Cutter and his team stood on the same battle plot they had been training on for the last couple of days. They had just finished a quick breakfast and were getting ready to warm up. His team fought back yawns. It was early, and they were all tired, Cutter included. But they were excited too. It was the morning of the tournament, and they were all confident in the training they had done over the last several days.

"I want to start off with some jogging, then we'll move into light sparring. Let's get four laps in, then Silver and Bellow will partner up, and Rillo and Nostradamus, you two be together." There was a pause as Cutter fought back a yawn. "Let's go! It's time to win a couple of battles!

An hour later Cutter was walking to the GSC. He had scouted it out the day before because he certainly didn't want to be late, so he knew exactly where he was going. Normally he would be walking with his team out, but he didn't want any potential competitors to see any of his pokemon. Cutter told himself he was just being paranoid, but just in case, he still wasn't taking any chances.

Cutter neared the GSC and saw that there was a line snaking out of the front doors and down the street. "Is this the line for the tournament?" Cutter asked an older, probably twenty-four/five, trainer in front of him." The older trainer looked at him like he was an idiot, mumbled "yeah" and turned back around.

He sighed at the rude trainer and looked at his Pokedex. 8:00 A.M. He had an hour. He figured that even if it came to be 9:00, since he was in line on time they wouldn't disqualify him. That's what he told himself anyways.

Turns out he had nothing to worry about. The hosts at the front desk of the GSC were efficient and good at their job. The line moved quickly and within twenty minutes Cutter was registering his Pokedex and four pokemon with the host, an older gentleman whose nametag read "Larry."

Larry informed Cutter that he would be in the "A" waiting room. "A" battlers battled "B" battlers, and they both had their own waiting rooms. That way Cutter didn't have to wait in the same room as his opponent, for ethical and sportsmanship purposes.

Larry handed him a photo of a cute blonde girl. At the bottom of the photo it said "Regina Little," and next to her name was a small "32." Larry told him that she was to be his opponent in the first round and that they would be the last battle of the first round. Cutter thanked him and made his way to the waiting room.

Cutter paced nervously in the waiting room of the GSC. He had been there since 8:30 A.M., making sure to get there early so he didn't risk being disqualified, and it was now 11:30 A.M. He had watched the first couple of battles, but his nerves had gotten the better of him. Plus, he realized that he had been comparing himself to other trainers, and that certainly wasn't healthy.

They were on the thirtieth battle, so it wouldn't be too much longer before Cutter got to go out. There were at least five thousand people in the crowd, maybe more. Since he was in the lowest division, they were in the smallest arena. The semifinals and finals for each division were held in the largest arena, so if Cutter made it that far, he would be battling in front of upwards of twenty thousand people. He shuddered at the thought and forced it away. Focus on now. This battle. One battle at a time.

Cutter hadn't even realized that he was alone in the waiting room until a GSC employee approached him and told him "you're on deck." Cutter smiled at the young man and nodded, thanking him.

Cutter released Bellow, his first pick for the tournament. "You ready? This is our first tournament. There's gonna be a lot of people out there, but I know you're gonna do great." Bellow leapt into his lap and nuzzled into his chest.

Cutter had debated on which pokemon to use first. Rillo was out of the question. As much as she had grown in the last couple of days, Cutter just didn't trust her battling abilities enough to stake an entire battle on her. He would definitely use her in the rounds of two and three if he made it there, but that was when she would have an anchor in case she came up short.

Nostradamus would have been a good pick, but he didn't want to show his pure white Girafarig quite yet. Plus, Nostradamus had limited experience battling other trainers, so Cutter had the same reservations with Nos as he did with Rillo.

Then he had to pick between Silver and Bellow. Silver was obviously his strongest pokemon, but he figured he should save that strength as a surprise for a later round. Bellow was plenty strong enough to hold her own against any pokemon a two badge trainer might have.

Less than two minutes after the employee appeared the first time, he was back, telling Cutter, "You're up. That last battle went quickly. The winner was STRONG." Cutter smiled, but it was the most he could do. The Butterfree in his stomach were going crazy.

Cutter held Bellow's pokeball in his hand as he walked out onto the field, the crowd roaring upon seeing both challengers enter. Cutter just kept walking, noticing the plain dirt battlefield. He forced himself to concentrate on anything but the crowd. It seemed like they were there just to try to distract him.

Then came another distraction. The announcer. "On one end of the field we have Cutter Robinson from Cherrygrove Town!" The crowd cheered, and Cutter felt overwhelmed. He forced the cheering from his mind and focused on Silver's pokeball on his waist. We've trained for this for the last two days. Focus.

The announcer waited for the cheering to die down before continuing "And on the other end of the field we have a hometown battler, Regina Little from Konikoni in Alola!" If Cutter thought the cheering was loud for him, he was not prepared for the absolute roar of yells, screams and cheers that came for Regina.

Regina was from another region. The crowd loved seeing foreign pokemon, and Alola was an incredible tourist region. The people of Johto loved Alola. Great, Cutter thought to himself. Battling against someone with a crowd advantage. Cutter barely had time to finish his thought before the referee yelled out, "this will be a one on one battle! Whoever's pokemon is unable to battle first loses. There is no time limit. You will both choose your pokemon at the same time."

Cutter put his hand on Bellow's pokeball, pulling it up and holding it out in front of him. Regina stood opposite, tossing a great ball up and down in her hand, seemingly confident.

"Begin!" the referee yelled, slamming the flags in his hands down against his side.

"Bellow, let's go!" Cutter called, tossing his Teddiursa's pokeball out onto the field, where his pokemon appeared, ready for battle.

Regina silently tossed her ball, a… Cutter wasn't entirely sure what it was. It had a black head, gray body, and red accents on its back. Cutter hoped he would get an answer when she called its name, but he was out of luck. "Sally, use smog and run!"

A poisonous purple gas spewed from the lizard like pokemon's mouth as it ran, circling Bellow. It was fast, Cutter noted. Not as fast as Bellow of course, but still fast nonetheless. And a poison type. Cutter didn't have long to ponder what kind of pokemon it was because he quickly caught onto what it was doing—making a circular wall of poisonous gas around Bellow.

"Swift! Blow it back." From Bellow's forehead came a flurry of golden stars, blowing a small portion of the smog away, but not nearly enough as Cutter would have liked. Cutter furrowed his brow as he contemplated what to do. Sally the whatever pokemon could run in and out of the smoke, and was. With each passing second she was making her circle tighter and tighter, closing in on Bellow.

"Bellow, swift at the… other pokemon." Bellow tried to aim a swift at it, but it was invisible in the cloud of smoke. It was camouflaged perfectly. "Dammit," Cutter cursed to himself. He had no idea what to do. The jeering of the crowd was getting to him, and the announcer was saying something but he couldn't tell what. He was falling apart. He really couldn't see any way out of this mess. He cursed himself again, angry at himself for failing Bellow. No, not only Bellow, but the rest of his team too. None of the rest of them would get to battle because he had taken too long to act.

Without instruction from Cutter, Bellow knelt to the ground, placing both paws on it and closing her eyes. Her ears twitched, she spun around and let out a swift without ever opening her eyes. She then charged into the smoke, against Cutter's "No!" and for a moment, there was nothing.

A few seconds later, Bellow and Sally rolled out of the smoke, slashing and snarling at each other, both viciously trying to get the upper hand. Cutter smiled even though Bellow looked worse for wear, as the poison had obviously begun to set in. Their training in the dark had paid off. Without it, Bellow probably would never have been able to locate the near invisible Sally.

"Get it back in the cloud and use flame burst Sally!" Regina's voice was shrill and seemed worried.

So it was a fire type too. Then Cutter realized what would happen if they got back into the smog. The fire would cause it to explode. There was no way that Bellow could survive something of that caliber.

"Bellow, Baby tears!" Suddenly, Bellow threw Sally to the side and widened her eyes and began to cry. Sally stopped moving and cocked her head in confusion, taking a much less defensive pose than before. Bellow then whipped her head, firing off a flurry of swifts from just a few feet away, throwing Sally backwards. Then, without Cutter's command, she threw herself forward and began slashing the lizard faster than Cutter had ever seen her move before. He was at a loss. She hadn't used agility, so how was she moving so quickly?

"Sally, flame burst!" A small of fire erupted from Sally's mouth that she then slammed right into Bellow's face. Or, she would have, if Bellow would have still been there. Bellow had feinted away, and the fireball had flown out into empty air. Before Sally knew what was happening, Bellow was back on her, slashing and throwing swifts.

Within a few seconds, the opposing pokemon had been defeated. Bellow climbed off of her opponent as the referee announced "Regina's Salandit is unable to battle. Teddiursa is the victor and therefore Cutter wins!"

As the crowd erupted into cheer and Cutter smiled, all he could think about was how good Bellow had done, and mostly on her own. She was truly starting to grow. Cutter made his way out of his battle box and over to her to congratulate her when she started to glow a blinding white.

Cutter knew what was happening and he tried to keep looking, but the overwhelming white overtook all of his sight and he had to close his eyes, for fear of being blinded. When he opened them, a much larger, and stronger version of a Teddiursa stood. Bellow had evolved into an Ursaring.

Whereas Bellow as a Teddiursa had barely reached his knee, Bellow as an Ursaring was the same height as him, if not a little shorter. Her previously cheerful face had a permanent scowl, but even through the scowl Cutter could tell that she was just as happy as he was. Instead of a crescent moon on her forehead, she now had a large golden ring on her chest and stomach. On her shoulders were tufts of fur that hung off, forming a protective fringe of sorts. She was muscular too. Cutter had known that Bellow was lean and strong as a Teddiursa, but now she was bulging with muscles. Even as muscular as she was now, though, she was still leaner than other evolved Ursaring. He could see her large circular tail hanging down slightly between her legs. What stood out the most, though, were the extremely long and sharp claws on her hands and feet. They glinted wickedly in the bright fluorescent light of the arena

Cutter smiled larger than he ever had and the crowd was cheering louder than he thought possible. This was incredible. He had seen his pokemon evolve. He might have missed Rillo's evolution, but he didn't miss this one. And he had never been more excited.

Bellow smiled at him, in a bear-like way, and Cutter rushed towards her. As he was making his way to her, she began to step towards him as well. She made it one step before Cutter watched as collapsed onto the ground in a heap. He stopped in his tracks and fumbled to pull her pokeball off his waist. After what seemed like an eternity to him, with the crowd having gone completely silent, he got it and returned her in a flash of red. He turned and began to run as fast as he could out of the arena.

Cutter sprinted to the front counter of the nearest Pokemon Center, which was conveniently only a block away. Still, when he got there he was out of breath. He had never run that fast or that hard in his life. As he approached the front counter, he saw many trainers, presumably from the tournament, staring at him. He didn't care. All he cared about was getting Bellow the help she needed.

"May I help—," the Nurse Joy on duty began to ask, before seeing Cutter's distraught figure. "What's wrong?" Her voice was urgent but calm.

Cutter thrust his hand out with Bellow's pokeball in it to the Nurse Joy. "My Teddiursa, I mean Ursaring, Bellow. Just evolved. But passed out. Right after, she fell. I think she's," Cutter struggled to get the words out, too worried about Bellow to form proper sentences. "Is she going? Help her?"

"Take some deep breaths. I'll take your," she paused at your, unsure of what pokemon she was dealing with, "pokemon, sir. Don't worry." As she walked way and into the back behind the front counter, she instructed the young lady sitting there, "Get his information and get him registered. I'll get started on this and send someone back with an update." Then she was gone into the back.

The young lady came around the counter and approached Cutter. "Sir, if I could get you to come with me to the front counter, I'll just need to get your Pokedex, if you have one, to get you registered with the Center."

Cutter walked to the front counter, still in a daze, handing her his Pokedex. She stared intently at the screen of the computer, sliding the Pokedex into a slot in the side of it. She paused for a moment before punching a few keys on the keyboard.

"Cutter Robinson. We've got you registered into our system. If you'd like to wait, someone will be out shortly to inform you of your Ursaring's status. If there is anything else that I can help you with, please let me know." Her voice was pleasant and calming, and Cutter found himself settling down.

Cutter swallowed a few deep breaths before speaking. "I'm in the tournament next door right now. I just won my battle, but I don't know when my next one is. Is there a way that you could phone over there to find out?" Cutter plead. "So that I don't miss it."

"Of course, sir. Give me just one moment." Riley, the receptionist's name was, picked up the phone on her desk and typed in a number. A moment later, "Yes, this is Riley at the Pokemon Center next to the GSC." She waited as someone on the other end spoke, but Cutter didn't know what they were saying. "We have one of your contestants here. One of his pokemon was injured in the last battle and is currently waiting for an update on it. Could I find out when his next battle will be?" Pause. "Yes, his name is Cutter Robinson." Another pause. "Thank you very much." She hung up the phone and turned to Cutter. "Mr. Robinson, there are sixteen battles in the next round, which starts at exactly 1 P.M. It is currently 12:30 P.M. You are the seventh battle, so he said it would be close to forty-five minutes until your next battle."

"Thank you," Cutter mumbled, still in shock at his pokemon collapsing in front of him. "How long until an update?" As soon as the words were out of his mouth, another Nurse Joy, not the same one, based on her makeup, came from the back.

"Mr. Robinson?" she asked? Definitely not the same one. Her voice was much higher than the other one's voice.

"That's me," Cutter replied, stepping forward. He sounded a lot more confident than he felt.

"Your Ursaring is going to be okay. She had taken a considerable amount of damage from her battle, and the poison had certainly done its job well. Was that from a Salandit?"

Cutter nodded. Salandit. The announcer had said that name, but Cutter had been too excited at his comeback victory to notice.

"Things were only complicated by the evolution. Your Ursaring was still a bit younger when she evolved than the average Teddiursa. When she was poisoned, her ability, Quick Feet, increased her adrenaline levels, and since she took in so much poison, they soared past what they usually would. This, coupled with the victory, prompted her evolution. Ursaring are much, much bigger than Teddiursa, although yours is smaller than the average Ursaring. Genetics?"

Once again, Cutter just nodded. But he was starting to feel okay again. Nurse Joy number two had said that Bellow would be okay. Finally he found his voice. "As a Teddiursa she was smaller and faster. I talked to a couple people who said it was because she was from an environment where the Ursaring line wasn't the top of the food chain. They had to run away instead of fighting, unlike most of the Ursaring species."

"That's exactly right." She smiled. "You sure do know your stuff. Well, I'm going to leave you out here. Riley will take care of you." Nurse Joy bowed her head and exited the way she came in.

"Where are you staying this week, Mr. Robinson?" Riley questioned, sitting at the computer.

"One of the Pokemon Center's." Cutter bowed his head in shame. "I couldn't tell you which one. Not this one?"

"Not to worry. If you're staying in a Center, we can look you up. Would you like your Ursaring sent there once she is done being treated?"

"Oh. I was planning on waiting for her here," Cutter said, startled that she would even suggest that. He cared immensely for his pokemon and would never leave one alone like that.

"But you have a battle soon." Her voice was kind and she was obviously just reminding him, not trying to argue.

Cutter frowned. That was true. On one hand, he felt a certain sense of responsibility to stay with Bellow while she healed. On the other hand, he felt as if he owed it to her to continue battling in the tournament. She had worked so hard to get the victory for him. If he didn't go back and battle, she would be even more upset than if he didn't wait for her.

Cutter nodded and smiled. "You're right. Thank you so much." And Cutter walked out of the door and back to the GSC.

He walked into the GSC right as the second battle in his group was starting. He thought about going to watch the next couple of battles, but decided that he should prepare for his battle instead.

Larry was still at the front counter, Cutter saw, as he made his way to it. "I'm here to get my next opponent," Cutter told the kind old man.

"Oh yes, Mr. Robinson. What a victory you had last time. And your Teddiursa evolving. Is she okay?" Larry sounded actually concerned, not just the fake concern you sometimes heard in people who only were asking to be polite.

"Yes. Nurse Joy said she was going to recover nicely. I'm hoping she's better by tomorrow. Now that I've got an Ursaring I'm feeling super confident," Cutter smiled, thoughts of Bellow tearing opponents apart flashed in his mind.

"I'm sure she's going to be an excellent battler," Larry affirmed. "But about that next battle. Here you are, sir. Good luck to you." Cutter smiled, thanked the man, and made his way to waiting room "A."

His opponent was a boy that looked Cutter's age named Timothy Berger. As he sat in the waiting room, trainer after trainer was called until it was just him. Just like before, the GSC employee came and told him, "you're on deck," before leaving Cutter alone again.

Cutter had decided on Silver for this battle. He still wanted to save Nos, and Rillo wasn't ready. He no longer needed to hide his strongest pokemon, because Bellow was now the strongest on the team, even if it was only because of evolution. Even as Cutter struggled to focus on the battle at hand, his thoughts kept drifting to training with Bellow that night to get her used to her body so that she could battle the next day. Cutter remembered Rillo had some trouble adjusting to her bipedal form after evolution. It had taken a little work to get her walking on two legs, but Cutter knew that Bellow would adapt in no time.

He forced himself back to the battle that would soon be happening and released Silver. "You're up, Silver. We won our first battle. Now there's only thirty-one trainer's left to beat. You ready?"

Silver affirmed with a familiar "larv," and started moving about, trying to get warm for the upcoming battle. Cutter thought about telling Silver that Bellow had evolved, but ultimately decided against it. There would be time after the battle. News like that would just serve as a distraction to Silver, anyways. Cutter wanted Silver to be on the top of his game.

After what felt like forever, the employee reappeared to lead Cutter onto the field. It was the same field as before, plain dirt. That would work in Silver's advantage. He saw his opponent, who was much taller than the picture led him to believe, crossing to his battle box as well.

The announcer was back, of course. "On one end of the field we have Cutter Robinson from Cherrygrove Town. He pulled off an impressive victory last time. Will he be able to do it again?" The crowd roared, obviously remembering Cutter's narrow victory and evolved Ursaring.

"On the other end of the field," the announcer continued, "we have Timothy Berger from New Bark Town. He won his last battle decisively in less than two minutes. Can Cutter provide a bigger challenge this round?" Cutter swallowed and realized that this was the trainer the attendant had told him about right before his first battle. Suddenly, the Butterfree were back in his stomach, stronger than before.

The referee began his speech again, but Cutter zoned out of it. He started to focus on the battle, getting into the zone, pushing Timothy Berger out of his mind. All Cutter heard was "begin" and Cutter released Silver from his pokeball. The same moment that Silver hit the ground, so did Timothy's pokemon, a Quilava. Cutter smiled. Quilava was pure fire type, which was very weak to Silver's ground and rock typing. It seemed like Timothy wasn't too worried about it though, if his grin was anything to go by.

"Smokescreen Q," he called out nonchalantly, as a thick black smoke flowed from Quilava's mouth and onto the battlefield.

Great, Cutter thought, two smoke battles in a row. "Sandstorm!"

Immediately everything on the field was invisible from a mix of the roaring sandstorm and the thick black smokescreen.

"Flame charge!" Cutter heard Timothy call out over the din of the sandstorm. Cutter couldn't see the fire within the storm, but Cutter knew that Quilava probably couldn't see Silver either. Why? Cutter asked himself, then immediately had an answer. To speed himself up.

"Rocky sand," Cutter said quietly, hoping Silver could hear him. They had worked on Silver's hearing within sandstorm, but Cutter knew that at some point Silver would use the combo on his own. He just hoped that it would be sooner rather than later. Like now, for example.

Cutter smiled when he heard a yelp come from within the sandstorm that didn't belong to Silver. Then, much to Cutter's surprise, the sandstorm died down. When it cleared a few seconds later and both pokemon were visible, Cutter saw that Silver looked much worse for wear than expected. He had taken a lot of damage during that time. Quilava didn't look great either, though.

"Rock throw!"

"Flamethrower!"

The commands came at the same time, and while Cutter expected the giant rock throw that Silver created to fly straight through the encroaching flamethrower, that was only partially what happened. While the rock throw did go through the flamethrower, the flamethrower also went around the rock throw. They both hit their targets, but it looked like Quilava had taken more damage than Silver had.

"Rock tomb!" Silver slammed his fist into the ground, shaking off the effects of the flamethrower, and a giant spire of rock appeared right where the Quilava had just been. Its boosted speed from flame charge allowed it to sprint away from the rock tomb and towards Silver before the rock tomb had a chance to hit.

Silver prepared another rock throw and just as Q reached Silver, Silver slammed the rock throw into Q. But Q did something unexpected. The Quilava spun around and kicked the rock, shattering it upon impact. Then Q kicked again, slamming its foot right into Silver's face, sending him flying backwards. Double kick.

Silver landed hard, and Q sped towards him, Cutter supposed to get another double kick in.

"Get up, Silver!" Cutter plead. "You can do it." But Silver was not getting up, and Q was closing in. Suddenly, another spire of rock shot up right underneath Quilava, sending him flying. Cutter cheered and pumped his arms as Silver pushed himself up. Silver you devious Larvitar. Pretending to be too weak to get up. That's my boy.

Silver began shooting up spires of rock all over the Silver's near vicinity. At first Cutter thought they were random, but then Cutter realized that Silver had set them up very specifically. They were placed so that Quilava wouldn't be able to build up enough speed to catch Silver off guard. And since Silver could feel the vibration of the earth, there would be no sneaking around for Quilava either. Cutter smiled and shook his head at Silver's genius idea.

"Double kick!"

This time, Silver was ready and had two rocks ready, each blocking a separate kick. Then, as soon as Quilava landed, a tower of rock shot out of the ground, throwing the Quilava higher than before.

Q landed hard and didn't get back up.

"Timothy's Quilava is unable to battle," the referee yelled, his mic'ed voice booming over the crowd. "Larvitar is the winner and therefore Cutter is the victor."

Cutter smiled and ran out to congratulate his Larvitar. In his chest there was a slight hope for another unexpected evolution, but Cutter knew that realistically it was still several weeks until Silver was ready to pupate. And deep down, Cutter didn't think he could handle another complication with evolution. Bellow's was already scary enough.

Cutter introduced the newly evolved Bellow to the team, and they all squealed and whinnied and jumped for joy. Except for Silver. Silver wasn't unhappy about it, but he also wasn't happy.

Cutter had led him away from the rest of the team while they got acquainted with their newly evolved friend. He knelt down to Silver's level and paused. When Silver didn't say anything, he did. "What's up?" Still nothing from Silver. "Are you gonna talk to me?" That time Silver looked his trainer in the eye. That was a start, Cutter figured. "Is it because Bellow evolved?" There was a slight pause before Silver nodded. "Why? Rillo evolved and you were fine." Silver shrugged, but Cutter was pretty sure he already knew all the answers.

"Rillo doesn't threaten you. You have a type advantage. Plus, you're stronger. But Bellow is way bigger than you now. You feel like you aren't the protector." Silver made eye contact again and nodded.

Cutter pulled Silver in close before continuing. "Hey. You know what that means? That just means you're going to have to work that much harder. And if anyone can do it, it's you. Plus, you're only a couple weeks from evolving. You'll catch up in no time." Cutter smiled at his starter and rubbed him behind his horn. That elicited a contented rumble and they pressed horn to forehead. Silver would be fine.

Cutter smiled as Silver ran back to the cluster of pokemon. They were all talking in pokespeech and Cutter had no idea what they were saying. It was happy though, because he could feel Nostradamus radiating pure joy. Even without the empathy, Cutter would have known they were all happy. He smiled and jogged to join his team.

They had just finished a feast of a dinner in honor of their two victories that day, and Cutter took Bellow out for some individual training time. As they were walking onto the training plot, Cutter heard a high pitched, feminine voice from behind him. "Good job today. You really showed me up." Cutter spun around to find Regina standing behind him. She was taller than he realized. He had only seen her across the battle plot. She was also much prettier than her picture led Cutter to believe. Maybe it was because she carried herself with an air of confidence.

"You sure did give me a run for my money. I had no idea how to get out of that ring of smog," Cutter smiled, reliving the awesome battle he had had earlier that day.

"That was awfully brave of your Teddiursa to run straight into it. Well, anyways, I just wanted to say congratulations to you." As she turned away, Cutter had a thought.

"Hey, would you like to travel together?" The words were out of his mouth before he knew what she was saying.

"Hm. I'll have to think about it. I just met you today," then after a moment she continued, "but you obviously care immensely about your pokemon, so there's no way you could be a bad person." She winked and walked away, leaving Cutter standing there without a definite answer and no idea why he had asked her.

He turned and walked onto the practice plot, releasing Bellow. This was the first time they had been alone since her evolution. For a moment, there was silence. Then Bellow threw her arms behind her and roared, startling Cutter so badly he fell backwards onto his butt. After a second he started laughing, and soon after Bellow joined in as well.

"I'm so proud of you," he said, standing. "You did great. And you went into that battle mostly by yourself. You're really growing." Cutter reached up and scratched between her ears, just where she liked it. It was a little harder than before since she had grown so much, but not impossible. She leaned into the scratch, her permanent snarl turning into as much of a smile as it could.

"I checked you out on the Pokedex and it looks like you learned a new move," Cutter smiled, eager to test out Bellow's newfound strength. Upon evolution, Bellow had learned rest and snore. There was no real way for Cutter to test those out now, so close to bedtime and with Bellow being perfectly healthy. For the time being they would just work on getting used to her size.

After about an hour, Cutter was satisfied with the progress she had made. It took the better part of thirty minutes for her to get used to her size, and then the other thirty minutes to truly master it, but she had done it. If Cutter thought she had been fast before, that was nothing compared to the speed she was showing then. Not to mention the raw power she now possessed. Even if she wasn't as strong as other, bigger Ursaring, she still packed a punch. He smiled as he thought about the havoc she could wreak the next day.

As Cutter laid down to sleep, things had changed for Bellow. She slept curled up in a ball on the floor instead of on the pillow next to Cutter. For the first time in a while, Cutter slept alone. As he looked around at his team and drifted off, he couldn't help but be proud.

The next day went by in a flash. When he got to the GSC that morning, he had to register which pokemon he would use in the first battle. Then, if he won, he would come back and register the two pokemon he would use in the second battle. That was so the trainers battled using skill instead of going off of pure type advantage. So if Cutter registered Rillo and Silver for battle one, but Rillo lost to a grass type, Cutter had to send out Silver, even if he didn't want to because of the type disadvantage.

Cutter won both of his battles with relative ease. Cutter had expected the round of sixteen and the quarterfinals to be more difficult, but he supposed he couldn't complain. He was only two battles away from winning his first tournament.

The first battle had been against a boy named Ryan, who had used a Meowth and a Raichu that had been evolved far too early. Rillo had taken out the Meowth without a problem, but could do nothing against the Raichu. Cutter really needed to teach her some non-electric attacking moves. He had then brought out Silver, wanting to save Bellow for a later battle. He wasn't trying to hide her, per se, but he wasn't trying to show her off to the world either. Silver then took down the Raichu in a matter of seconds. It wasn't very well trained, and the type advantage was just a lucky break for Cutter.

His battle in the quarterfinals had given him slightly more trouble, but not much. His opponent was from Goldenrod and the crowd roared louder than they had for Regina.

He had used Nostradamus, much to the shock and awe of the crowd, and Silver again. Nostradamus had easily taken out an opposing Gloom, but had fallen to an especially well trained Ditto that had transformed into Girafarig. Once Nos fell, Cutter did as well, but once he got Nos in the pokeball, he felt immensely better. Fortunately, once Cutter had sent in Silver, the Ditto was stuck as Girafarig. Silver kept up a constant barrage of sandstorm, used rock tomb a few times, and wrapped it up with bite. It was a quick finish from there. Silver never disappointed.

Cutter smiled as his team settled in for the night. He was immensely proud of them, and he knew that they would do their best tomorrow. Even though they would be battling in front of roughly twenty-five thousand people, he wouldn't' let the nerves get to him. His pokemon hadn't let him down, and he didn't plan on letting them down. He fell asleep thinking about battle strategies and winning his first tournament.

xx

Hey guys! I was super excited to get this chapter out! This was a fun one to write and I was happy to get these battles. Let me know if you have any thoughts, and I'm excited to get the next chapter out! As usual, let me know if you have any thoughts or ideas!