"It's a card game involving gambleing," said Z, "you're dealt five cards and you can exchange up to three of your cards for new ones, unless you have an ace, then you can exchange four if you keep the ace. you bet money and the person with the best hand of cards wins the money that was offered. The hands in order of ascending value are, high card, one pair, two pair, three of a kind, straight (a set of cards in order numerically), Flush (a set of cards with the same suit), Full house (three of a kind and a pair), four of a kind, Straight Flush (a set of cards in order numerically with the same suit), and Royal Flush (an ace, king, queen, jack and 10 with the same suit.)"
Alloy flew her higher, making sure her stone was secure.
"Th-That seems like quite a lot to remember," Eira said, eyes wide as she looked at the cards in their hands. This did not seem like a simple card game that kids would play, so she wasn't too sure she could play right away. "Maybe I will watch a few hands before I join in playing just to be sure that I understand the rules."
Grace giggled more and more as she was tossed into the air, not caring if her stone slipped since she was having so much fun.
Z nodded and went back to playing against Sparky. The fire pokemon was a bit disappointed as Z was beating her hands over and over due to some crazy luck when it came to gambling. Z chuckled as he drew a few more cards and put down a straight flush to beat Sparky's four of a kind. Sparky just hung her head in defeat.
Alloy was wondering why the little pokemon liked to fly around so much and continued to use his powers to fly her through the air while scorpio watched to make sure the little pokemon would be ok.
Eira watched the two play and wondered just how lucky Z was if he seemed to win so easily. She frowned in thought as she tried to understand how he had won without trying and how she could possibly do the same when she started to play against him.
*Fwip! Fwip me!* Grace called happily to Alloy, cheering for him to continue playing with her. *Bwotha pway too! Bwotha pway too pweaz!*
Alloy used his powers to flip Grace through the air and Scorpio caught her stone when it fell from her pouch. Alloy then held her still and Scorpio began to tickle her with his claws and tail, using all three limbs to tickle three spots at once.
Z put down another winning hand causing Sparky to push her remaining treats toward him in surrender. "I like this game," said Z.
Nurse Joy chose that time to return with their pokemon, "your pokemon are all better. Just don't push them this far again."
"Thank you Nurse Joy," Eira said gratefully as she took Shimmer's ball from the nurse, thankful that her partner was doing well now. Eira then turned to Z with a sheepish smile. "So, shall we have our gym battle tomorrow since it is a bit late for a good battle to happen?"
Grace giggled, but tried to fidget away from the tickling claws since it was also a bit annoying to her. When she had had enough, Grace's hands began to glow white as she smacked Scorpio's claws, using Return on them on accident in her irritation.
Scorpio pulled back his claws and rubbed the bruises on them from the powerful attack. *Ouch.*
Alloy put grace down and levitated her stone back into her pouch, before checking on scorpio to make sure he was alright. it was a powerful attack because of Grace's affection for Eira.
"Sounds good," said Z, "I need to clean the gym up a bit too. Our last battle was pretty hard on the arena. I have craters to fill in and boulders to remove." Sparky chuckled causing Z to glare at her, "just for that, you're helping."
"Oh, let us help too then since we helped cause the damage," Eira said with a frown, having not wanted to cause trouble for her young friend when he was just starting out as a gym leader. "I'm sure my Pokemon could help out a lot with fixing things up."
Grace frowned at Scorpio being hurt, tearing up at the idea of him being injured for some reason. *Bwotha huwt? Big Bwotha okay? Big Bwotha owie?*
Scorpio patted Grace on the head, *you're strong little one. Very strong. One day you'll be able to protect your mother from her threats* Alloy nodded and used his powers to pick Grace up and place her on his flat body so she could ride him.
"I'd like that," said Z, "and I'm sure sparky would like the help as well." he added causing sparky to shoot him a glare. "My pokemon would welcome the help in fixing up the gym. It would make things go much faster."
Grace rolled forward on Alloy's flat top, landing on her stomach as she looked at Scorpio with a wide smile. *I twong? What pwotet Mama?*
"Anything we can do to help," Eira promised with a smile at her young friend. Walrein probably couldn't do too much and Grace would probably have to be put down for a nap soon, but Shimmer could use Psychic to help and Meta could turn into Alloy or Sparky and could help that way. "We helped destroy it, so we can help fix it."
"thanks," said Z with a sigh of relief, "that really will help things along." Z was very grateful that Eira had offered to help, as she had some powerful pokemon as well that wpuld really be useful in cleaning the remains of the battle from the arena.
Scorpio nodded, *you will grow up to be very strong and you can keep your mama safe from bad people that want to hurt her." Scorpio patted Grace on her head and picked her up, *don't worry about me, I'm strong too so i'm just fine.*
"I'm sure we can get things cleaned up quite quickly between all of us," Eira smiled at him, thinking of what all she could do in order to help out with cleaning up the gym.
*Pweeple wan huwt Mama?* Grace muttered as began to sniffle before she broke out in tears, upset at the idea of someone wanting to hurt Eira even if they weren't actually doing so in that moment. *No! No huwt Mama!*
Suddenly Fraxure began to glow and change shape, growing bigger and more armored until a Haxorus stood there and roared. "Awesome!" exclaimed Z, "you finally evolved!" Haxorus let out a happy roar, picking Z up with his tail and allowing him t climb onto his back. Sparky looked up at Haxourus, *so you're finally bigger than me.*
Scorpio wiped Grace's tears away, *Don't worry little one, just grow up strong and nobody will hurt your mama with you protecting her.*
"Congratulation," Eira called when Haxorus evolved, surprised by the sudden evolution and finding that this would make her gym battle against Z all the harder. "I had no idea that your partner was so close to evolving. I was thinking about evolving Shimmer myself soon."
Grace sniffled and looked up at Scorpio with a pout. *I gwow up now. I pwotet Mama fwom peepewl like Papa.*
Scorpio patted Grace's head, *I'm sure you will little one. I'm sure you will.*
"Neither did I," said Z, "I guess our battle gave him the push he needed to evolve to the next level of his power." Z scratched Haxorus's head from atop the dragon pokemon, "now he's all grown up and stronger than ever." Haxorus gave a happy roar as Z scratched his happy spot like he had when he was just an Axew, "Shall we head to to gym?" asked Z as he signaled for his other pokemon to follow him.