Adam strolled down the cold heartless street; most of the shops were closed. The town was empty; only a few of the 24-hour shops were open. The cold wind slapped him in the face as he walked. He couldn't remember really why he came out in such foul weather but he had a purpose. He continued to walk remembering some of the things that had happened to him in the year. He'd managed to form a deeper friendship with his Pokémon friends; he never really travelled with anyone, only his Pokémon. He was shocked that he hadn't gone insane by now. He'd also managed to get 8 badges for the Pokémon league. This was it, what he'd been working for was finally coming to pass. Competing meant so much, yet so little to Adam; he'd trained his Pokémon hard for this. He was determined to beat everyone else and he knew that with his Pokémon, anything was possible.
He arrived at the colossal building. It was enormous; bigger than anything he had ever seen before in his life. He starred up and looked directly at it. The structure was unique yet simplistic. He knew this was a moment in time he would never forget. He pushed the solid metal door open, just enough, so he could slip in. He then closed the door behind him and looked inside. What faced him was the biggest Pokémon stadium he had ever seen. The arena was open all hours but no trainers came here at this time, it was so late. No one would dream of being here the night before the competition started. He walked into the empty arena; it had almost an eerie feel to it. This was a place that should never be empty for the spirits of past trainers whistled through the empty stalls; Adam could feel it in his bones. He walked into the middle of the battling arena and studied it closely. It was simplistic but it was important to know the field of battle, to see if there were any weaknesses that could be exploited. His first match was on the ice field. He grabbed two Pokéballs from his belt and let the two Pokémon out. His Wartortle and Gengar stood proud in front of him, awaiting his commands.
"Take your positions." He stated. His command was clear and decisive. To most people he would seem heartless. Battling his Pokémon right before a match, pitting one of them against the other. His voice seemed flat, without tone, but Adam's heart and soul was in this. He never left anything to chance when it came to battling Pokémon and his Pokémon knew that. Wartortle and Gengar ran to the middle of the ring and faced each other. They stood a fair distance apart from each other to start with; the two Pokémon smiled in the face of battle. "Are you ready?" Adam asked from the side of the ring. Gengar had taught him psychically how to speak his Pokémon's language, so he understood his Pokémon as clear as day.
"Gar." Gengar said with affirmatively
"Tortle." Wartortle replied with daggers for eyes.
"Then Wartortle, Ice Beam NOW!" The commands he shouted out to his Pokémon were nothing like before; they were filled with passion, caring; something he always had during a battle. His Pokémon were the most important thing that he knew but not a lot of people understood that. Wartortle quickly opened its mouth and fired a beam of ice at Gengar, which managed to just barely dodge it. "Gengar Confuse RAY!" Gengar put its two hands up and spread soft light rays towards Wartortle, which started to stager as it got caught up in them. Adam hesitated a bit, he didn't want to, but he had no choice. "Gengar… Psychic!" Gengar nodded as it put its hands to its temples then pushed them out in front of him; a purple light surrounded Wartortle as he started to lift of the ground. Wartortle was flung up to a great height. Adam quickly had an idea just before Gengar dropped him; Wartortle looked alive again now. "Wartortle use withdraw!" Adam screamed at the top of his lungs. The turtle like Pokémon barely heard but got the message, it tried to retreat into its shell but it couldn't; the psychic attack had blocked its ability to use its own limbs. Gengar flung his arms down which resulted in Wartortle flying towards the ground at an incredible speed. The powerless Pokémon still trying to retreat into its shell failed as it hit the floor. Dust flew up and Surrounded Wartortle. Adam was about to run over to Wartortle to help him but stopped and walked instead. He got to Wartortles side and bent down. "Are you OK?" He asked; now back to that flat tone but Wartortle knew he cared. The weary Pokémon nodded its head gently.
"I'm fine." It replied. Adam got the Pokéball and returned Wartortle to his belt. Gengar walked over to Adam.
"I don't think he's gonna be able to win in the ice field tournament." Gengar stared intently into Adams eyes. He needed to show Adam that what he was saying was out of love for his friend.
"No. Wartortle will be fine tomorrow. I know he can do it and if I didn't use him to battle I'd be a bad trainer and a bad friend." As Adam finished Gengar smiled and nodded. "Plus, you are one tough ghost Pokémon." The two laughed light-heartedly. "We best be getting back." Adam checked his watch "4:45am, well it's a competition day so we can go and heal Wartortle at 5. May as well make our way to the centre now." Adam started to walk off.
"Adam wait." Gengar stopped Adam in his tracks. "Are you sure this is how you want to keep training? I saw you out there. I've been your friend for a long time and I know when you hesitate, something's up. Is everything alright?" Gengar looked up to Adam as he waited for his answer.
"I don't know… I've always trained you guys this way and it's worked pretty well but… I've just not been feeling myself recently." Adam sighed.
"OK but this type of training only works if you're prepared to stay tough and not be weak with your Pokémon. Let's get Wartortle to the Pokémon centre before it gets crowded." The two walked off in the direction of the centre. It was still windy and bitterly cold but Gengar didn't mind; he'd always been there for Adam and he wasn't about to stop now. The two pushed through the doors of the Pokémon centre, trying not to wake anyone up. The nurse Joy behind the counter yawned sleepily, I mean it was 5am only Adam and his Pokémon tended to be up at this time. Well… he did know one other person but he hadn't seen him in years. Nurse Joy spoke quietly as to not wake the other trainers.
"How may I help you?" Adam was looking around the room like a hawk; checking everyone out. Gengar nudged his knee.
"Oh … right … yeah." Adam grabbed the Pokéball from the back of his belt. "Could you heal my Wartortle please?" She nodded and took the Pokéball into the back room and returned to make small talk, as Nurse Joy's seemed to be famous for.
"Well you're up early, why so? Competition doesn't start for a while yet." She asked, expressing her gossiping nature.
"Oh, I just wanted to get some extra training in with my Wartortle before the competition started; then to beat the crush here." Adam turned back to check the people lounging around the centre.
"Ahhh, you must be Adam then. You're fighting on the Ice field first right?"
"Yeah, I am." Adam turned back to face her only momentarily, then returned to his systematic search of the centre.
"Well your Wartortle will take about an hour to heal. If you'd like you can stay here and get some rest." Adam looked at her and contemplated his options.
"What do yah think Gengar?"
"Ugh. Let's rest, I really need a brake." Adam nodded and walked over to a seat by the window; he sat down but jumped up quickly, remembering about his other Pokémon. He grabbed the 4 remaining Pokéballs left on his belt and opened them up; his remaining Pokémon popped out in a white flash of light.
"Hey a Pokémon centre, cool, that means some R 'n' R." Hitmonchan said as he slid down to rest against the chair Adam was sitting on.
"Meh, I'm not tired. I'm just gonna meditate." Kadabra slowly floated off the ground in a typical meditative position. Growlithe just yawned and jumped up onto Adam's lap; Adam wriggled slightly with Growlithe and they settled in.
"I have too much energy, I need to battle!" Scyther said noisily, nearly waking everyone up.
"Shhhh!" Nurse Joy looked over at Adam, signalling frantically to him to keep his Pokémon quiet.
"Come on Scyther relax. If you want to go back in the Pokéball that's fine. I just thought you might like to stretch out." Adam said trying to calm Scyther down a bit. "Actually Scyther you need some rest. I have the perfect solution that should work for a while." Gengar laughed and nodded. "Gengar. Hypnosis." Gengar started to emit Hypnotic waves from its eyes and moved its hands from side to side. Scyther looked drowsy and after an enormous yawn, fell into a heap leaning against the chair like Hitmonchan.
"That should keep him under for about a half an hour." Gengar chuckled then went to sit looking out of the window; he couldn't sleep. Unlike the rest of his friends who were out like a light, except Kadabra who might as well of been. He looked impatiently out of the window wondering, almost looking for something he couldn't find. He decided to do something instead of just sitting here. He remembered his dream eater attack worked in two ways; it let him eat dreams but also let him view them. He hoped up behind Adam, who looked like he was almost in a coma. The Pokémon closed his eyes and placed his two clawed hands over Adam's head, while emitting a rainbow-coloured light that hit nearly hit Adam's entire head. Gengar cringed as he received the images Adam was dreaming.
The rain beat down on Adam's face, he pushed his way through a sea of people all in black. Each person had a black umbrella; each one was exactly like the other. Adam panicked and grabbed one of them, shaking them awake. He looked at their face but they didn't have one, just a smooth flat surface. Adam turned each person round and looked at them one by one. They were all the same. How could they see where they were going? They didn't need to; they were all walking towards the same place. Adam tried to look for someone he knew or someone was different but there wasn't anyone. He was alone in this dream world. He couldn't find who he was looking for. He just walked with everyone else in the end; his spirit crushed. He quickly changed to be like everyone else.
Gengar suddenly snapped out of Adam's dream or more accurately nightmare. He felt something he didn't know what, it was a force, something familiar yet totally alien. He looked over to Kadabra.
"You feel it too?" Kadabra asked, feeling uneasy about being snapped out of its meditation. It floated back down to the ground. Gengar nodded. "Maybe we should go and investigate?" Kadabra wanted to find out what this strange almost intrusive feeling was.
"Yeah but… maybe we should wake Adam first?" Gengar was worried about him and didn't really want to leave him.
"What, you can't handle yourself without Adam?" Gengar looked at Kadabra with stern eyes. "Look he's sleeping, which isn't something he does very often, let's leave him be OK?" Gengar nodded in agreement and the two went outside, slipping past Nurse Joy who was in the back. They waited a minute to make sure they knew which way the feeling was coming from, it was to the left. They floated off down the path, since it was quicker to fly than to walk. The sensation got stronger as they travelled along the path, Gengar could start to feel it more clearly now; it was a person. He flew faster and faster but it was still a good 10 minutes before the two of them saw something on the horizon. It became clearer as they got nearer and finally Gengar could see what it was and he smiled. He made a passing glance at Kadabra and saw that he was smiling too. They finally knew who it was.