Mark stewed, trying to hear out any meaning behind Rose's words, as he had come to notice, those were where all her thorns were, not that she couldn't hold herself otherwise, but her actions had never hurt anyone... except herself when she stepped in the way of the raging firis, it was little game where he felt he got a hint. was she to be either the perfect doll to show off or be put on a shelf forever? there was no way to find out that wouldn't involve snooping into where rose didn't want snooping... and that was a problem. it was easy to have, or be, a friend nobody likes... but how do you handle a friend that likes no one? she had done too much good for him to just leave things in that half teetering mess... finally he sighed out and made his way backstage, hoping to congratulate Kiki.<br/><br/><br/>Toni had reached the gym, and despite the stereotypes the "dark" element would normally draw this guy was more an overly supportive sports coach than any form of edge, even his team, which she presumed was the "zero badge" challenge was not exactly threatening, as she learned when lillipup and rattata faced off. Lillipup had one level on the vermin pokemon and no type disadvantage to speak of, even if rattata was quicker it was weaker in all other ways and it showed, rather than use leer to weaken it she had lillipup use work up twice and finally attacked with tackle whenever Shadow tried to throw a spanner in with torment, using that move cost rattata precious attacking opportunities and as such lillipup stood, at about half strenght left but it stood.<br/><br/>Then Shadow threw in mightyena, and unfortunately the sand attack it used hit lillipup first, rendering it unable to properly connect any bite or tackle, and after two tries it was hanging in the ropes without any damage dealt to poochyena.<br/>"good boy, Lillipup, come back for now, Dratini, you're up."<br/>Toni berated herself for not swapping him out earlier, sure it cost him his attack buffs but her insistance had gotten him bit twice and nearly downed.<br/>For now though the fight was on again, and Dratini's use of thunderwave saw Poochyena sometimes missing openings that woud have been important, and then it got hit by wrap and thankfully for the full duration.<br/>Shadow had smirked "not a bad move, but now you get the torinta gym special, payback!" this was bad, the nature of wrap counted the just broken free target as moving second, meaning this would hit for full blast... or not at all, instead poochyena froze up with a whine. "the paralysis... uh oh." another wrap attack connected, squeezing the remaining fight out of the shadowy hound.<br/>With that, the referee called the match in Toni's favour, but Shadow had a few more words to offer to her. "your quick thinking isn't half bad, and neither is your confidence in your team, but you need to work on getting a feel for what they can and cannot do more, Lillipup could have come out of this in much better shape, but your dratini, she's got fire. and electricity. never underestimate just how much disabling an opponent can help, here's our TM, payback is pretty helpful, especially on slower dark types, when it hits second it hits pretty hard. you better keep up the good work, you've proven courage without a doubt, and so you've earned this badge.<br/><br/>Toni accepted it with a light bow and thanked him for the advice, he had confirmed what she had thought she did wrong. she'd stop by the pokemon center and then look to get back with the others.