Heading over to the other field, I found a big crowd was waiting silently around it. Grateful that I stood slightly over six feet tall, I could just barely see over the heads in front of me. I caught a flash of a red beam as Dylan returned Totodile to it's pokemon. Judging from the look on his face, he was in serious agony about his next choice.

"Come on already!" his opponent taunted from behind his pokemon.

I didn't recognize the pokemon at first. It had a long furry body with several dark rings around it's body. Four stubby legs held it off the ground. It was actually quite cute.

It suddenly occurred to me what Dylan was contemplating: he was down to his last pokemon and it was whichever one he had left and Gyarados. Judging from the scrunching of his mouth, the other pokemon he had had to be his oddish. It had seemed capable the one time I had seen it in action, but I wouldn't want to pin my tournament hopes on it especially if this furry pokemon had beaten Totodile.

"Hey!" I shouted without thinking. "Just use it already! I want to be the one to beat you in the finals!"

Dylan looked up at me and grinned. I gave him a nod of my head and an approving look. He grabbed a poke ball of his belt and hurled it onto the field.

"Let's go Oddish!" he shouted.

I nearly fell over. I had meant for him to use Gyarados.

"Let's end this quick!" laughed Dylan's opponent. "Fury swipes, Furret!"

The furret charged in and I suddenly noticed the claws on it's feet.

"Hold your ground Oddish!" Dylan ordered.

The furret was on top of Oddish in a heartbeat. It reared back to use fury swipes.

That's when Dylan acted. "Stun spore!"

Oddish shook it's leaves violently. A yellow dust floated out of them and onto the surprised furret. Furret was in obvious pain as it still managed to swipe at Oddish once before the plant pokemon danced away from it. Suddenly it was like all of Furret's muscles turned to rock. It froze in place and fell over.

Dylan's smile grew. "Absorb everything it's got left."

His oddish approached the downed pokemon and wrapped it's leaves around it's tail. The two pokemon were covered in the shimmering rainbow glow as Oddish drained Furret's energy. It's trainer tried to rally the paralyzed pokemon back into the fight but it was too late. Oddish stood up, satisfied and with no more energy to drain.

"Furret is unable to battle!" the ref announced. "Victory to Oddish and Trainer Dylan!"

The crowd began to cheer as I weaved my way through them. I finally made my way through them all and up to a very smug looking Dylan. I rolled my eyes at him.

"That was definitely not the pokemon I meant for you to use," I groaned.

"Oh, I know," he grinned. "I was fairly confident in Oddish but I had to consider using the sure thing. You've only seen Oddish once but it's pretty good in a battle."

"Apparently," I jerked my head towards his downtrodden opponent. "Come on, I need to go get my pokemon healed."

"You aren't quite as chipper as before," Dylan noticed. "If you hadn't yelled during my match, I would've thought you had lost yours."

"Eh, Mudkip got knocked out," I explained. "I feel kind of bad."

"You should probably get used to that," my friend advised. "I highly doubt that will be the only time you ever have a pokemon get knocked out. This is fairly low leveled competition."

"Yeah, yeah."

Not surprisingly, there was no line to get our pokemon restored to full health. There were only four other trainers currently in the tournament besides us and they were all battling each other. We each only had to win one more battle and we would be in the championship match, hopefully against each other.

"I have to admit," I said to Dylan, "that I really never expected to make it this far in the tournament. I mean, I've only had my own pokemon for less then a week and I'm already in the semi-finals of a tournament."

The few other random people that heard me regarded me with surprised looks.

"I know what you mean," Dylan agreed. "I haven't even used my secret weapon and I'm in the semi-finals. I half expected to get blown out here and not take the Challenge. Maybe we really are supposed to take this journey."

I didn't say anything.

Our wandering path eventually took us back to the battle fields. We managed to squeeze our way to the front just as the battle on my field was won. The trainer had his zubat strike down the opposing beautifly with a wing attack after befuddling it with a confuse ray. The zubat fluttered around happily as it was declared the winner. Looked like I would be using Pichu yet again.

We tried to shift over with the crowd to the other field but by the time we could see anything, the battle was over. The crowds began thinning out as people relaxed before the next matches. Dylan and I moved over to the where the giant bracket board stood so we could be sure to hear any announcements.

"Hey, you two are the other trainers still left, right?" one of the staffers asked as we approached.

"Yeah, that's us," Dylan answered him. "What's up?"

"All the rest of the battles are going to be fought on Field One," the staffer explained. "That way nobody has to miss any action. They'll be fought one after another, starting at three-thirty. Since the battles on Field Two finished first, we'll decide their champion first. So whichever of you is Tim will be battling first."

We thanked him for letting us know and went to find something to drink. Checking my phone's clock told us that we still had half an hour before my battle was to start. We spent much of that time relaxing on a picnic bench by the concession stands.

"So what's your strategy?" Dylan asked as he crushed some ice in his mouth.

"Not sure," I replied and took a sip of my pop. "The only pokemon I know he has is a zubat which Pichu can take care of. Most likely take care of business with Charmander and Treecko. They are my powerhouses after all."

"Not a bad game plan," Dylan crunched some more ice. "Come on, we should get moving."

Tossing our cups in a nearby trash can, we headed back over to the fields. A huge crowd had already amassed around the first field. I was glad that we had come over a little early because we had to fight our way through the crowd to actually get to the field. I managed to slip between a very ignorant couple and stumble up to the attendant.

"Trainer Tim Bach checking in," I panted.

"You barely made it," the attendant said, making a mark on her clipboard.

"Not my fault. Crowd wouldn't let me through."

She didn't say anything and I saw that my opponent was already in the opposing trainer's box, waiting. I realized that I recognized him. He had graduated a year ahead of me. The ref approached the field and the crowd quieted itself.

"This is the final battle to determine the winner of Field Two!" the ref announced. "The battle will be between Trainer Tim and Trainer Rick. Trainer Rick, you have been selected to choose the first pokemon!"

"Let's get this started off right!" Rick played to the crowd. "Zubat, you're up!"

The eyeless blue bat fluttered out of the poke ball and swooped about the battlefield. I knew this one was coming and I had my response ready.

"Pichu!" I announced. "It's time!"

The electric mouse pokemon materialized onto the field and dropped down onto all fours. Pichu's glare went unreturned since the zubat couldn't actually see where my pokemon was.

"Begin!" declared the ref.

"Zubat, bite attack!" The bat swooped down, fangs bared.

"Jump over it Pichu!"

Pichu crouched and jumped at the precise moment. Zubat flew underneath, just barely grazing the grass. Pichu pivoted around to face it's opponent. Zubat made a wide arc and came back around.

"Wing attack!" Rick ordered.

"Jump it again!"

Zubat's wings began to glow white as it tore down out of the sky. Pichu leapt over it again. This time instead of making a wide arc, Zubat turned quickly and rocketed back down to strike again. Pichu hopped over the flying attack again and once more as the poisonous flying pokemon showed it's persistence.

I kept trying to order Pichu to counter with an electric attack, but Pichu was always dodging. Suddenly, I realized that that had been Rick's plan all along. He didn't have to hit my pokemon to wear them out if he could just tire them out.

Zubat twirled around in the sky and angled down for another wing attack.

"Pichu!" I called. "Don't jump! Run and put some distance between you and Zubat!"

Pichu took off with a start, barely before Zubat would've made contact. On all fours, Pichu put considerable distance between it and it's opponent as Zubat had to recover from nearly hitting the ground. I noticed that Pichu was breathing hard.

"Hit it Pichu!" I shouted. "Thundershock!"

"Pi-chu!" it screamed as it blasted Zubat with lightning.

The shock kept Zubat immobile as long as the attack lasted. When Pichu ceased, Zubat was on the move again albeit slightly wobbly now.

"No more of that," Rick said. "Zubat! Double team!"

Suddenly, I felt like we might be in trouble. Zubat had somehow created copies of itself. There were now six zubats surrounding Pichu, all of them looking completely real. Pichu whipped it's head around frantically.

"Oh this is not good," I groaned. "Use thundershock on the one right in front of you!"

Pichu sent a bolt of lighting towards the zubat I had determined. The bolt went right through the zubat as it disappeared. A fake.

"Finish it!" Rick shouted. "Wing attack!"

Every single zubat in the sky suddenly swooped down at Pichu. My pokemon gave me a worried look that I returned.

"Blast them all at once!" I yelled out of desperation.

"CHU!" Pichu bellowed.

Five streaks of lightning raced out of the tiny pokemon. Four struck zubats and passed right on through. One took the bolt right in the chest and was knocked out of the air by the shock.

Pichu moved slowly and breathed heavily. Zubat dropped to the ground and fluttered weakly. Whoever got off the first attack was going to win the round.

"Thundershock!"

"Bite attack!"

The zubat tried to lunge at Pichu from the ground but Pichu was faster. An arc of electricity flung Zubat across the field, almost into the crowd. Pichu still moved. Zubat didn't.

"Zubat is unable to battle!" the ref announced. "Pichu is the winner!"

"Nice work Zubat," Rick said to his pokemon as he recalled it. "I'm proud of you. Yanma, finish off that pichu!"

I hadn't encountered one of these pokemon yet. It was a long orange-ish bug pokemon that seemed to have a patch of green skin around it's eyes like a mask. Four long wings sprouted from it's back. The wings buzzed as it lifted off the ground.

"Another flier," I said to my pokemon. "Do you want a crack at it?"

Pichu turned around and gave me a sly smile "Pi."

I nodded. "Let's do it then!"

The ref signaled for us to begin. Rick sent his yanma barreling in with a tackle attack. Pichu stood it's ground.

"Thundershock!"

I had expected to catch the flying bug off guard but the tables were turned. The bolt of electricity had almost gotten to Yanma when it made a pinpoint ninety-degree turn. The lightning went harmlessly by.

I was stunned. "That was really impressive. Wow."

"Thank you," Rick smiled. "It's nice to be appreciated by one's peers. Finish that tackle, Yanma!"

Yanma dove in again.

"Use thundershock!" I shouted.

Pichu tried to blast it again but the bug was able to dodge again. This time, however, instead of flying harmlessly away, Yanma made another turn and slammed into Pichu anyway.

My pokemon tumbled across the field. Rolling to a stop at my feet, Pichu was very slow to get back to it's own feet. Once up, it charged back into battle with a purpose. Once again I was amazing by the determination Pichu showed.

"You won't get up from this one," Rick called. "Sonic boom!"

Yanma began speeding up the speed it's wings were flapping. At first nothing happened. Suddenly there was a loud booming noise and Pichu was flung from the field. It skidded to a stop about fifteen feet outside the battlefield.

"Pichu!" I cried.

I ran over to it and crouched down. The crowd was absolutely silent. This time Pichu didn't even try to get up. The ref had followed me over.

"Pichu is unable to battle! Yanma is the winner!"

"Thanks for everything," I said softly as I drew it back into it's ball.

I hooked Pichu's poke ball back onto my belt and stood. The crowd cleared for me as I made my way back into the trainer's box. I didn't even have to think about my next choice. I slid the poke ball into my hand and formed it to full size.

"Charmander, time to finish it up!" I announced. "Ember!"

"Yanma, quick attack!" Rick shouted.

I had seen Treecko use quick attack before so I knew it was fast. That didn't even come close to preparing me for Yanma's. The bug blitzed in so fast that Charmander didn't even have a chance to move. Charmander was laid out and Yanma was back where it had started in only a handful of seconds.

"What the hell was that?" I exclaimed.

"That would be Yanma's 'speed boost' ability," Rick grinned. "Yanma gets progressively faster as the battle continues. Needless to say, it's already gotten quite a bit faster from battling your pichu."

I tried to keep a mortified look off my face. Charmander couldn't beat what it couldn't hit. I clenched my hands into fists and decided to try anyway.

"Ember!" I ordered.

Yanma darted out of the way and the embers fell harmlessly to the ground. Charmander tried again but with the same result. A third try didn't yield a different result.

"Tackle!"

Yanma swooped in and flattened Charmander again. It's normal tackle was now faster than Treecko when it used quick attack. Things were quickly falling apart. I had to do something fast but I had no idea what.

"Smokescreen!" I yelled. "Aim it at the ground right at your feet!"

Charmander pointed it's head down and expelled a giant cloud of black smoke. The smoke filled the air around Charmander, making it impossible to see it. I had bought myself a few moments.

"Use quick attack!" Rick ordered. "Hit Charmander right through the smoke!"

Yanma zipped through and came out the other side without the sound of a collision.

"Come on!" my opponent yelled. "Get out here and face us!"

My eyes grew wide. I had an idea.

"Blow the smoke away with your wings!" Rick yelled.

Yanma began beating it's wings even harder until a strong breeze was coming from them. The wind ran into the smoke and slowly dissipated it. I grinned.

They had fallen right into my trap.

"Scary face!" I ordered.

Charmander came flying out of the smoke. It's lips were curled back, exposing a set of sharp teeth. A wild look filled it's eyes. Yanma looked visibly shocked and I knew the attack had worked.

"Metal claw!"

"Dodge, Yanma!"

Leaping in the air, Charmander brought it's claws down on Yanma, knocking it to the ground. It bounced off the ground and rolled over. Charmander landed gracefully. Everyone else was stunned.

"Nice one!" Dylan laughed. "You used 'scary face' to lower Yanma's speed!"

"Exactly!" I confirmed. "And now we finish it off! Charmander! Flamethrower!"

Before Yanma's speed could build back up, it was awash in a river of fire. The bug pokemon crumpled quickly as I finally exploited it's type's weakness. A few fire-roasted moments later, it was all over.

"Yanma is unable to battle!" announced the ref. "Charmander is the winner!"

"That was pretty quick thinking," Rick commended me as he withdrew his pokemon. "You'll need more of that if you want to beat Seviper though!"

He hurled a poke ball into the field. Out of it burst a long black snake. It was covered in yellow and purple markings. Although it's fangs were large and red, they didn't worry me the most. What worried me the most was the sword-like appendage on the end of it's tail. I didn't like the look of it one bit.

"Take a rest Charmander," I said as I withdrew it. "Mudkip, let's finish this off!"

"Seviper, use wrap!"

The snake slithered forward, letting me see that it was easily more than six feet long. It started to circle around Mudkip. We weren't having any of that.

"Mudkip!" I shouted. "Use water gun!"

Mudkip blasted the snake pokemon, but it held it's ground.

"Poison tail!"

The sword tail that was still behind Mudkip turned a bright purple and lashed out. The point hit my pokemon in the back, sending it reeling forward towards Seviper's head.

"Bite attack!" Rick ordered.

Seviper bared it's huge fangs and lunged.

"Mud slap!" I cried out of desperation.

Mudkip kicked at the ground just right and instead of a mouthful of pokemon, Seviper got a mouthful of dirt. It's momentum was still taking it towards my pokemon but Mudkip flattened itself and Seviper went overhead. It scampered away to put some distance between the two combatants.

"Good work Mudkip!" I praised it. "Water gun again!"

The blast of water caught Seviper in the face again. It slithered out of the way and advanced again. This time Rick called for a lick attack. I ordered Mudkip to get away but it was cut off from escape when Seviper slammed it sword tail down in it's way.

Mudkip turned to go another way but found itself face to face with it's enemy. A big red tongue shot out of Seviper's mouth and licked Mudkip from chin to forehead. My pokemon staggered away, slightly dazed.

"Finish it off with poison tail!" my opponent yelled.

The sword-tail turned purple again and sliced through the air at my pokemon.

"Use bide!" I shouted quickly.

Mudkip flashed a quick white and the poison tail struck home. The water pokemon took the blow right below the neck. Sailing across the field, it rolled to a stop at my feet. A little slow, but Mudkip got back to it's feet.

"Bite!" Rick ordered as the Seviper came flying across the field.

It locked it's jaws around Mudkip and flung it back across the field. My pokemon bounced a few times and then slid to a stop. Everyone held their breath. Mudkip slowly started to climb to it's feet but then collapsed.

The judge ran over to declare Mudkip defeated, but it wasn't out of it yet. Again Mudkip began to rise. This time it got to it's feet as the crowd cheered. Rick looked stunned.

"Ok Seviper," he said slowly. "Let's finish it off with one more poison tail!"

"Oh no you don't!" I countered. "Mudkip! Bide!"

White energy began emanating from Mudkip causing the crowd to "ooo". It pounded it's back legs into the ground and then took off at a full run. It and Seviper arrived at the center of the field at the same time. Mudkip launched itself at the snake pokemon. There was a great crack and a white flash. Suddenly Seviper was flying through the air, off the field.

I smiled. Mudkip had absorbed the damage of the last two attacks and paid it back double in that one attack. It had been a considerable risk but go big or go home.

"Seviper is unable to battle!" shouted the ref from where Seviper laid. "Mudkip and Trainer Tim are victorious!"

The crowd erupted. Dylan clapped me on the back. I was starting to like this.

"That was lucky," Dylan said over the roar of the crowd. "If either of those attacks had been just a little stronger, Mudkip would've lost."

"Yeah… but they weren't," I shrugged as I recalled Mudkip. "I still had Charmander left in case they weren't. No way I would've tried that if Mudkip had been my final pokemon."

"Well, still, good job," Dylan chuckled. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to win this so I can whoop you in the finals. Watch closely. You might learn something."

I just laughed in reply. I did intend to learn something though. I planned to learn exactly how to beat his pokemon.

The final match for Field One got underway quickly. Dylan started out with his zigzagoon while his opponent, Matt, sent out a sentret. It was a hard-hitting match between the two normal types. Although I paid close attention, I didn't find myself picking up anything that would be crucial when battling either trainer. Dylan's zigzagoon eventually won with a powerful head butt.

The next round did provide me with something useful. After Zigzagoon had succumbed to poisoning from the small and pointy nidoran male that had been sent out, Dylan deployed his totodile. That's when things got a little more interesting.

Knowing that his previous pokemon had been poisoned just from touching the nidoran, Dylan kept Totodile at a distance. Nidoran was hot on Totodile's heels with a horn attack though.

"Totodile!" Dylan shouted as his pokemon got cornered in the far corner of the field. "Water gun at the ground!"

Totodile fired a blast of water more powerful than a fire hose at it's feet. The strength of the current shot Totodile straight up into the air. The nidoran screeched to a halt, shocked and out of reach.

"Water gun!" Dylan ordered.

This time Totodile blasted the other pokemon, the torrent carrying the poison pokemon across the field. Totodile blasted it once more before being declared the winner. I scratched at my chin as I took in what I had just seen. It was definitely something that I would remember.

Totodile finished up the match, defeating the geodude that been sent out handily thanks to it's type advantage. Dylan had made it to the finals as well.

An announcement was made that there would be a twenty minute break before the championship match. Dylan found me in the dispersing crowd with a grin on his face.

"How do you like them apples?" he asked smugly. "What now?"

"I'll see you at the match," I said as I turned. "I've got some strategy to think over."

"Wait, what?" Dylan was confused.

I cocked an eyebrow. "You didn't actually think I was just planning to go in without a game plan did you? I know all your pokemon so I need to figure out the best way to beat them all."

A grin slowly formed on Dylan's face. "I like your thinking there. Game on. I'll see you in twenty minutes."

Pushing my way through the moving crowd, I headed back towards the rest rooms. Instead of going inside, however, I went around to the back. I popped all of the pokemon off of my belt and tossed them into the air, releasing the pokemon inside.

I crouched down and looked at them all. "Ok team, here's the deal: we're in the championship match of this tournament. That's the good news. The bad news is that our opponent is Dylan."

The pokemon all looked at each other.

"I know that he's our friend but that doesn't mean we're going to hold back," I said to them. "If anything, we're going to try harder than ever to win. I've got a few strategies that I want to go over."

After I made sure everyone understood what I had in mind, I placed them back into their poke balls. With a stretch of my back, I headed back around to the front of the rest rooms. I started making my way back when a hand landed on my shoulder.

I readied a barb to fire when I realized the hand wasn't very heavy. Not nearly as heavy as Dylan's should have been. I looked down at the hand to see a long slender hand on my shoulder. The finger nails had a pink sheen to them. Definitely not Dylan.

I turned around to see a familiar blonde girl standing there.

"Hi," she said with a small smile.

"Uh, hi," I stuttered. "Ashley, right?"

"Yeah, I'm surprised you remembered," her smile grew.

I shrugged. "I'm pretty good with names. So, um, what's up?"

"I was hoping you'd do me a favor."

This was getting progressively more interesting. "I can try."

"I want you to win the championship match," Ashley said slowly. "I know the guy you're against is your friend but I want you to beat him good. My friend, the one from the park, kind of has a crush on him and I want you to show him up."

"Well I can try," I laughed. "He does have a trump card up his sleeve but I at least know what it is. I was definitely planning on winning though."

She gave me a big smile. "Just consider this a little extra motivation."

Ashley leaned in and put her hand on my shoulder. She looked like she wanted to do something else but settled for giving it a squeeze. She slowly pulled her hand away and with a smile, walked away. I touched my shoulder as she walked around, frozen in place and rather confused.

Her friend liked Dylan. Ashley wanted me to beat Dylan. What did that have to do with anything? Why did Dylan need to lose because her friend liked him? What was she thinking of doing with her hand on my shoulder? I was totally confused.

The wheels started turning slowly. A grin slowly crossed my face.

I decided I liked being a pokemon trainer.