AN/: Guten Tag, und herzlich willkommen! Don't let the German intimidate you, this story is absolutely in English with a few sprinklings of German phrases and words here and there. This project has been something I've been working on intermittently for a while when I've had time with my other and many responsibilities.

So, what I'd like to lay out right now, is my goals and expectations for this story, along with my reasoning for doing what I've done.

This story, stemming from a conversation I had with a friend of mine, is more 'The real world with Pokémon' than 'Pokémon in the real world'. There's some conventions of the series I'm deviating from, as you'll notice as you go through the progression of the story. I have my opinions on how this sort of thing would work, and I'm sure you and many others have your own opinions on how this scenario would actually play out. But unless Game Freak, Nintendo and the other respective owners try to do something like this(or they have and I don't know anything about it at all), we'll never really know. So, please take that in mind when you're reading my story.

You're probably wondering how often this story will be updated. The best answer I can give is that I don't know. I do have a life outside of this website and all of that takes precedence over this, because in the grand scheme of things, the story is fairly insignificant and something I just enjoy on the side for fun and not some super serious endeavor. So, before any of you down the line start peppering me with messages asking when the next chapter will be, the answer will always be, 'It'll be done when it's done.' Although I don't really take this super seriously, I want to provide high quality content for you to enjoy, and that's something I do value and I know that it benefits you as a reader(since I'm a reader too) to have a chapter of high quality, versus one that comes early that does not really pass muster. So, to put it simply, there will be no schedule.

My goals for this story is to present a narrative that's something a little different than the typical story on here and plays off of things I've experienced from the time I've spent in Germany. I lived and studied there for two months a year or so ago, and it really inspired me to get started on writing this story because of how unique of a place it is. I've especially grown to love German music and you'll notice some references to some of the artists I've grown fond of thanks to recommendations from some kind people I had the good fortune to meet. I have a very love/hate relationship with Germany, and you'll probably notice that with some things that are said and things that happen in the story. There are things I love about being there, and things I very much hate about it. But would I go back and do it all again?

Absolutely.

So, I want to give people a taste of that world, for those who can't experience it, along with shaking the equation up with the inclusion of Pokémon into the mix.

Then that leaves the last questioned to be answered.

Why?

It's funny to really say out loud what the planted the seed in my mind for this story, because my writing friends and I joke about it all the time. It's Snowblind by Jason Marten. One of my friends said "You literally got the idea from a story that's sort of Pokémon Ice Road Truckers". I read some of it around 2013-2014 or so when I was beginning to get into the website and writing in general, and something about it piqued my interest and I thought, one day I could do something like that, but who knows if it would be good enough for anyone to even look at, let alone read. But now, the day has come. And I'll leave you to decide for yourselves what the answer to that is.

Viel Glück, and enjoy,

Der Graue

This story is dedicated to the many friends who made this possible. Special thanks to three in particular who have helped with proofreading and one who also helped with the cover image.

(There will be no further Author's Notes until the end of Chapter 4, since the first four chapters are all available immediately.)

Ch.1 Und Jetzt Was?

"Einsteigen, bitte!"

That robotic voice, oh how many times I had heard it before. It was essentially stamped into my brain at this point. Everyone knew it in Berlin. Everyone rides the S-Bahn. It was the nighttime commute for the chronic workaholics and hopeless addicts to vice.

"Zurückbleiben, bitte!"

Only for the drunkards.

I was slumped up against the rail separating my seat from the door once the subway train shunted back into motion after another punctual stop. There wasn't a lot of people on here this late on a Friday night. Most were already off partying and drinking in the bars or heading to where I was going.

Friday nights were liberation for me. I got out of the hostel from the stuffy-rich Kurfürstendamm borough to the battling dojo in the center of downtown Berlin at Ulli's. Ulli's was everything in my life ever since I was kicked out by my father from home outside of Leipzig a couple hundred miles south of Berlin a few years back when I turned eighteen. I got a job there as a battle referee, so I did pretty well money-wise along with the money I made from battling myself. The only reason I didn't live at Ulli's was because the hostel housing for trainers and staff who worked at Ulli's was in Olivaer Platz across the city. Mitte real estate in the dead center of town was way too expensive to keep two places for very long unless you were killing the profits.

My eyes were dancing lazily around at my fellow passengers as the train passed through the city, with everything outside blurry from the darkness. Up to the top of my nose, my farm-tanned face was covered by the fabric of the collar from my grey Luftwaffe leather jacket, undoubtedly my most expensive flea market weekend purchase. Along with my blue jeans, and pale white trainers, I looked the part of a very ordinary young Berliner. My bright blond hair stuck out, combed to the right with the sides and back shaved. That was ordinary compared to a lot of people here, I must admit. I was slightly regretting my choice of not wearing a cap, since it was November and bloody cold as well. The dull lighting inside the S-Bahn definitely wasn't burning my pale green eyes as they settled down to the floor, staring at my impatiently tapping foot. Getting around on the U-Bahn and S-Bahn was more convenient than walking the whole damn way, but it still meant waiting to get there and walking some more.

Ulli's was quite a ways from the stop I had to get off at, and it didn't change the fact I had to change trains at the Zoologischer Garten to get to Friedrichstraße, which was the closest street stop I could get to Ulli's. After all that, I still had to cross the river to get there. I preferred to walk as little as I could in this bitter cold. After a couple more minutes in silence and being lit in flashes by passing neon and streetlights, the call finally came.

"Friedrichstraße."

Of course, the kind automated Frau always stated her health and safety guidelines for getting off the train, but everyone essentially tuned it out. It was meaningless since we had heard it so many times. Everyone could probably recite in their sleep though. The brakes on the train screeched into life, slowing the metal snake down as we finally came to the platform. I pushed myself up and back to the real world as I waited in line at the door to disembark.

Once we came to a stop, the old man in front, dressed for a funeral in his black overcoat and fedora, pressed the button to open the door, unleashing the cold air into our faces as we came onto the platform. Another red and piss yellow S-Bahn flew past on the opposite platform as I descended down the stairs into the main part of the station to finally get out onto Friedrichstraße. As I headed outside, I passed through the electronic field barrier, emitting a dull hum at every train station entrance and exit in Germany. Once out onto the colorfully lit streets of the city, I relaxed, letting down my fabric collar with a sigh.

I pulled a small black drawstring bag out of the pocket inside my jacket, opening it to find six ping-pong sized red-and-white balls. I pulled one out marked with a crescent moon and placed the bag back inside my jacket. I pressed the button in between the red and white, enlarging the ball, and it opened with a blinding flash. When the lightshow ended I snapped it closed and placed the empty ball in my front coat pocket, bulging the grey leather significantly. A decently-sized four-legged black creature sat patiently in front of of me, head cocked to the right, with its long black ears with yellow ovals glowing dimly in the night.

"Guten Abend, Kage," I smirked back at him as I squatted down to his level and rubbed his head between the ears, scratching the spots on his fur he loved me to get for him.

"Breee-on," he responded with a reluctant, cat-like purr.

"You're right, we do have somewhere to be."

We began our walk to the north over the bridge on the Spree River, finally seeing everyone out with their Pokémon. It was sometimes still a bit of system shock with everyone out with Pokémon everywhere having grown up out in the countryside, but it was allowed only to an extent, the police kept a pretty tight control over what could be allowed in the city. Certain flying Pokémon and other large sized ones were only allowed under special permit by the police and government. It was much harder to get some of the highly coveted ones often used in competition, so naturally there was a black market for that. When is there not a black market for something?

Kage kept pace with me as we finally came to Ziegelstraße and turned right onto it. This street was lit up heavily from lights advertising the bars and restaurants. There was a big piece of painted street art on a large concrete apartment building. It was advertisement for Pallas, a major American sports brand, with Germany's best two professional trainers Michael Hahn and Nadia Segert. Both had the famous curled wing across the chest, with their Pokémon teams of six surrounding them in a dazzling, swirling art style as they stared down at passers-by in the street. Across the bottom of it in big white letters on black, a caption read:

Riskier alles.

Risk everything.

That big advertisement had been placed there because of the World Cup qualifiers being held in Berlin in January. The buzz on Ziegel was pretty electric ever since it was announced. Quite a few well-known battle dojos were located all along the street here, with Ulli's being one of them. A lot of people were out drinking on the patios and at street-side tables despite the cold. It took only the snow and rain to force people inside, since half the people in Berlin were cigarette smoking addicts. As Kage and I moseyed our way down the sidewalk past the restaurants filled with people and quite a few Pokémon, I finally came to Ulli's on the right side of the street.

Ulli's was in a relatively new, fairly large former comedy club building. The building was a dark grey which looked almost black at night time. A big red neon sign hung above the entryway. It had a large arrow beckoning towards the door. The only thing written on the sign was simply 'Ulli's', with a Machamp and Hitmonlee trading blows back and forth in a never-ending battle.

I walked inside to the harsh smell of liquor and tobacco smoke, a lot worse than outside. Ulli's was a part-bar part-dojo hybrid that had become incredibly popular in the past three-to-four years. The entrance and first area you entered looked a lot like a standard bar, with a lot of TVs showing matches in the dojo and international live matches on the regular networks. The owner had made a rather wise decision to keep the dojo separated by big glass windows, not allowing the rabble in so the drunks wouldn't interfere with the matches. Along with keeping the general stench out of the dojo, it was much easier to keep the dojo clean for the fighters and Pokémon.

Ulli's was also fairly popular since you could smoke inside. After the nationwide indoor smoking ban in bars and pubs, everyone was trying to find a way to get around it. The first owner of the building had done it in a rather creative way. Taking the term 'hole-in-the-wall bar' literally, he chopped a big hole in the wall on the wall to the left of the bar. He made it large enough to make the room 'open-air' and the inspectors could do jack-shit about it.

However, no one in their right mind ever brought their pokémon into the bar at the peak hours. They struggled with the smoke just as bad as any sane human being did. Kage was doing his best not to breath it in. He especially didn't like the smoke, and would start coughing very badly if he inhaled too much. When I looked over to him as I walked along, he was bulging somewhat from holding his breath.

Oh good lord, I sighed, Give him just a few more seconds.

The owner of Ulli's was behind the bar working away at keeping the Bier flowing. His name was Roland von Saudek, a 41 year old heavily-muscled man built more like a Panzer tank than anything related to the human species. Roland looked the part of former military with the brown buzzed hair, black eyes, multiple face scars, plain grey t-shirt, and german desert camouflage pants. He actually never had been in the military but it was a nice appearance for him to maintain so people wouldn't mess with him. As I headed around the main room towards the door heading to locker room of the dojo, I waved in his direction, and he returned a bright smile with a wave as well. I pulled out my keychain and unlocked the steel door, opening and closing it quickly as I hurried through.

Now, I'm home.

I could hear Kage letting out his breath with a heavy sigh, panting hard to lap up all the clean air he could. I turned my head to give him a wink, and he quickly plopped on after me. This hallway was painted in a dull beige with plain white bathroom tile adorning the floor, there were several doors on the sides of the hallway, and a large double black door at the end. I opened the last door on the left side to head into the employee locker room to put my extra stuff away and get my work clothes on. A couple people from the previous shift and my shift were in there, including my partner in crime for most nights, Isaak Baumann, a messy, brown haired 20 year old who, despite being almost 196 cm tall still looked like he was seventeen, maybe eighteen years old if I was being generous. Isaak had a big grin on his face when I came through the door.

"About time you showed up, König Gunter Schöll," he said holding out his hand in a fist, which I quickly bumped as I went over to my locker, "Hey Kage, has he not given you any treats today?"

Of course I had, but Isaak knows Kage would do anything to gets his paws on some more, and Isaak had a penchant for fueling the Umbreon's craving for blueberries. Isaak always got some at the farmer's market everyday so if we were on the same shift he would bring his leftovers to let Kage munch on them during the dead time.

Kage was sitting on his haunches licking his lips as Isaak threw a couple in his direction, and Kage quickly snatched them out of the air with no trouble, chewing and swallowing them in a matter of seconds. Kage wagged his tail on the floor, signaling he clearly wanted more.

"I can't give you all of them now," Isaak chuckled, closing his locker with a metallic thud.

I threw my jacket in the locker as I straightened my black polo shirt with a small 'Ulli's' on the right front side, glancing over at the two and their argument.

"You know he's going to get them eventually," I said, answering for Kage.

"He's going to have to work to get fat then," Isaak snarked back as he threw his black leather battle belt with six poke balls attached over his left shoulder, "Did you bring the full crew today?"

"Jawohl," I replied quickly, fixing my poke balls to a worn, brown leather battle belt, and placed my mobile phone into a pouch on the belt, "I'm probably going to need most of them by the time is over to break up the disputes. Some idiot is going to claim I called on their guys out early, and it's always me."

"With that attitude, it most certainly will be you," Isaak continued, heading over to the door as I finished up, propping it open with his foot, "Maybe if you didn't worry so much, it'd go more smoothly."

"I can't help it, you know that."

"All too well, I'm afraid."

"Well then, let's get going."

I headed back out to hall with Kage in tow, and Isaak at my right side. We started talking about some football match that I had missed again, when we went through the black double doors at the end of the hall into the dojo of Ulli's. It was a pretty big area, a high vaulted warehouse space, with about 10 smaller, enclosed battle zones, and one large zone in the center. All of them had steel reinforcement on the walls to protect them from damage, and the glass that was there was tempered safety glass, which did stop most of the damage and held in place pretty well, and even if it did break so we could replace it easily. If someone was going to use something like a Tyranitar, we had to be notified in advance so we could get extra glass and they could only be in the the large main zone. A Gyarados was the reason behind that rule. It blasted out an entire small enclosure in two minutes. Let's just say the clean up was not pleasant for any of the staff.

The main desk area was off to the left, with a row of tables and seats along the wall facing towards the desk itself. The desk was the only entrance to let people into the battle zones. I didn't have to be the victim for desk duty anymore since I got a class A refereeing license about half a year ago. So I was one of a handful here who could referee large matches legally. I always got picked for that job without fail when I was around since Roland liked having me here. A lot of the nicer guys typically requested me to show up, so it felt good to have some decent people respect the work I did.

Lucie Wehner sat in her chair behind the large desk, slowly spinning left and right, with her chin firmly planted into her right hand as she dreamed of a much better Friday night. Once we both approached, she seemed to wake from her stupor, seeming slightly cheerful at least. She was dressed in similar attire to the both of us, with her long black hair tied up in a ponytail. Lucie was significantly more tanned than either of us, especially since she purposely went out and paid to be like that. I never really understood her reasoning for it. She had these exceptionally bright blue eyes that were fairly magnetic, and to no one's surprise, Lucie found herself a boyfriend within two weeks of moving to Berlin. I guess that says enough about how attractive she was.

"Hey you two," Lucie greeted us warmly. She got up from her spot and let us in so we could go through everyone's paperwork who was scheduled for the night.

To run a dojo would be simple, you'd think, but the mountains of paperwork that had to be signed and presented in order to be allowed to do this was ridiculous. It was nice that once you got the first timers out of the way they didn't have to do it it again, but we always had a lot of first-timers that floated around the different spots in town, especially the foreigners.

"We've got quite a few new ones tonight," Lucie sighed as she sat down and reclaimed her post, though her fortunes turned since Kage felt he needed to curl up in her lap, "Quite a few Americans and English here. I pushed up Manuel and Andreas for you, Gunter since they showed up. Apparently, Manuel somehow got a Noivern."

"Scheiße, for real?" Isaak shouted, "I heard there's only ten in Europe right now."

Lucie shrugged as she scratched Kage's head, eliciting a low friendly growl from him, "I've seen it myself."

"How good do you think it is?" I walked over to one of the cabinets opposite of Lucie, grabbing a water bottle from it.

She shrugged. "It looks alright to me, who really knows though." After a moment of silence, her eyes lit up in realization, "Do you guys remember last time Manuel pulled that trick with that Zoroark?"

Isaak and I looked at each other and smirked. "You mean the Zoroark he refuses to show papers for and won't say a single thing about, ever?" Isaak asked, looking over to Lucie as she grinned back at us.

"Guess we'll get to find out what this is all about!" I said, giving a Isaak a slap on the back.

"It'd better be worth it," Lucie chuckled as she turned her attention back to her work.

The rest of the referees of the night began to come through and head to their spots as we all shared quick greetings with them. When the clock finally hit 2215, it was time to get going. Lucie started calling up the first matches which were quite a few of the Americans, and one or two locals.

Die Amis are in for a shock.

I was stuck sitting around since the first big match wasn't for another ten or fifteen minutes. Of course, Manuel and Andreas took this as their cue, sauntering over to the desk with their Pokéball belts slung over their shoulders.

"Hey Gunter, good to see you," Andreas, the rail thin, buzz cut blonde chirped as we clasped hands in greeting, "You get to have us first."

"Well, I don't think I could have two bigger shit-heads than you to take care of," I snorted back as I glanced over at Kage who was lying on his back while Lucie scratched his exposed stomach as she worked away on her laptop.

"Oh come on, give us a break man," the chiseled, boisterous red haired Manuel huffed, "We can't be that bad."

"If you keep lying about that Noivern, yeah you can be," I replied, staring back at Manuel, "Come on, we all know it's the Zoroark trick. Do you really think you're going to fool Andreas into thinking that's not what you're trying to do?"

Manuel just rolled his eyes at me, "At least I follow the rules."

Unfortunately, he does have point. But he's avoiding the question again…there's something fishy with this whole thing…

"How much money have they put down on this one upstairs?" I changed the subject as I pulled off one of my pokéballs from my belt as I let them both through the desk so we could set up the main battle zone.

"Five thousand so far," Lucie interjected, "Good luck you two."

Whew. Big night.

They both held up a hand in thanks as we headed down the passageway. To our left behind a wall of glass, an Empoleon was barely standing its ground against a barrage of attacks by a Skarmory, the steel bird darting every which way as it poked for a hole to finally put the Empoleon down. Further down a stream of flame darted from the mouth of a Torkoal, with a Cacturne running along the walls attempting to close the distance enough to hit the turtle-like Pokémon with a feint attack of its own.

We turned off to the right to the big zone. Above the entry, as with all the battle zones, read this caption:

"Bis einer heult!"

Until one cries! Pah, neither of these guys are going to go down that easy.

Once you were inside the glass and steel cage, you finally really felt how big the arena was. It seemed like it went on endlessly in every direction, but when the battling started, that size shrank very fast.

On instinct, I finally activated the pokéball in my left hand once everyone was, at last, getting ready and I watched as a big shadow grew over me. It was only a moment before I was buried in yellow and white fur accompanied by playful barking.

"Fritz! Fritz!" I managed to squeak out as the massive Arcanine buried me in his big mane, "Nicht jetzt! Hal-t-t-t!"

He finally realized his error as I rolled out from my furry tomb, with Andreas and Manuel having a hearty laugh at my expense.

"That sucker's got a big damn heart," Andreas smiled.

Too big almost.

Fritz…there are almost no words that described the bond we shared. We grew up together almost like brothers on my parent's farm. My father was and still is a world-renowned Growlithe and Arcanine breeder, the only one certified by the highest Chinese breeding standards in the western world. Fritz was born when I was 5-6 years old, and the first shiny-genome that my father had ever bred. Of course since he was worth an absolute fortune with his genes, he immediately endeared himself to me and we were inseparable. Once Fritz evolved into a Arcanine when I was ten, I remember being absolutely petrified at the possibility of my dad selling him. When I asked him years later about it, he knew from the first moments that selling Fritz to someone else would be a horrible idea. Arcanine are definitely very proud pokémon, and on a few occasions we had ones that refused to leave the farm to go be with others. Those were the ones that stuck around and were some of my 'older' brothers growing up.

Blink, Gigant, Ruprecht, Leo. I definitely missed them a lot. Those were some fun summer days running with them in the meadows.

During my time-traveling, Fritz sat on his hind legs, his head cocked in worry that he had hurt me. Once I looked to him and smiled, his tongue hung out over his teeth in eager happiness. He lowered his head and I gave him a pat on the nose as we went to the middle of the zone with Andreas and Manuel.

I took out the order sheet, and it turned out it was just going to be a two on two single battle. Manuel had his 'Noivern' and a Torterra, while Andreas brought a Mawile along with a Medicham. This seemed to be a very intriguing matchup. With the standard non-professional 'house rules', there was no time limit and you had no idea about the lineup or the fixed order of the pokémon of your opponent fielded. The referee knew everything, so that sometimes took the excitement out of things.

I figured no one wanted to waste any more time. With the customary handshake at the center out of the way, each trainer went to their respective side as I moved back up against the glass at the center line, to give me a full view of the area. Once everything looked in order, I put my whistle in my mouth and blew to signal the start.

Manuel started out with his party piece Noivern and Andreas launched his own Mawile out into the fray. The Noivern was hovering in the air slightly in front of Manuel, with the Mawile planted to the ground in a fighting stance waiting for the attack. With a quick hand signal from Manuel, the Noivern climbed into flight and prepared to dive down onto the seemingly minuscule Mawile. The Noivern though hesitated at the last second in a calculated move, opening its fangs and letting out an intense blast of flame in a precise beam down towards the Mawile.

The Noivern looks right, but something about it seems off.

Andreas called for the Mawile to move, and it responded quickly, leaping to safety not a moment too soon. But the Noivern, seeking to press the advantage did not relent its attack. It turned quickly to hopefully catch the Mawile unaware with the boiling hot flames. The Mawile seemed tired with being on the chase, so it leapt into the air towards the dragon, causing the Noivern to flinch and latched onto the Dragon with its claws, bashing it repeatedly with a fairy-type attack that I hadn't seen before.

"It's called 'Play Rough'" Andreas shouted to me, "Pretty good, huh?"

I nodded as the Noivern managed to shake the Mawile from its grasp and the dragon clattered into the ground. The struggling Noivern was then covered in a dark shroud, eventually revealing what everyone knew already. Manuel's Zoroark played the part rather well despite being at a severe disadvantage. But even after the trick had been revealed, again something seemed very wrong. The Zoroark's hands were for some reason much smaller than they should've been and then as I glared towards its face, I finally realized what was going on.

That's a Ditto!

The overly simplified face and trying to remember the Zoroark's appearance had done in Manuel's double-sleight of hand. Even so, the Zoroark-Ditto had a trick up its sleeve. When the Mawile landed, the Zoroark-Ditto cast its minuscule hands together creating a massive ball of energy and sending a heavy, hazy wave of blue towards the Mawile in a flash. The wave caught the Mawile off guard, sending it flying up against the glass with a heavy thud, once it hit the ground, it was barely moving and the hybrid was bounding in to finish it off.

I blew my whistle.

"FRITZ! HOL IHN!"

Fritz roared angrily in reply, sprinting off to get in front of the Zoroark-Ditto with ease. He butted heads with the dark type, staggering it back in shock that Fritz had gotten there so quick. I rushed over to look at the Mawile, still struggling on the ground. I looked over to Andreas and shook my head.

"No problem, Gunter," Andreas said with a chuckle as he came over and recalled the Mawile into its ball, "Guess I have some work to do. Can't believe that asshole was running a Ditto the whole time."

"He's going to have to come up with some other trick now," I replied with a hearty laugh, rushing back to my spot on the center line, with Fritz pushing the Zoroark back into its spot with Manuel. Andreas then sent out his Medicham, still laughing. Then something rather surprising happened, our laughing for some reason spread to the Ditto, who had started laughing itself for some reason. As a result, it was no longer able to keep up its rather poor facade, and returned to being a disappointing purple blob.

That set everyone off. Almost everyone was laughing at the great trickster being revealed as a Ditto, and Manuel was growing more red in the face by the moment. I was pretty sure I heard Lucie completely lose herself over the whole episode.

But, the time for screwing around was over. Fritz returned to my side, and as soon as I was satisfied with everything, I blew my whistle again and the match was resumed.

Andreas quickly brought up his black wristband, pressing down a big colored button. The Medicham began to levitate, surrounded by pink and grey energy bands, and then broke out of it, revealing its Mega Evolution form. Four hand like wisps surrounded it, while the true hands were pressed together, and an much more elaborate head piece adorned the crown of the pokémon's head. It had the cold stare of a real fighter.

Not a moment later, once the Medicham touched down, Andreas quickly shouted, "High jump kick!" It was a risky attack since the accuracy of such a difficult move was nowhere near guaranteed. But since the Medicham was feeding off the desperation of Andreas, it knew the stakes. The Ditto did its best to avoid it, appearing in small flashes everywhere so it could land a quick attack of some sort. The Medicham seemed completely unperturbed by any of it as it flew gracefully through the air. It was going towards a particular spot not far from the direct center and it landed on the Ditto perfectly, sending the amorphous blob skidding into the ground all the way back to Manuel.

Out cold.

I blew my whistle, and Manuel knew his transformer was done, quickly recalling it. "Now it is time for the real fun, Andreas!"

The big boss had arrived. The Torterra smashed its feet into the ground upon arrival, shaking what felt like the whole building, letting out a guttural roar. Fritz didn't look too eager about taking his chances with that monster, luckily he didn't have to fight something like that head-to-head tonight.

I blew my whistle, and immediately the attacks went flying, razor leafs, zen headbutts, force palms, solar beams. It went back and forth for what seemed like forever. Neither was able to quite make hits on the other. The Torterra, despite its size, was using its incredible offensive power as a defense against the more nimble Medicham, forcing the fighting-psychic mega to break from its attack to avoid more damage.

Manuel seemed to be getting frustrated, I knew what he wanted to do, he had one trick left and it was going to really shake the place. Literally.

"Erdbeben!"

The Earthquake…

And then everything turned blurry, the whole arena shook violently from the Torterra's power, the Medicham was barely able to maintain focus through it. I could definitely see it wavering, but by God somehow it was still standing there, resolute. Fritz was hanging onto the ground as if his life depended on it, and I was barely able to remain on my feet. I heard the cracking and smashing of one or two of the panes of glass as they fell down to the floor outside the arena. Through the shaking and vibrating, the Medicham took to the air again, spinning itself into another attack, letting its right hand fly out which began to glow a dull bright bluish-white.

I smirked.

The Medicham came down like a missile, smashing into the side of the Torterra with its last move, ice punch. The attack sent ice shards flying in several directions, which Fritz deftly took care of the ones flying towards himself and I with his fiery breath. The Torterra slumped to the ground with a massive clatter, sending dust and dirt up in several directions. The Medicham landed calmly in front of it as Andreas made his way over, with myself and Fritz in tow.

"Wow."

That was all Andreas could say. Manuel recalled the Torterra with a rather large smile on his face as he and Andreas shared a big hug. As ever, Manuel was courteous in defeat, and couldn't shut up about how amazing the spectacle looked. Funny enough, when I looked up to the glass panes where everyone was watching from the bar, they were all standing, cheering, and clapping. I looked to Fritz and he just did his little shrug.

"Thanks for keeping everything in line," Manuel said with a wink as he handed me an envelope, "Sorry for all the secrets. Turns out I had something you didn't even expect!"

"Well, I was certainly surprised, I must admit," I laughed as Fritz bounded up over towards Manuel.

"And you did a good job too, alte junge!" Manuel chirped with his hands on his hips as the Arcanine planted himself in front of the red-haired trainer.

Fritz just barked happily back, slobbering Manuel with a warm lick on the face.

"Alright, alright! Good boy!" Manuel laughed as he went and gave Fritz a pat on the head.

Andreas followed suit with an envelope of his own, Medicham at his side still.

"Great as always, Gunter," Andreas smiled, "Thanks for helping us put on a good show."

"No problem, you two," I replied, shaking the envelopes in my hand, "I might just stick around if you keep this up!"

We all had a laugh together as we walked back out to continue the fun for a couple more hours.