Asen kept careful watch as Hank strutted into one of the nine makeshift arenas in the stadium. Battles were usually quick, and constant. People walked in and out of the stands at leisure, depending on what their friend's schedule was like.

Hank was certainly enjoying his taste of power. He had already won the first battle with relative ease, and even though he promised to lose one battle, Asen wasn't sure that was going to happen. That's why he was here watching with a walkie-talkie in hand, but his preparations seemed for naught when saw who Mike was going to be fighting. Small screens that where attached to the seat flashed information from each of the nine arenas, showing the trainers that would be fighting in each one and with what pokemon. With a sigh of relief he saw that Mike was facing two butterfrees, and while Mike had the type advantage Asen knew that there was little chance for Mike to win.

Still, he tapped on Mike's picture, muttering, "Just in case," and the touch sensitive screen showed Mike's battle area from the news camera's view on the sidelines. In this way he, as well as anyone else in the stands, could watch two battles at once. For some reason Asen could not shake the feeling that something was going to go wrong. "Hank," he said into the walkie-talkie.

"What do you want?" he growled into the blue tooth like device, feinting combing his hair. "You know that if I'm caught with this I could get kicked out, right?"

Ignoring that fact, Asen said, "You're facing an aggron and a sableye..."

"I know that, dumbass! Is that all yo-"

"Shut up and listen!" Hank didn't answer, he just crossed his arms and glared at the opposite of the field, where his opponent, a small girl with an annoyingly bright smile, was being interviewed before the match. "The pokemon that that girl has are tough, probably tough enough to beat Hitmonchan and Yanma. Why don't you lose this one? It'll be easier to make it look like an accident."

Asen watched Hank run his fingers through his hair, he didn't look happy, "Fine..."

An interview crew approached Hank after that and Asen turned off the walkie-talkie and waited for the match to start.

%%%

Kisha couldn't believe her eyes. "Magnum, Bullet..." she whispered under her breath. Crush and Crystal turned and looked at her, their expressions unreadable. "Guys I..." she tried and failed to meet their gazes and instead looked at the ground in shame, "I don't think I can do this. I-"

"Hitmon!" A gruff voice came from the other side of the field and Kisha looked up. Magnum pounded his chest with his gloved fist and shouted again, "Hitmon!" Yanma next to him was nodding in agreement. Magnum repeated the motion, but this time Kisha could have sworn that Magnum said "Hit me!"

As if to confirm this Kisha felt Sophia's mind touch hers and said, [He's telling you not to hold back. And that if you do, he and Bullet will be mad at you.] She paused and added, [I don't think that's an idle threat...]

[But... what about Mike? I don't want to...]

[I believe that he would want you to go all out too... in fact I know it. This battle can't be lost in his eyes, because both you and his pokemon can only come out stronger as a result of this battle.]

Kisha didn't answer, but after a moment she looked at Crush and Crystal, who where still looking at her intently, and said with new confidence in her voice, "Let's do this!" Crystal gave a toothy grin and Crush let out a fierce roar in agreement. Kisha Looked across the field at her friend's pokemon, smiled mischievously and pounded her fist in her hand.

Magnum returned the gesture with a loud, "Hitmon!" There was no question now that that meant hit me.

%%%

Mike dreaded this moment, but there was no delaying it any longer, the other trainer had already called out her pokemon and now everyone was waiting on Mike's. With great reluctance he called out Punching and Bag, not even saying so much as a "come on out."

There was the familiar (though no less humiliating) rumble of laughter in the stands as the pidgeys tried to peck at the ground. As usual, the pidgeys didn't even seem to realize that they were in fact in a battle. Still familiar was the amusement in the announcer's voice as she said, "And Mike's two pokemon are both pidgeys. It looks like he has a type advantage over Jessica's butterfrees." Then she muttered under her breath, "but not much else."

Jessica, looking a bit relieved, (Had she too been duped? Butterfrees didn't seem like the kind of pokemon one would enter a tournament with,) raised her hand and said, "Get 'em!"

As the two butterfrees charged forward, Mike yelled, "Will you two at least look at the the pokemon that are going to flatten you?" To his surprise, the pidgeys decided to listen to him. But what happened next left him speechless until the end of the fight.

%%%

In the crowd's roar the pokemon could no longer hear their trainer's commands. So out of mutual consent, they stood waiting (and resting) until the noise died down enough to be able to hear orders. Crush, Crystal, Magnum, and Bullet had fought so fiercely for the first two minutes that the entire stadium was on it's feet with excitement. even the announcer could barely make himself heard over the crowd of voices and even he was shouting himself hoarse.

Kisha used this lull to plan her next move. Hank seemed unable to think straight when fast calls where necessary, so the obvious way to beat him would be to keep the pressure on until he messed up. Unfortunately, Kisha didn't have the experience to keep up prolonged firefights. She wished Sophia was still here, but she had left before the crowd got too excited, and besides, getting her help would be cheating. She also remembered that Mike had once told her what he wanted to improve in his pokemon, what weaknesses he wanted to eliminate. But Kisha couldn't remember what...

"AH!" Suddenly the memory hit her. "Bullet's a wimp," he had said affectionately, earning him a hair tousle from Bullet, "He takes a couple little hits and he goes 'Ope! I'm done.' Magnum's a bit slower than a normal hitmonchan and he pays no attention to his surroundings. If you distract him with a butterfly-er, butterfree overhead and you could run up and punch him in the face without a problem.

The crowd was finally calming down and Kisha whipped up a quick plan. "Crush, rock blast on Hitmonchan!" A flurry of small meteors flew out of Crush's gaping mouth and aimed themselves at Magnum, while Kisha said quietly to Crystal, "Come here."

"Dodge, Hitmonchan!" shouted Hank, and Magnum began dancing around the miniature meteors, working his way towards Crush.

"Faint attack on yanma!" Shouted Kisha and Crystal disappeared. She reappeared in the air just above and to the side of Yanma and struck him down... Yanma tumbled out of the air and landed right in the line of fire, hit by the very shots that Magnum was dodging so expertly. "Sorry Bullet," Kisha whispered sadly under her breath.

Hank recalled Bullet and watched Magnum's advancement, Kisha saw tension on his face and new he was worried. As soon as Crush's attack ended he shouted, "Mach Punch!" With blinding speed, Magnum dashed forward and jabbed Crush in the belly, who released an audible grunt. "Now back up, play defense." Magnum obliged, turning so that his eyes could dart back and forth between Crystal and Crush without turning his head. He raised his gloves to either side of his face, one further forward than the other, and half crouched so he was ready to dodge.

For some reason, it was dead quiet in the stands, a tense feeling had blanketed the entire arena, even the announcer stayed quiet. Kisha wondered briefly what this would feel like to Sophia, then snapped her attention back to the battle. For a long while everything was silent.

Hank forgot that he was supposed to be losing, his mind was racing, trying to find a way out of this mess. He drew a breath and said in a calm voice, so as not to startle the girl (he still didn't know her name) into attacking. "Hitmonchan, what do you suggest we do here?" With out taking his eyes of his opponents, Magnum froze both his fists. Hank got the message. "Good, then maybe we can still win this." Magnum gave a quick almost imperceptible nod. "Take a step towards Sableye."

Crush growled menacingly and made a move to stop him. "No, Crush..." Kisha said as calmly as Hank. She caught his eye and as they stared at each other, Kisha began to feel like a hero from one of those wild west movies. She almost wished for a piece of tumble weed. Again she snapped herself out of distraction. Still in a calm voice she said to Crystal, "Meet him half way."

Magnum and Crystal walked slowly towards each other their guards up. When they stood within feet of each other they stopped.

Another moment, which seemed like eternity, and both Kisha and Hank burst out at the same time.

"Ice Punch!"

"Fury swipes!"

Crystal lost, but it was a spectacular loss. The crowd erupted again as the two pokemon traded blows, they were yelling sides, "Go, Saybleye!" and, "Go, Hitmonchan!" Cheers were heard as Magnum earned some nasty looking scratches and Crystal was slowly frozen solid. Finally, with a piff and explosion of powdered snow, Magnum landed a devastating hook, causing saybleye to spin and fall.

Even as she fell though, Kisha yelled "Hyperbeam!" and Magnum looked up and saw Crush looming over him, not even five feet away, mouth open and shining... Magnum's fists dropped and Kisha saw for an instant his expression, which seemed to say, "Aw Hell," before he was hit by the beam full force.

Magnum skidded to a halt in front of Hank, out cold. Hank swore loudly and recalled him, not hearing the crowd shouting it's approval

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! IT'S ALL OVER! THAT WAS ONE OF THE GREATEST BATTLES I HAVE EVER SEEN. YOUNG KISHA BANADES HAD SHOWN GREAT PROMISE HERE TODAY. LET'S HOPE THAT HER NEXT FEW BATTLES ARE AS STUNNING AS THIS ONE!"

"Hank, Hank!" Asen shouted into his walkie-talkie, trying hard not to sound amused. "Cool it, man, you where supposed to lose!" But Hank wasn't listening. he was too busy stomping his feet and cussing loudly. Finally, Asen just laughed, and looked down and his sceen and felt his laughter catch in his throat. He double checked and triple checked the information. Then, frustrated, he hit the replay button.

%%%

From the camera angle, Asen could see everything.

The battle started with the butterfree dashing forward, maybe in a quick attack. Mike shouted something at his pokemon, Asen couldn't tell what, and then the battle got ugly.

In the blink of an eye one of the butterfree was on the ground, both the pidgeys looming over it. Then they started pecking, not as an attack to subdue, but to eat. Breaking through the poor bugs exoskeleton and tearing sizable chunks of flesh. The trainer hastily called back her pokemon before they could do more damage, though Asen wondered if it was too late. Too soon, they rounded on the other butterfree, who dodged and began to gain altitude. The pidgeys jumped at it, but because of their weight, they could not follow it into the air.

There was a pause from the girl as she thought up her plan. She suddenly seemed to have an idea and yelled something. The butterfree swooped down while dropping a bright, shimmering, blue sleep powder. The pidgey stopped hopping at once, and seemed to be swaying in exhaustion but they continued eying the butterfree hungrily. The girl yelled something else, and the butterfree shot a rainbow colored beam, confusion attack, at them. It hit one, and swayed even more heavily in place, but the other one snapped back into full attention.

Now Mike yelled something, but at first the pidgeys didn't listen. Looking frustrated he repeated himself, and when that didn´t have any effect he tried yelling something else, and instantly the pidgeys pulled off a stunt Asen wouldn't have believed if it hadn't been caught on camera. They jumped upwards and towards each other, and one then jumped off the other. The second jump allowed it to reach the butterfree and clamp it's beat on one of the feet. The butterfree, unable to handle the load, plummeted like a rock, and the pidgeys again tried to gorge themselves before the trainer called back her pokemon.

The match was over in two minutes.

But the story didn't stop there. The battle was freshly over and the pidgeys began glowing, they were evolving. "Well crap. Now he's got a couple of pidgeottos!" Asen put away the screen and got up to meet Hank, who was still fuming over his lost battle...his pride.

%%%

Kisha was positively bouncing as she came out of the on-the-spot pokemon center, both her pokemon walking on either side of her. They seem just as happy, but showed it differently: Crystal's jewels shimmered like there was a light from within; Crush tapped his chest plating with his claws in a catchy beat. Right outside people crowded around to congratulate her, cheer for her, see her. She beamed at all of them as she walked by, shaking hands with anyone who asked. The pokemon where also asked for handshakes and even fist bumps. At one point, the crowd got too thick to go through, so Crush took the lead to part the ocean of faces.

She finally got some peace when she got to her hotel room. She recalled her pokemon, telling them to rest, and walked in. She was immediately tackled by a green and white blur.

[I'm sooooo happy for you Kisha!] Said Sophia. [That was absolutely amazing what you did with Crush!]

Kisha got up and squeezed her friend tightly in her arms, lifting her off the ground. "Thank you!" she said out loud and walked in with Sophia still in her arms.

Right inside, with a smile so wide that seemed like it would belong the the cheshire meowth, David was sitting on the bed watching the replay's of the final moment of the match on the hotel TV. When he noticed Kisha he stood up and extended a hand, saying, "Good job."

Kisha put down Sophia, ran to David, ignoring the hand, and threw her arms around his waist. After the initial surprise he smiled and hugged her back. Sophia immersed herself in the joy that filled the room, sweet and soft; she enjoyed much better than the smoothie they had given her. And I'm not getting a brain freeze to boot!

%%%

Mike came out of the pokemon center even more confused than before. Even the nurses had said that the pidgey had been fit to evolve, but then again...

Mike shook his head to clear his thoughts. He was almost at the hotel room and he didn't want to confuse poor Sophia again. He opened the door and Kisha noticed him first. "Mike! Congrats! I heard you won today! I, uh..." she hesitated.

"I heard you beat my pokemon. Good work!" Mike replied heartily. He sat down on the bed with her, David, and Bob, and watched the tv, trying to clear his head. The replays of the battles were showing. He tried to enjoy himself, but the feeling he had kept nagging away at him.

[For someone who won against bad odds, you're not very happy,] Sophia commented. [What's wrong?]

[Um...] Unsure of how to answer, he eventually just thought, [Watch the match, it'll probably explain better than I can.]

By the end of the rerun, Sophia felt the same feelings radiating from David and Bob: confusion and disbelief, unsurprisingly.

"Well," Bob whistled. "I didn't know pidgeys turned into that."

"How...how did...that...what?" David cried.

That's when Kisha spoke up in a small voice. "I-I think I can explain..."

%%%

"WHAT! What do you mean I have to lose again?"

"I mean," said Asen, calmly wiping the spit off his face, "You're going to have to lose this next battle. Mike won his last battle, and he's got a couple of pidgeottos."

Now Hank's expression changed to something close to concern and quieted his voice. Normally, he'd only quiet down when they were around civilians, but here in the run down hotel, there wasn't much danger. He muttered, "So this means we're going to try to make it so we face each other in the final round?"

"Yeah, 'cause there's a good chance that Mike will win the next fight."

"But then how am I supposed to beat him while he's got his own pokemon?"

Asen paused with a look of disbelief on his face, "You seriously don't know? If he could get the pidgeys to evolve, then imagine how much stronger he could make them by the next battle, now that they're pidgeottos. Hank, they could be pidgeots by the time you get them back."

Hank still looked doubtful, "Yeah, but then he's going to get his pokemon back and-"

"Exactly! Hitmonchan, a fighting type, and Yanma, a bug type, don't stand a chance against flying types!"

Hank snorted in the "whatever" sort of way, then remarked. "I should have been chosen to proceed in the tournament. Seriously! I'm going to now anyway! What did they think was wrong with my...?"

"PLEASE, I've heard this rant a thousand times before," Asen groaned, tapping into another stadium camera with his laptop for routine survey.

"Oh, like YOU can talk, asshole!" His voice was raised again. "You got a zangoose and bastardion for your two weaklings, and somehow, you're both kicking ass, getting all the glory. Not fair, man, not fair."

Asen rolled his eyes and continued spying on the bustling crowds around the stadium entrance. Nothing suspicious, of course. There really wasn't much point to this activity except the whole, "better safe than sorry" situation. Pokemon and humans just going about their business, including the fluttering of sharp wings, which caused him to have a double-take. "Swellow?"

The person Asen was paired with was not one they particularly cared about by Team Blight, and thus knew nothing about him, or her. Swellow must have been soaring just about their head, but his face was hidden in the crowd. They were heading into the stadium, probably about to battle.

Hank had left in a huff after Asen stopped responding to him. No one would know if he watched one little battle. He opened a window to these inside of the stadium and whispered, "Make me proud, guys."