gaze intensified on his eyes, trying to rouse a reaction, an emotion, anything. Finally, his head turned completely to me with a look of irritation on his face. Throwing him an embarrassed smile, I shook my head clear and drew my attention back to the pokémon.

I carefully read out the names on the index cards lining the table; "Toxicroak, Rampardos, Lickilicky, Blaziken, Rhyperior, Froslass, Gallade, and Swampert,"

"So you're talking to yourself now? Isn't that an early sign of psychopathic behavior?" His dark, bored voice asked.

"So you think you're a psychologist now?" I giggled. "Are you sure you fell asleep on the couch, Silver? Or did you hit your head on something and pass out?"

And that was the end of that.

The pokeballs for Rampardos and Froslass were missing from behind their index cards. Instead of releasing the annoyed growl that was clogging my throat at the loss of a Froslass, I dismissed that and gave a closer look to the Toxicroak and Gallade.

With my pokémon chosen, I sat down to wait being called for battle.

...

Silver.

Match No. SEVEN

All announcements in the Battle Frontier were dramatic, with the audience and the screens planted around the indoor battlefield drilling their attention into you. I was after a Razor Claw in exchange for 48 BP, and the Battle Factory was the fastest way to get those points with 5 points every 7 consecutives. And thus, here I was. The second I stepped through the double doors leading directly into the battlegrounds, pure white light exploded in my eyes and my head dropped automatically to block out the pain of it. Spectator's voices reached a deafening fever pitch.

The expanse of the Factory's ovular battlegrounds was coated in a dusty, dark brown mixture of sand and soil. An attendant at the door pointed me and that amazingly annoying girl beside me to the left side of the field. Lyra.

I dared myself to glance to my right to see her reaction to the scene, and regretted it the second the act was done. She just had to dramatize things further, hurling her hand into the air and waving to the audience with a huge smile on her face. Her eyes were a monarch, reddish shade of light brown and the headlights beamed in her irises. I was only briefly distracted before mentally slapping myself in the face and glaring down at her.

"Could you not act like an idiot, please?"

Lyra, unflappable as usual, did nothing but smile closemouthed at me. "We've won 6 matches in a row without breaking a sweat. Why won't you lighten up?"

I rolled my eyes at her idiocy. "You have to learn to take things seriously if you want to be the best,"

That seemed to break through some barrier in her head, and she lowered her hand down to her side and stared into the dirt until we reached our spot on the left side of the field. Her sudden disheartenment surprised me; there was nothing I'd said all day that could put her down or that she didn't have a response to. I crammed my hands in my pockets and shrugged away what felt like a spot of guilt on my shoulder.

The crowd suddenly grew hushed and silent as two female Ace Trainers took their place across from us.

There was a ragged crackling audio sound, and the announcer's voice blared from the overhead's speakers.

"Alright folks, this is our final challenge of the evening! Both teams are in their final match! Ace Trainers Jamie and Reena on the right! Trainers Silver and Lyra on the left!"

I clenched my hand tightly around the first pokeball on my belt, my teeth grinding together with the tension of the wait. Spit it out!

The announcer switched the screens from the trainer's faces to the field. "BATTLE!"

"Rampardos!" I tossed the ball into the air. With a gust of light, a huge gray beast erupted from the pokeball and roared out its name, clawing at the earth with his feet to ready himself to charge.

Lyra did the same as I had, thrusting the pokeball out with all her might. "Go, Toxicroak!"

"Salamence!"

"Huanter!" Both girls kicked out their pokeballs as opposed to throwing them; from one ball came the monstrous Salamence and from the other a Haunter.

I knew that in a battle, speed was of the essence. "Rampardos, Head Smash, dead on!" I made a wide gesture with my arm for the Rock-type to see, ending the movement by pointing straight at the Salamence.

"Toxicroak, Thunder Punch the ground right behind Rampardos!" Lyra shouted.

I shot her a wild-eyed glare. Was she stupider than I'd thought? Whatever, I didn't have time to beat some sense into her. Rampardos obediently drove his feet into the ground with fearsome speed and launched himself at the Salamence, head bowed, collecting blue energy at the skull. Toxicroak moved into the spot where Rampardos had stood a split second ago and prepared his fist with glowing electric power. Then, the opponent's first command.

"Salamence, Dragon Claw!"

The girl that had given the command made a strange, enthusiastic gesture with her arms- beckoning upwards as if telling the dragon to stand up. The Salamence stood by, and Rampardos' bowed head was mere meters away from head-on collision with the foolish Pokémon. I had every ounce of my confidence, until realization hit me. She was using a delayed action technique. The second Rampardos was in range, the short-legged and ungainly Salamence would go in for the Dragon Claw. Rampardos was in range now.

"Now, Toxicroak!" Lyra cried.

With a huge and monumental force, Toxicroak's fist was heaved into the earth, sending electrified chunks of rock erupting left and right in a high speed death path for Salamence and Rampardos. The Salamence stood up on its hind legs and raised its clawed arm to strike. A bead of sweat ran down the side of my face as I caught on.

"Rampardos, Dig down!"

Rampardos defied its confusion and obeyed. The blue glow that had gathered at his head choked off and he immediately dug beneath the Salamence's attack, vanishing from range. As quickly as Rampardos had escaped, the path of electrified rocks met up with Salamence and an explosion of thunderstruck stone blasted into its unprotected stomach. Toxicroak's long range Thunder Punch had hit its mark.

Salamence roared out in agony and was knocked backward off of its feet by the power of the attack. Lyra gave me a quick smile and threw her fist out to command Toxicroak, but the girl commanding the Haunter, who we'd previously forgotten about, beat her to the punch.

"Shadow Ball at that Toxicroak, Haunter!"

A blob of shadowy energy began to formulate and slap together in the Haunter's mouth, which was blasted at Toxicroak with magnificent speed.

"Rampardos, now!" I shouted.

The pokémon returned from the dirt core of the battlefield immediately, his mouth twisted in what could only be described as a smirk. Skull bared, Rampardos struck the Haunter in a surprise attack from beneath. Rampardos' staggering speed kept the Haunter from going intangible and rendering the hit useless. The Ghost/Poison-type was thrown into the air, but Shadow Ball had struck Toxicroak now and had damaged him beyond help.

Impossibly, the Haunter rose back to levitation. At first, it appeared unhurt by the attack, but it was clear in its lurching ascent and the dull shade of purple it had taken on that the Haunter had suffered the hit completely and lost at least ¾ of its HP.

The girl commanding the recently struck Pokémon was red faced and livid as Rampardos dashed back in place beside the wounded Toxicroak.

"Haunter, use Payback!"

Haunter flew at Toxicroak with its body glowing an intense black color. I knew the punishment Payback could deal after an offense like that. I mentally slapped myself again.

"Use Rock Slide on Haunter, Rampardos!" As soon as the words had left my mouth , the previously immobilized Salamence dove down from the air with its teeth bared at Rampardos, the teeth cloaked in flames. I staggered back. "Shit!"

Lyra heard my panic and ordered her Toxicroak. "Toxicroak, Ice Punch, now!"

The entire situation had become a mess. Toxicroak leapt in front of Rampardos and slung out its fist in the nick of time, catching the Salamence in the face for a 4x super effective hit. Haunter, who had moved in for close range with Payback, skidded right into the mess of pokémon and attacks. The Fire Fang that Salamence had been preparing to strike Toxicroak with hit the icy fist with a vengeance, and with the rocks from Rampardos' Rock Slide crashing on top of Salamence as well, hissing plumes of steam rose into the air and clouded the entire dome in seconds.

Lyra raised an arm to protect her face and clutched her hat to her head to keep it on. Silence engulfed the room, and in another moment, the steam had cleared. Salamence, struck dead-on by Ice Punch, Rock Slide, and Shadow Ball, twisted in agony midflight and crashed into the ground. Its eyes closed in a dead faint.

"Yes!" Lyra expressed her enthusiasm in the weirdest way. She clenched her fist tightly and close to her face and hopped up and down like a Buneary. Once again, not the time to knock some sense into her.

Rampardos, who had used a long-range attack, had escaped the mess. Haunter, however, sunk down low to the ground, X's in its eyes. The intensity of the battle had taken its toll on Toxicroak as well. The pokémon had been delivered all 4 of those attacks, and was wobbling on its knees with the effort of standing. Lyra immediately gasped and took hold of Toxicroak's pokeball, which had been returned to her by an attendant.

"Come on back, Toxicroak," She pressed the center of the ball and the exhausted but still conscious Toxicroak was absorbed into it. I closed my eyes and chuckled. Fool. As long as a Pokémon could fight, it should keep fighting.

Lyra didn't perceive my mental scoff, and bent her head down to speak into the ball with a tenderness that shocked my eyes wide open. "Good job, buddy," She reached into her pocket and threw out another ball.

"Your turn, Gallade!" Lyra threw out a dual Psychic-Fighting type. It was released from the ball in midair and landed with practiced smoothness onto the field, slashing its sword-like arms into the air.

The two girls exchanged determined glances and kicked out two new pokeballs after reabsorbing the fainted ones.

"Steelix!"

"Meganium!"

I paid no mind to the Grass-type with the ignorant, weak appearance that plodded out onto the field. It was that Steelix that caught my attention. It dropped its jaw and roared out in a wall shaking blast, slithering out with its steel body to glare me right in the eye.

No matter the type disadvantage. I didn't care what I had to do, but I wasn't going down now.

Lyra leaped at the opening to attack. "Gallade, use Focus Punch!"

Great. Now I had to keep Gallade from getting hit before it struck. I growled and shouted to Rampardos. "Rampardos, use Head Smash at the Meganium!"

Roaring with excitement, Rampardos dug its claws into the earth once more and raged at Meganium, who stood perfectly calm and in place.

"Meganium, use Frenzy Plant!"

This time my growl tore from my mouth like a motor ripping itself to life.

"Focus Punch, now!"

In an instant, Gallade sped over the field and leapt into the air, coming down for an Aerial at the Meganium. The stretched scythe arm was glowing crimson when it struck the Meganium flat on its slow, pathetic head and slung it to the ground like a rag doll. Rampardos skidded to a clean stop to avoid hitting Gallade. I wasted no time.

"Rampardos, Rock Slide!" The rocks began to glow and surface from the field and were slung at the injured Meganium, burying it completely. With that out of the way, I refocused on that Steelix.

The girl commanding the Steel-Ground type leapt to attention. "Release your Flash Cannon, Steelix! At Rampardos!"

Before I could see the powerful Steel move cultivating in the Steelix' mouth, it fired a hunk of glowing metal at Rampardos. With Rampardos' low Sp. Def, plus the fact of its super effectiveness, I knew this would be a one-hit KO. Suddenly, Lyra leapt to action.

"Gallade, Psycho Cut!" Lyra pointed straight at the Flash Cannon. "Don't let Rampardos get hit!"

Just as she gave the command, Flash Cannon connected with the glowing violet blade of Gallade's arm, and with one smooth, downward slash, the attack was split perfectly in half to land harmlessly at Rampardos' sides.

Then, another idea surfaced. "Rampardos, take the pieces of the Flash Cannon and use Fling!"

Dirt was thrown into the air as Rampardos bowed down mid-dash and collected the pieces. He hurled the Steel projectiles at the Steelix at top speed. Steelix roared out in agony at the collision, tossing up more dirt with its tail as it thrashed.

"Gallade, finish it off with Brick Break!" Gallade crossed the field to deliver the finishing blow, striking the Steelix in its snakelike body and flinging it into the wall behind it.

The mounds of dirt cleared away from the Pokémon. X's filled its unconscious eyes. We'd won.

"We won! Yes!" Grinning, Lyra did her hopping thing and pumped a fist into the air. The crowd went up in cheers for our victory. Lyra must have seen some sort of boredom in my expression and frowned, eyebrows furrowed. "No reaction, huh?"

I shrugged and drew a hand through my hair in exasperation. "I didn't expect anything less than victory, with my skill, and your-"

She gave me a sudden childish pout, demanding her compliment, and so I offered; "Enthusiasm," And as the audience began to flood into the field to congratulate the winners, I crammed my hands in my pockets and exited the battlefield.