Yay! Next chapter! This is Snowflake EV's request for a "trainer for a day" type of thing.

Disclaimer: I don't own SSBB, or pokémon.

"It's so unfair!"

"No, not really. I mean, he can't exactly swing a sword around like we can, now, can he?"

"I suppose not. But I still don't think it's fair!"

"What are you all arguing about?"

Link and Ike were sitting cross-legged on the floor of Marth's bedroom, and Marth was stretched out on his bed, his cobalt eyes following the conversation of the other two. Red was standing in the open doorway. "I can hear you guys down the hall. What's going on?"

Marth looked at him. "They're arguing."

"Yeah, I got that much."

Link leaned to the side to be seen around Ike. "We're arguing about you."

Red suddenly felt very self-conscious. "You…are?"

Ike sighed and turned around. He pointed at Link. "He thinks it's not fair that you get to use pokémon to battle while we have to, to use his words, 'use our muscles and swing heavy weapons.'"

Red frowned at that. "Pokémon aren't all that easy either, you know."

Link burst into laughter. "Oh please! All you do is yell at them to do stuff and they do it! What could be easier?"

Marth turned and glared at the Hylian. "Don't be rude."

"No, it's okay," said Red, "he's given me an idea. You think pokémon are easy to control, right? Well, let's find out, hm?"

Fifteen minutes later, Ike, Marth, Link, and Red were standing outside the Smash Mansion and in front of the portal, which was glowing. The first three were fidgeting worriedly, while the latter was smiling maliciously.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Marth squeaked. "We're not exactly allowed to be running back and forth between each other's worlds…"

"I'm not so sure, either," Ike added.

"I'm with the blueberries," Link said, stepping back to be in line with the other two, who were glaring angrily at the hero who had called them blueberries.

Red laughed at their sudden lack of courage. "It'll be fine." He pointed down at the window nearest to them. "We're covered."

Link, Ike, and Marth all peered in through the glass. Sitting in darkness, except for a tabletop lamp, in front of a laptop, was Pit. The angel smiled devilishly at them and waved.

"Pit's monitoring the security system, so if it seems like we're going to be caught, he'll notify us to come back, and erase the data," Red explained.

Marth made a face. "Who knew that little angel could be so…so…evil?"

Everyone laughed, but they stopped quickly when the portal glowed more brightly.

"It's ready!" Red exclaimed. "Let's go!"

One by one, they stepped through and were warped into a lab. They were greeted almost instantaneously by a rather odd and absent-minded scientist.

"Hello!" he greeted warmly; he seemed to be unperturbed by the fact that four teens had just randomly appeared in his lab. "I'm professor Oak!"

"Hello, professor," Red said.

"Red!" the professor exclaimed. "Welcome back!" He then proceeded to suffocate the trainer in a large bear hug. "How have you been?"

"Fine," choked Red. When Oak released him, he continued. "I have a favour to ask."

"Anything, my boy!"

"Okay…can you get some starter pokémon for these guys? I want to show them that it's not as easy as it seems to raise them."

Oak laughed. "No problem!" He bustled off, lab coat flying, and returned hardly a moment later with an armful of pokéballs. "Take your pick!"

Link was the first to reach out and pick one. As soon as he touched the pokéball, there was a flash, and a small orange dragon with a flame on the end of its tail appeared in front of him. Its beady black eyes fixed on him, and it smiled.

"Ooh, a Charmander!" Oak cheered. "Okay, next person!"

Ike went next. Out of his pokéball appeared a small blue turtle-like creature with a squirrel's tail. It immediately hopped up and curled into a ball on Ike's head.

The professor nodded approvingly. "Squirtle," he said.

Marth, the last to pick, tentatively took a pokéball. It opened to reveal a little yellow creature, with red cheeks and a lightning-shaped tail.

"Pikachu?" the professor exclaimed. "How did you get in there? You're not a starter!" Pikachu looked at him for a moment, then turned back to Marth. It gazed at him with black-button eyes, then leapt up and latched itself onto the side of Marth's head. "Although, it does seem to like you. Fine then, keep it!"

Marth, needless to say, was not pleased. "It's pulling my hair!" he yelled. "Get it off!"

"Pika!" the creature cried in protest. However, it did eventually let go of Marth's azure hair, and then proceeded to sit comfortably on his left shoulder.

"Well then," the professor said, "now that we all have a pokémon, it's time to start training!" He turned abruptly and walked out the door, followed by the four smashers and their new pokémon.

After a few minutes of walking, the group of five found themselves standing in an open clearing, with trees and tall grass on all sides. Professor Oak went and stood in front of everyone and proceeded to explain what they would be doing.

"Here," he said, gesturing to the area behind him, "is where you will now attempt to battle with your pokémon. You'll go against each other first." He pointed at Ike and Marth. "You two will go first, and you," he pointed to Link, "will take on the winner."

Ike and Marth, eager to try out their pokémon, ran forward into the middle of the clearing and stood fifty paces apart. Oak put himself in the middle as mediator. He raised his hand in the air and said, "Ready? Go!"

Having already been briefed on how battling works, Ike and Marth both pulled out their pokéballs and tossed them up. Marth decided to be very clichéd and cried, "Pikachu, I choose you!" when he tossed his pokéball. Both Pikachu and Squirtle landed on the ground in front of their trainers, ready to battle it out.

Oak pointed at Ike. "Your move first!"

Ike stood silently for a minute, thinking. Marth got very impatient. "Come on!" he complained. "It only knows two moves! This isn't that hard!"

Ike looked up. "Fine," he said. "Squirtle, use tackle!"

The water pokémon leapt up and tackled the little electric one to the ground. Fear gripped Marth for a moment, for he didn't want his little Pikachu to die, but the mouse pokémon hopped back up off the ground, eager to strike back. Marth wasted hardly a second in attacking.

"Pikachu, use thundershock!"

Pikachu threw its arms up in the air, and a thin bolt of lightning shot down from the sky and struck Squirtle. The attack was strong, and Squirtle collapsed on to the ground. It didn't get back up.

Professor Oak began to clap giddily. "Ooh, yes! We have a winner! Congratulations!"

Neither Marth nor Ike were paying any attention to what Oak was saying. Ike was on the ground with eyes full of worry, cradling Squirtle. Marth was absolutely beside himself, mumbling and pacing and apologizing incessantly. It took Oak an incredibly long time to figure out what was going on.

"Oh dear," he said once he had caught on, "I'm afraid I forgot to explain something to you." He took Squirtle out of Ike's reluctant arms. "Your pokémon isn't dead, he just fainted. Here," the professor gave Squirtle a gold, square-shaped thing. In a matter of seconds, Squirtle's eyes had opened, and it leapt out of the professor's arms and hugged Ike's shoulder.

Marth stopped pacing. "Yay, you brought it back to life!" he cried, running over to Oak and crushing him with princely love.

"It wasn't dead, but okay."

Link walked over and joined them. "Is it my turn now?"

"Hm?" Oak said. "Oh, right. Now, it's Pikachu versus Charmander!"

The battle was over quickly. Since Pikachu was already a bit weak from Squirtle's tackle, and Charmander attacked first, one scratch was enough to defeat the mouse pokémon. Link was very pleased with himself. Marth, however, was a bit confused.

"I don't get it. My Pikachu was strong enough to beat Ike's Squirtle in one move, but when I went up against Link's Charmander, I lost! Why?"

The professor looked up. "Type advantages, of course."

"Type what now?"

Oak sighed. "Squirtle is a water type, and Pikachu is an electric type. Electricity trumps water."

"But what about Charmander?"

"Pikachu was already weak from the tackle it took from Squirtle, so one attack from Charmander was enough to finish it off."

"Is it because fire trumps electricity?"

"No. It had everything to do with the fact that Pikachu didn't have as many health points as Charmander."

Marth felt as if his brain was disintegrating. "But…"

Red decided to take the opportunity. "What's wrong Marth? I thought pokémon weren't that complicated!"

"Oh, and I haven't told you about evolution yet!" Oak chirped. "See, when a pokémon reaches a certain level, or certain conditions are met, they change shape and evolve. Some are as simple as gaining a certain level, but others are more complex, such as obtaining Umbreon from an Eevee by making it happy at night. Additionally, some pokémon have several different evolution possibilities; Eevee, for example, can evolve into seven different forms and-"

"Stop!" Marth yelled. "Stop! Stop! Slow down! I can't take it!" He sat down on the ground and pressed his hands to either side of his head. "Could you start over?"

By this point, Link and Ike were also staring at Oak with blank looks on their faces, and Red was trying really hard not to laugh. Oak opened his mouth to restate his evolution speech, but was interrupted by the "Road to Viridian City" theme.

"That would be me," Red said, pulling out his cell phone. "Hello?"

The conversation with whoever was on the other end lasted about a minute. When Red hung up, he said, "That was Pit. He says it's dark at the Smash Mansion now. We need to go back." He turned to professor Oak. "Will you take us back to the lab now?"

"Certainly!"

The four smashers followed the professor back to the lab, and three of them felt quite tired. Red decided to see if they had learned anything.

"Well?" he said. "What do you think of pokémon?"

"They're complicated," Marth responded instantly. "All that evolution stuff has my brain spinning. I can't make heads or tails of it."

Ike patted the prince on the shoulder. "It's not that bad. It's like in Fire Emblem when we reach level 20. We class change!"

Marth's cobalt eyes turned to look at the warrior. "Yes, that much I get. It's the whole happiness thing. Those things just seem to be happy when they're hanging off of us."

Link got in on the conversation. "Your point?"

"My point is, why don't they just evolve immediately if they're happy?"

"Because," Red explained, "they need to maintain the happiness for a period of time. Also, the pokémon actually need to have an obtainable evolution form by happiness. None of yours did."

"Well how were we supposed to know that?" Marth exploded.

Red and Oak laughed. "Well," Red said, "at least you all learned something today."

"Yeah," Link said, "pokémon are not as easy as they look."

"Yes," Red agreed, "and don't you forget it!"

And that's the end of that! Or is it? ;) Next up is…something. Haven't decided yet. I've got the next three chapters all half-written, so it basically depends on which one I finish first. It will hopefully be up before Christmas. Until then, why don't you click on that little "review" button down there and tell me your thoughts? :)