"Hey! Thanks for waiting for us." Seth said sarcastically as we arrived back at my house from the Goldenrod. He and Melody had arrived shortly after we had left.

"Oops. I totally forgot about you guys. I'm sorry, man." I said while scratching the back of my head. I had put Yenz back in his ball by time we had gotten home, so Seth didn't know about him yet.

"Ah? I'm offended." Melody said playfully. Her Pikachu mimicked her actions. "So there must be some pretty amazing reason that you forgot about your two best-est friends. What happened?"

"Hee hee." I laughed with a wide grin on my face. "Look at this!" I reached into my pocket and pulled out my trainer card, proudly displaying it for all to see. I was happy to show off my card, but I didn't show him Yenz yet. I wanted to surprise him a little later on. Dad had gone inside by this point so I figured he wouldn't spoil it.

"Whoa. Dude, no way! That's like freaking awesome!" Seth said in amazement. "So what's your first pokemon gonna be?"

"Hey!" Serah whined. "I got one too! Look!" She held out her trainer card.

"Way to go, sis." Seth said.

"Haha. Some newbie trainers." Melody butted in with a cocky grin. "We could wash these pups to shore in a single attack, right Seth?"

"Grrr." Serah growled under her breath. Once again nobody had heard this but me. I could see why Serah would be agitated this time. When I showed my trainer card, Melody had stayed quiet, but when Serah shows hers, Melody makes some smart remark about how better she is than us. This comment seemed more focused at Serah than it did at me.

"Heh, possibly, but Jet and Serah know there pokemon stuff. I wouldn't surprise me if they came close to a victory," Seth said in our defense. "But there's no way I was going to let one of them beat me." At that comment, my competitive spirit took over. I just couldn't control it. It's like a flame that burns inside of me, saying I must beat him.

"Oh yeah?" I said reaching for the pokeball in my jacket pocket. "Go Yenz!" I threw out the pokeball and my little Yenz popped out full of energy. As soon as he was released, he ran to me and nudged up against my leg. "Let's battle."

"Well, well, look who's eager to fight. I accept your challenge." Seth said with a grin. "Go Ghastly!"

"Oh boy, here they go again." Melody said burying her face in her hands.

"Hehe. I know, right. But this could turn out to be one nice battle, so I would watch if I were you. Although Seth's Ghastly has more experience battling and may be a bit stronger, Jet has the type advantage. His dark type Poochyena is stronger against Seth's ghost type Ghastly, so as one might assume that Seth would be an obvious winner for this battle, I would say that it could go either way. They seem to be equally matched at this point." Serah explained. Serah was quite the pokemon wiz. I would even go as far to say that she's the most knowledgeable one out of the four of us. She's definitely a shoe in for the apprenticeship.

"Let's start this!" I said in excitement. "Yenz go attack Ghastly!"

"Haha You think that's gonna win you a battle?" Seth said "Ghastly, dodge it and use a lick attack." Sure enough, Ghastly dodged Yenz attack and gave him a nasty lick all the way up Yenz spine. Yenz quivered in disgust. It was a pretty disgusting move, but it seemed to have taken it's toll on Yenz.

"Yenz! Snap out of it. Come on! Use tackle!" Yenz backed up and started to charge towards Ghastly. As Yenz went in for the tackle, Ghastly stood it's ground and didn't budge an inch. Yenz went flying straight through Ghastly. No! I had totally forgotten that normal type attacks such as tackle don't effect ghost type pokemon like Ghastly. I guess I was to caught up in the moment. I was so excited about my first actual pokemon battle that I had forgotten one of the basic rules when it comes to fighting a ghost pokemon.

"Haha. Come on, Jet. You know that's not gonna work. Here's a nice little move that spares my Ghastly some energy of having to attack your poor little Poochyena. Ghastly! Use curse." Ghastly hovered over Yenz as and a dark cloud appeared around Yenz. It was a sort of mist, but then again it also looked like what you'd imagine a spirit to look like.

"Wha? A curse attack? That's pretty risky on you part. Curse knocks your pokemon's HP down to half."

"Yeah, but it also packs quite a punch to yours after a period of time. You might wanna make your move fast because your Yenz won't las t very long under my Ghastly's curse."

"I know. I know." I was starting to panic.

What was I gonna do? Thousands of thoughts flew through my mind. They were all going way too fast. I wasn't thinking this through. Then, I looked into Yenz's eyes. They looked hurt, but then they shined. It looked as if they was saying, "I can do it. Lead me and I won't let you down." That was exactly what I had needed. It was a risk, but I had a plan. Theres no way I was going to lose this battle this easily.

"Alright! Yenz, use tackle once more!" I exclaimed.

"What? You know better than that Jet. Fine, just keep wasting you time. Yenz is still being effected by Ghastly's curse." Seth said with confidence.

"Heh heh. Not a chance. Your the one that's losing this battle." Yenz charged towards Ghastly and, just like last time, he ran right through him. This is precisely what I had wanted. "Now Yenz! Use bite!" Yenz did a quick 180 and bit ghastly right in the back. Yenz kept his grip until Ghastly fell to the ground.

"What?" Seth said in shock.

"No! Honey, how?" Melody said running up to comfort him.

"Wow, Jet that was a great strategy." Serah said with a grin. "First you used tackle to distract both Seth and Ghastly, leaving their guards down. Then you used a surprise bite attack from behind. Not only was that bite attack supper-effective, but since you had attacked Ghastly with his guard down from behind, it was also a critical hit. With an attack that powerful, it was no wonder that it would deal a one-hit KO."

"Wow, that's amazing, Serah." I said in amazement. "You were able to analyze my entire strategy just like that?"

"Heehee" Serah giggle. "I'm just a pokemon nerd who watches a lot of Frontier Network."

"Well, I just think you got lucky." Seth stubbornly said while putting Ghastly back in his pokeball.

"Luck or not," I said, "I still won. Well, we won. Isn't that right Yenz?" Yenz howled and run up to me. I picked him up in my arms and scratched his head. "You sure were amazing out there. I bet you could use some rest." I pulled out his pokeball and put him back in there. "Well, I think we should take a rest too. Let's see what mom made for dinner."

"Mm-hmm." Seth murmured.

"Alright." Melody said while holing onto Seth's shoulder. "I am getting pretty hungry."

"Yeah. It smells good." Serah said sniffing the air. We all walked into the house.