The next morning, Dylan and his dad picked me up at five in the morning. I had said my goodbyes to my family the night before so I just ran out the door. I tossed my backpack into the seat next to me in the back and we were off.

The drive to Clarksville was short. We pulled into a warehouse and unloaded. After a quick goodbye to Dylan's dad, we were on the move. Dylan's GPS gave us our heading. It lead us to a small path that seemed to lead out of town and past all the major roads. It was a road that trainers before us seemed to have taken as well. Neither of us were morning people, so the first part of the walk was quiet.

"You watch any of the Tournament last night?" Dylan asked, finally breaking the silence.

"Just a little," I said with a yawn. "I caught that epic battle between the nidorino and gengar though."

"Yeah, that turned out to be more of a battle than I would've expected."

That was all we said for a time. As the sun continued to climb, so did our energy levels. Our pace picked up slightly and so did our conversation. Dylan's GPS estimated that we would get into Lansing somewhere around seven at night at our current pace. The competitor in us wanted to try and move up that ETA but we knew it would tax us far too much if we tried.

Our path lead us through grassy fields and into a large wooded area. Big oak and pine trees lined our path. The sounds of life circulated throughout the air.

"I say we take a pokemon break," I said, stopping. "There's got to be at least a couple out there."

"I'm game," Dylan agreed with a look around. "You go right and I'll go left. Go in a straight line and don't go far. You've got your phone right? In case you get lost."

"Jeez, you're worse than my mom! I've been out in the woods before. Meet you back here in ten."

We slipped apart and headed into the trees. I took a few quiet steps, not that the scattered grass patches were going to create much noise. After maybe thirty seconds of walking, I found a pokemon. It was a small brown bird, perched up on a branch a few feet above my head. My pokedex identified it as a pidgey. I already knew that but I still scanned it for Professor Oak.

I slipped a poke ball off my belt and into my hand. "Go! Pichu!"

The pidgey snapped it's head towards me. It flapped it's wings and jumped into the air.

"Quick, thundershock!" I ordered. "Don't let it get away!"

Getting away wasn't in the pidgey's game plan. It swooped around a tree and came barreling in on Pichu. My pokemon was having none of it. Pichu hunched over and blasted a streak of lightning at the flying pokemon. The electricity wrapped itself around the bird pokemon and it fell to the ground.

"Give it a thunder wave!"

Pichu zapped the bird with it's blue lightning, paralyzing the pokemon. Sparks crackled around the pidgey as it tried to move. I pulled an empty poke ball off the second harness I had on my belt and threw it. It bounced off the pidgey, sucked it inside and fell to the dirt. The ball twitched for a moment before going still.

"That was easy enough," I said to Pichu as I went to retrieve the ball.

I reached down to pick up the poke ball when a white light over my shoulder caught my attention. Whipping around, I saw Pichu engulfed in the white light. Despite being completely covered, I could see my pokemon changing. It's ears thinned out while it's limbs and body filled out. It's tail grew into the shape of a lightning bolt. When the light faded, I could see that it still had the red spots on it's cheeks and now had a trio of stripes on it's back.

"Pikachu!" the newly evolved pokemon introduced itself.

"Well what do you know?" I laughed. "I got a two-for-one deal!"

Recalling Pikachu to it's ball, I couldn't wait until I got to test out it's power. It had been quite strong when it was a pichu so I could only assume that evolving would increase it's power by a bit.

I waded a little further into the forest. I knew there had to be more pokemon here but the previous battle seemed to have sent most of them into hiding. With a shrug I turned and headed back to the path. I had beat Dylan back so I leaned against a tree to wait. I could see him coming through the woods a moment later.

"Find anything?" he asked when he got closer.

"Yeah, I caught a pidgey and my pichu evolved," I replied as I handed him one of the granola bars I had dug out of my bag.

"Nice!" he said as he tore open the snack bar. "I caught a caterpie and wurmple. Found them one right after the other."

"Lucky. I wish I could've found another."

With our side quest complete, we were on the move again. The sun was overhead now, making us regret walking in June. We applied some quick sunscreen and kept up our pace. Dylan checked our location to discover that we were making our way through Portland and were making good time. Soon our path was winding through rolling fields of tall grass. Another good place to catch pokemon.

"Same plan as last time?" I asked.

"Worked pretty good last time," Dylan shrugged.

Separating again, we searched out wild pokemon. Pushing aside the tall grass, I wasn't having much luck. Glancing at my phone clock, I saw that I only had a few minutes left so I turned back. That was when I almost tripped over a pokemon.

"Saur!" it exclaimed.

I looked down to see a small blue-skinned pokemon that I recognized from experience as a bulbasaur. It seemed very interested in me. I crouched down so it could see me better. The grass pokemon reared back on it's hind legs and plopped it's front feet up on my knees. It sniffed at me and grinned. It then pointed at one of my poke balls.

"Saur!" it said.

"You want to come with me?" I asked, a little confused.

"Bulba-saur!"

"Well ok," I shrugged and held out an empty poke ball to it.

It swatted it away, adding to my confusion. Things became clear when it pointed to the poke balls on the right side of my waist. The ones with pokemon in them.

"Ah, you want to battle!"

It jumped back in excitement. It was a peculiar pokemon but I definitely wanted it on my team. I figured a battle of grass pokemon would be a good way to introduce it to the team.

"Treecko! Battle time!"

Treecko emerged and instantly the bulbasaur started talking to it. They conversed for a moment or two and then Treecko gave me a thumbs-up. I shook my head. I certainly had unique pokemon to say the least.

"Pound!"

My pokemon raced in on the wild pokemon and swung it's tail. The bulbasaur took the blow head on, the impact shoving it back a few feet. It then raced forward and delivered a tackle attack. Treecko fell back and quickly recovered.

"Bullet seed!" I ordered.

As Treecko started firing, the bulbasaur dove into the tall grass. With no target, Treecko stopping spitting seeds. Without warning, two long vines snaked out of the grass and wrapped themselves around Treecko with alarming speed.

Bulbasaur emerged from the grass. I could see that the vines were coming from the base of the bulb on it's back. The vines flexed and started lifting my pokemon into the air.

"Bullet seed again!"

This time the wild pokemon couldn't hide. The seeds rained down but didn't cause a whole lot of damage since it was a same typed pokemon. It did, however, buy me a second to think.

"Grab the vines!" I shouted. "Grab them and use absorb!"

Wrenching it's hand around, Treecko grabbed onto the vines and the rainbow shimmer engulfed them. The surprise on the bulbasaur's face was obvious. It dropped my pokemon in a hurry.

I pointed at the wild pokemon. "Quick attack!"

Treecko blazed through the grass and slammed into the bulbasaur. It tumbled back and onto it's back. I saw it's legs flailing and I knew it was our moment to strike.

"Hit it with pound!" I ordered.

Jumping up, Treecko flipped head over heels and brought it's tail down with all the force it could muster. The bulbasaur let out a cry and I knew the battle was over. I threw an empty poke ball and watched the bulbasaur get sucked in. The ball twitched once. It was quiet after that. It had been an interesting battle but it was a productive one at least.

New pokemon in hand, I returned to the path we had been following. I found Dylan already there. He was tossing a poke ball up and down to himself. His eyes lit up when he saw me.

"You'll never guess what I caught," he grinned.

"Bet what I caught is more exciting."

"Doubtful," he scoffed. "Check it out."

He tossed the poke ball to the ground where it popped open as I did the same. When the two pokemon formed, I stared laughing. Next to my bulbasaur stood a mirror image of the pokemon except that instead of blue skin, it had green. The two pokemon looked at each other and grumbled.

"Wow, what are the odds that we both catch a bulbasaur?" I chuckled.

"Actually probably pretty good," Dylan said as he jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "I saw another one on my way back to the path."

I glanced down as the grumbling pokemon had turned into growling pokemon. For whatever reason, our bulbasaur did not seem to like each other. Mine backed up a few steps and lowered it's front end like it was going to charge. Dylan's reared up on it's back legs.

"Ok, apparently our bulbasaur can never hang out." I returned Bulbasaur to it's poke ball before things got interesting.

Dylan did the same. We got our bearings and started down the path again. Far off in the distance, we were pretty sure we could make out Lansing. As we got closer, the city actually turned out to be Grand Ledge. Regardless of our failure to properly identify cities from far away, we were still pleased with our progress. Our misidentification also inspired Dylan to make sure we were still on the right path.

We veered off our path to head into the city. Swinging into a local sandwich shop, we got our first real meal of the day. As we stuffed our faces with food, we realized that we had waited far too long for a real meal. We were back on the road after a quick bathroom break.

The sun was slowly starting it's decent as we able to see what we were sure was Lansing this time. Despite an uneventful break to catch pokemon, we were on pace to reach the city in just barely under thirteen hours. The way our legs were burning made us wish we had taken a little more time though. A billboard with a built in clock was just passing seven as we walked into town.

"Wow, I can not wait to sleep tonight," I said, rubbing the back of my neck. "I'm pretty exhausted."

"Don't pass out on me yet," Dylan taunted. "We just got here. We've still got to find a pokemon center."

"We should probably just ask someone instead of wandering about."

In spite of my excellent idea, we wandered through Lansing for three quarters of an hour until we happened upon a park. There was quite a few people there even though it was starting to get late. We decided to see if any of them could give us directions.

"You guys look a little lost," said a voice behind us.

We turned around to see a guy and a girl standing there that looked probably around our age. The guy was a few inches shorter than me and the girl a few shorter than him. The guy had his hair cropped pretty close to his head and a stubbly beard. He wore a white t-shirt and cameo pants. The girl had long dark hair that almost matched her black shirt she had on above her jeans. They both seemed like pleasant people.

"So am I right?" the guy asked.

"Uh, yeah, we just got into town," I answered. "Any chance you can direct us to a pokemon center?"

The girl's dark eyes suddenly crackled with excitement. "Oh my gosh! You're pokemon trainers! So are we! We should battle!"

"Normally we wouldn't turn you down but we need to heal our pokemon," Dylan explained. "We've been on the road since early this morning."

"Wait, you walked here?" the guy's eyes narrowed. "Why?"

"We're taking the League Challenge."

"Well no shit. We were going to do the same." he extended his hand. "Name's David. This is my girlfriend Vanessa."

We introduced ourselves.

"Come on, we can take you to the center," David said, waving for us to follow him. "It's not far from here."

"You have to battle us afterwards!" Vanessa chimed in.

I shrugged. "Yeah, that's cool."

"So you guys been trainers long?" David asked as we walked.

Dylan barked a short laugh. "Maybe like a month. We just like to think that we have a knack for it."

"Fair enough," David shrugged. "We've only been serious trainers for a month or so too. We only recently decided to take the Challenge, though. We were planning to head out in the next day or so."

"Wednesday," Vanessa corrected. "There's that thing at the park tomorrow, remember?"

"Oh yeah. Forgot about that."

I cracked my neck quickly. "What's at the park?"

"Um, basically it's a tournament thingy," Vanessa replied. "We thought it'd be good experience since we only have a couple pokemon. We need them to get strong."

"Tomorrow at the park," I repeated. "We might have to look into that."

We rounded a final corner and our quartet arrived at the pokemon center. It wasn't quite the social center that the one in Grand Rapids had been but there were still trainers bustling about. Dylan and I passed off our pokemon to a nurse to get them healed. David and Vanessa joined us in the waiting area.

"Looked like you guys had quite a few pokemon," David noted as we waited.

"Yeah, we caught a few on our way here," Dylan replied with a yawn. "I think we both had five already when we left Grand Rapids. Oh, hey Tim, don't forget to send out updates. We were supposed to let people know we made it here."

I pulled out my cell phone. "On it."

I tapped out a text message and fired it off to our parents and a few other friends. Putting the phone away, I considered pulling out my laptop.

"Think I should send the professor an email?" I asked Dylan.

"Nah, not yet. Wait until we get to Detroit or win a badge. He's a busy guy. Don't want to bother him that often."

"You keep in touch with one of your professors from school?" Vanessa gave us a weird look. "That's… cool, I guess.

I laughed. "No, he's not from school. He's, um, well… I guess he's a friend of the family?"

"Just say it, man," Dylan smacked me on the shoulder.

"Hey, we don't need to go throwing his name around," I snapped. "I want to do this on my own merit, not because of who I know."

David and Vanessa exchanged a look. I wondered if they might guess who we were talking about. The wheels were clearly turning in their minds.

"Telling them isn't going to change anything!" Dylan protested. "They aren't going to let you beat them because of who we know. If anything, they'd try harder if they knew where we got some of our pokemon."

I could see that our companions were really confused now. Apparently it wasn't common knowledge that Professor Oak had a laboratory compound in Michigan. Dylan did make an interesting point.

"My dad is friends with Professor Oak," I blurted out. "He's kind of helping us. He gave us pokedexes and a pokemon."

Vanessa had what appeared to be a small spaz attack and fell off her chair. She tried to say something but was too excited to form actual words. She eventually threw her hands up in the air to indicate she was excited.

"I second that," David laughed. "I can see why you were hesitant to say anything. That's a pretty big deal. Not everyone can say they're backed by Professor Oak."

"I think it's more of a favor to my dad than anything," I said, leaning back in my chair. "They used to be pretty good friends, I guess."

The nurse appeared over Dylan's shoulder with our pokemon. We thanked her and took our pokemon. I placed the six that would comprise my team in the holster on the right side of my belt. I tucked the other two into a side pocket of my backpack. I planned to eventually send them to Professor Oak when I figured out a good lineup.

"So let's battle now!" Vanessa was practically jumping up and down now.

I looked at Dylan and shrugged. "I'm game."

He nodded and we followed David and Vanessa out of the pokemon center. After they had a brief discussion, they lead us back to the park. It was definitely a good place for a pokemon battle. Lots of wide open spaces and not far from a pokemon center.

"So how we doing this?" Dylan asked. "Doubles battle or one-on-one?"

"I vote for singles battles," I gave my input. "We can battle with two pokemon."

"Yeah, I'm not a fan of doubles anyway," Vanessa agreed.

"I'll cast my vote for singles too then," David said. "Make it an easy decision. How do we decide the match ups?"

Dylan dug into his backpack in response. From it he produced a deck of playing cards. He pulled out two black cards and two red. He put a black and a red in one hand and the other two in his other hand. Mixing them up, he held them out face down.

"Draw a card." He extended the cards to me. "The two like colors battle. Black cards go first."

I reached forward and picked the card on the left. Three of spades. I would be first. Vanessa chose her card and got a heart which meant she would battle Dylan and I would battle David. We moved further out into the field. I dropped my bag.

"Pick your pokemon ahead of time," Dylan called. "No changing them even if you get a type disadvantage."

We nodded our agreement. Since I didn't really know these people yet, I decided to show that we played fair. I chose my pokemon and held their poke balls, on in each hand, so it would be obvious if I switched them. David saw what I was doing and followed suit.

"Call it in the air, David." Dylan flipped a coin and David called for tails. It was landed heads.

"David will select the first pokemon!" Dylan declared in his best official ref's impression. "Victory will be determined when a trainer loses both pokemon! Or when I say something official sounding like!

Vanessa giggled and the rest of us had to smile. I turned back to David to see him weighing his options. It didn't take him long to decide to go with the poke ball in his left hand.

"Duke, it's show time!"

I recognized David's pokemon instantly despite having never actually seen a mankey up close. The fighting pokemon looked a lot like a giant ball of white fur with a pig nose and long tail. It had two long arms with a trio of brown fingers and two-toed brown feet. It's eyes had a crazed look about them.

It was a powerful pokemon, but I had a powerful one of my own ready. "Charmander, let's go!"

Vanessa squealed. I jerked my head over to look at her and saw Dylan doing the same. She either had a charmander or really liked them a lot. I was betting on both and I could tell Dylan was tucking that information away for his battle.

I turned back to my battle. "You ready?"

"I was born ready."

I couldn't help but grin. "Charmander, ember!"

"Char!" Charmander swung it's tail and unleashed the fiery rain.

"Dodge and use scratch!" David ordered.

The mankey said something and then took a jump back. The ember attack fell harmlessly to the ground. Duke then starting racing towards Charmander, arms held high above it's head. It was faster than I had expected.

"Use scratch as well!"

Charmander bared it's claws and advanced as well. When Duke lunged at Charmander, I immediately realized my mistake. With it's long arms, the fighting pokemon had a much greater reach than my fire type. Duke scratched Charmander across the face before my pokemon could even get in range to attack. The fire pokemon staggered back, tried to attack again and was smacked with another scratch attack.

"Use karate chop!" David shouted.

One furred arm swung back, fingers flattened out.

"Block it with metal claw!" One orange-skinned arm flashed white and began to glow silver.

The two pokemon swung at once, Duke going down and Charmander going up. The two attacks collided, neither having the advantage. Duke was clearly surprised by the use of metal claw to block it's attack, as was David. Charmander's lips curled back to expose sharp teeth as it struggled to maintain the equilibrium of the two attacks. My pokemon was only going to be able to hold on for another few seconds.

"Disengage!" I yelled.

Charmander swung around to the side, moving it's body out of the way and letting Duke's arm continue it's chop harmlessly to the ground. It's hand dug deep into the ground, leaving it's back momentarily turned away from Charmander.

"Flamethrower!"

David's pokemon spun around just in time to get a face full of flames. The fighting pokemon was momentarily lost in the fire but came diving out of it after a handful of seconds. It looked a little crispy.

"That was nice," David commented. "I've never seen karate chop blocked like that."

"I came up with that at a tournament against a machop," I said. "Worked better than I expected."

"Better than I expected too. Duke, fury swipes!"

Suddenly David's mankey was looming over Charmander, arms pulled back. It began raining down unrelenting blows on my pokemon. Charmander tried to defend but it was forced back and down to a knee.

"Smokescreen!" I shouted in desperation.

Charmander blew a giant cloud of black smoke in Duke's face. With zero visibility in the cloud, Charmander was ably to easily sneak away from Duke. My pokemon had sustained more damage than I realized. I could see the fire pokemon was battered and bruised, breathing hard. We had to end it soon or it would be ended for us.

The fire lizard looked at me. It didn't say anything but it didn't have to. The flame on it's tail had tripled in size. Blaze had kicked in.

That's when the mankey came flying out of the smoke, a crazed look in it's eyes.

"Flamethrower!" I yelled. "Full blast!"

Duke leapt up. Charmander reared it's head back. Flames leaked through it's teeth as it waited for just the right moment. Duke came barreling down out of the sky and that's when Charmander struck. The flamethrower had been brewing in it's mouth and burst out with alarming force. It completely encompassed Duke, sending the mankey sailing back through the air.

"Hang in there Duke!" David screamed.

The mankey responded by recovering from the fall to land on it's feet. It was breathing really heavily now. It was also heavily charred. The next attack to land was most likely going to win the round.

"Karate chop!" David commanded.

"Not a chance!" I swept my right hand out to the side. "End it now Charmander! Flamethrower!"

Duke was rushing in at full speed but Charmander was faster this time. The fighting pokemon was awash in a river of flames a few steps before it would've been in striking range. Had Blaze not kicked in to amplify Charmander's fire attack, I don't know if it would've stopped the charging mankey. However, it had and the flamethrower hit Duke like a ton of fiery bricks. With a smoggy cough, the mankey fell to the ground.

"Duke is unable to battle!" Dylan declared from the sidelines. "Charmander is the winner!"

David looked stunned and Charmander look relieved. Duke had clearly been at a higher level than either of us had anticipated. It had been good but we had been better. The stunned look didn't fade from David's face as he recalled his mankey.

"I can't believe you beat Duke," he stammered. "That may be the first time Duke's ever lost."

"First time for everything," I said with a shrug.

I considered trying to keep him talking as I spared a glance at Charmander. The fire pokemon was still breathing heavily. Despite a decent defense, the fire lizard had taken a serious amount of damage. A strong breeze might knock it over at the moment. Unless David used a pokemon that was weak against fire, I was going to have to switch pokemon.

"Ready for round two?" he asked, tossing a poke ball to himself.

I beckoned him to bring it on with one hand. "Let's dance."

"Vlad, you're up!"

Inwardly, I groaned. Vlad was a small blue turtle that stood on two legs with a knobby tail behind it. I recognized it as a squirtle and a water type. Given how well David had raised his mankey, I had no doubt that he had put as much work into his squirtle as well.

"Charmander, return!" I used the laser to suck Charmander back into it's poke ball. "Take a rest. You've earned it."

"What, you don't want to battle fire versus water?" David chided. "That seemed fair to me."

I gave him a devilish grin that made his smile waver. "If you thought that was fair, then this must be too. Treecko, let's go!"

David's smile diminished a little further. His best option was now to try and defeat Treecko as quickly as possible and hope his squirtle still had enough energy to take on Charmander. I was ready to make sure that didn't happen.

"You sure you don't want to send your charmander back out?" he jokingly asked.

"After it rests for a bit, maybe," I replied in all seriousness. "But for now.. Treecko, quick attack!"

"Bubble!"

Vlad opened it's mouth and a huge stream of bubbles came pouring out. They had enough force behind them that they could do damage but not at the speed Treecko was moving. The grass pokemon rocketed through the swarm and right into the chest of the squirtle. It fell back on to it's back, the roundness of it's shell giving it some trouble with getting back up.

"Hit it with pound!" I yelled, pointed at the defenseless pokemon.

"Withdraw!" David countered.

In the blink of an eye all of Vlad's body parts were pulled inside it's shell, greatly boosting it's defense. Treecko just stared at it for a moment. It had originally planned to jump and put as much force behind it's pound attack as it could. With the water pokemon withdrawn like it was, that would do nothing. Instead it opted to smack the turtle pokemon with it's tail towards a nearby tree.

"Ricochet and water gun!" David ordered.

Suddenly Vlad popped back out of it's shell and rotated so it's feet were heading for the tree. It landed on the side of the tree and launched itself back out, into the air. Opening it's mouth, Vlad blasted Treecko with a water gun that knocked the grass pokemon down.

"Now that was slick," Dylan said, crossing his arms. "That's the kind of crap I'd expect from you, Tim."

Vlad landed on all fours as Treecko was getting back to it's feet. It appeared that the advantage was not as much mine as I had previously thought. Despite a type advantage, this would be a more even battle than I expected.

"Bubble again!" David shouted.

"Wait for it…," I motioned for my pokemon to not move.

The bubbles raced through the air. I waited until there was no way Vlad could still see Treecko.

"Bullet seed!"

The seeds tore through the bubbles, rendering the water attack invalid. Vlad had indeed not been able to see Treecko at all. It was totally unprepared and took the grass attack full force, getting knocked off it's feet. From the sidelines, Vanessa gasped.

"Quick attack, let's go!" I commanded.

"Withdraw again!" David countered.

"Don't hit it!" I bellowed as the squirtle disappeared back into it's shell.

Treecko put the brakes on and slid past the prone water pokemon. I was flying by the seat of my pants now. I had no idea what other tricks David could have up his sleeve so I had to get unorthodox to prevent him using them.

"Bullet seed down one of the openings in Vlad's shell!"

With pinpoint accuracy, Treecko fired a line of seeds down the right arm hole in Vlad's shell. I could hear the squirtle squawk in surprise from all the way over where I was. The shell spun itself up and around, taking the attack in it's protected lower back shell. David had clearly trained his squirtle well.

"Jump on, Treecko!" I shouted.

"You can't hurt Vlad from there!" David sneered. "We can wait this out."

I waved my finger at him. "On the contrary… Treecko! Use absorb!"

Treecko planted it's hands Vlad's shell and the rainbow shimmer fell over them.

"Treecko isn't getting anything!" David laughed.

"That's what you think!" I smirked. "The shell is still part of a squirtle. Treecko is still drawing energy!"

David paled just a little. "Water gun!"

Vlad bounced inside it's shell, knocking Treecko loose and flipping itself over. It emerged from hiding and speared Treecko with a well placed water gun before my pokemon could land. The damage on Vlad had clearly been done, though. It was showing fatigue, breathing hard. I had been guessing about the drawing energy through the shell but luckily I had been right.

"Give it a tackle, Vlad!" David shouted. "Give it everything you've got!"

"Counter with pound," I yelled, fully intending not to use pound at all.

The pokemon got within a few steps of each other when David and I both shouted out now commands.

"Bullet seed!"

"Water gun!"

From a distance, the two attacks might have cancelled each other out. At this close range, the went right through each other. The seeds cut straight through the stream of water and the water gun simply went around the bullet seed. Both pokemon were flung from their feet, crashing to the ground. Treecko was quick to it's feet, Vlad was not. The squirtle struggled to stand.

"It's over," I said. "Quick attack!"

Treecko raced in.

"Don't let it near you!" David spat. "Water gun!"

Vlad fired the water blast again. Treecko kicked off the ground one way and then back the other, zigzagging away from the attack and then back in. Vlad was too tired to react. Treecko flattened the water pokemon with all it's might. The squirtle wasn't getting up any time soon.

"Squir… er, Vlad is unable to battle!" Dylan declared. "Victory to Treecko and Tim!"

"Good match," I said to David as I collected Treecko. "You were just unlucky I had a grass type as my second pokemon. Otherwise you might've beat me."

"I appreciate the kindness but you don't have to patronize me." He softened it with a smile. "You beat me and that's all there is to it."

We shook hands.

"I have to ask though," I said, "why is your squirtle named Vlad?"

David looked taken aback. "Well, because Vlad is bad."

I didn't know what to say to that. On one hand, it made perfect sense but on the other hand, it sounded rather crazy. I just merely shrugged in reply.

"We'll have to do this again sometime," David suggested as we walked off the field. "Maybe once we get more established teams."

"Hey, I'm up for another round after Dylan and Vanessa," I nodded towards our two friends. "I've still got more pokemon."

"Don't get ahead of yourself just yet," Vanessa advised. "I want to battle you next."

She then stole David away and they moved a few feet away from Dylan and I, presumably to discuss strategy. Dylan nodded his head to the side and we did the same.

"What do you think?" he asked.

"Well, you saw how she reacted when I used Charmander," I said slowly. "There's a good chance she's got one."

"I did see that," Dylan muttered. "I was planning to go with Totodile regardless, even before I saw that. It's her second pokemon that I'm worried about."

I gave him a strange look. "Why's that?"

"David has a mankey. That's not a common pokemon. I'm pretty sure they're only found in the mountains usually. There's no telling what Vanessa could have."

I digested this for a moment and realized he had an excellent point. "So what are you going to go with? Obviously the bug pokemon you caught and your bulbasaur are out. Personally, I wouldn't use Oddish because we're pretty sure she has at least one fire type."

"Yeah and Cyndaquil only has one battle under it's belt," Dylan said as he scratched a sideburn. "That and water pokemon are pretty common. I guess that narrows it down to Zigzagoon and Gyarados."

"That's all you then," I put my hands up and took a step back. "I don't want to be responsible for picking the wrong pokemon for you."

I moved back over to where David was now standing alone. Dylan and Vanessa took up the spots on the field that we had used for battle. Vanessa was clearly ready to go, fidgeting in her spot. Dylan took a long look in at me and David, then at Vanessa. Finally he selected a second pokemon from his team.

"Call it in the air," David called as he flipped a coin.

"Tails!" exclaimed Vanessa.

David snatched the coin out of the air and slapped it on the back of his hand. "Nope. Heads. You send out the first pokemon, babe."

"Ok! Let's go… Charmander!" she yelled.

Dylan and I exchanged a knowing look. Apparently paying attention to details does work.

"Totodile, it's game time!" he announced.

"That's unfortunate," I said to David as the battle started.

"Yeah, what are the odds?" he shrugged.

"Actually pretty good. She squealed or something when I used my charmander. We figured she probably had one too."

David nodded slowly and pursed his lips. "Good to know. I'm surprised you guys paid that close attention to details."

I laughed. "Yeah, I actually am too."

We focused in on the battle for a moment. Despite having a type advantage, Dylan was not using it. He was keeping Totodile at close range, which I disagreed with. Being up close exposed his pokemon to the only attacks Vanessa's charmander had that could hurt it.

"Bite attack!" Dylan yelled.

"Block it with metal claw!" Vanessa countered.

Totodile clamped down but right onto a set of steal claws, doing more damage to Totodile than Charmander. Using it's other hand, Charmander used another metal claw attack for offensive purposes. Totodile's grip was loosened and it stumbled back.

"Are you serious?" I was laughing hard now. "How did you get caught with that? You've seen me use metal claw exactly like that! Hell, I even did something similar in that last battle!"

If looks could kill I would've died on the spot. David was laughing pretty hard now too. I was about to say something else but then Dylan winked at me.

I froze.

Suddenly I saw the brilliance of what he was doing. He was playing the fool to see how innovative Vanessa was. Unless she had taught her charmander a different move, Dylan had seen me use all of Charmander's attacks. Other than a scratch attack, it didn't have any attacks that could any serious damage to a well-raised pokemon like Totodile.

"Um, what's up?" David asked, having noticed my mouth agape.

I looked at him and put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry man, but your girlfriend's pokemon is about to get owned."

"Totodile, water gun!"

The metal claw attack had put some distance between the battle pokemon. The water pokemon perked up and soaked the charmander with a fierce torrent of water. That was when I saw the flaw in Dylan's plan: Vanessa's charmander was still standing.

"I think not," David countered. "She's had Charmander long enough to level it up a bit."

I could see that even though her charmander was still standing, Vanessa's pokemon was not in great shape. It had taken some serious damage from that water gun. It was not just a matter of time before Dylan could seal the deal.

"Get in there Charmander!" Vanessa yelled. "Scratch attack!"

"Finish it off!" Dylan shouted. "Water gun!"

Charmander tried to get out of the way but Totodile's aim was true. This time the fire pokemon wasn't left standing. It struggled to get up but slumped back down to the ground.

I took a step towards the field. "Charmander is unable to battle! Totodile is the winner!"

I stepped back and turned to David. "I don't get it. Why didn't she change pokemon when she saw she had a type disadvantage?"

David merely shrugged. "She's kind of… stubborn. Yeah, that's a good word. She doesn't like having her plans dictated by other people."

"I can respect it but I'm not sure how I feel about it as a battling strategy," I replied.

Out on the field, Vanessa was releasing her next pokemon. It was by far the most common pokemon that had appeared in our battles so far. Her rattata scampered around the field, waiting for it's opponent. Dylan had called Totodile back and was countering with Zigzagoon. Surprisingly, Vanessa looked very confident.

"Use quick attack Rattata!" she ordered.

The small mouse pokemon was literally flying across the field. It slammed into Zigzagoon before it even had a chance to react to Dylan's commands. The larger normal type pokemon bounced surprisingly far back. Rattata was already charging for another attack.

"That's not a normal rattata is it?" I asked David as Zigzagoon suffered a hyper fang attack.

"Not really," he grinned. "She's had it since it was a baby and trained it since then. Not a lot of defense but strong and fast as hell."

Zigzagoon was looking a little worse for ware at that point. It had suffered two powerful, consecutive attacks and was on the move again. Dylan's overconfidence in the previous round was now going to cost him. Zigzagoon wasn't fast enough to keep up with Rattata so now he just had to stall long enough for Totodile to get a little rest.

"Suddenly her strategy to not change pokemon isn't looking all that bad," I had to admit. "This could be the start of an epic comeback."

As if on cue, Zigzagoon connected with a mighty head butt. Rattata sailed through the air and skipped across the grass. David had been right: Rattata was lacking a bit in the defensive area. Zigzagoon was charging but it was already too late.

"Quick attack!" Vanessa yelled.

Rattata leapt up and went barreling into Zigzagoon. Dylan's pokemon was caught off guard and Rattata scored a critical hit. Zigzagoon flopped onto it's back and didn't move. I had to give it to Vanessa, she knew how to raise a rattata.

"Zigzagoon is unable to battle!" David shouted. "Rattata is the winner!"

"Did not see that one coming," I muttered. "Zigzagoon is a pretty solid pokemon."

David looked at me. "Being a trainer is full of surprises."

Totodile was back on the field now and it was sudden death. Vanessa seemed a little hesitant to sent Rattata straight in this time. She knew that Totodile had much quicker reflexes than Dylan's previous pokemon.

"Water gun!" Dylan yelled.

"Quick attack!" Vanessa ordered.

With blazing speed, Rattata ran under the water gun and charged in. There was no time to attack with water gun again. This had the chance to end the match.

"Smack it with your tail!" Dylan screamed.

Pivoting on one foot, Totodile swung around. It's thick tail connected with the side of Rattata's head. The speed of the attack was too much, though, as Rattata still smashed into Totodile. The rolled back a few feet, a big ball of pokemon. They fell apart and it was clear that neither of them were doing so hot.

"Next attack wins," David mumbled.

Rattata launched itself at Totodile with a tackle and right into the water pokemon's waiting jaws. Totodile clamped down hard, getting a solid grip on Rattata's midsection. Vanessa squeaked in fear.

"Slam it," Dylan said coldly.

Totodile jumped into the air. With a snap of it's head, it flung Vanessa's pokemon into the ground. It bounced with a thud. There was only one thing to do now.

"Rattata is unable to battle!" I declared. "Victory to Dylan and Totodile!"

"I want a rematch!" Vanessa demanded. "Let's go!"

"She sure has spunk," I commented to David.

He rolled his eyes. "You have no idea. You'll probably find out soon. She'll probably want a crack at you too."

"I'm game," I replied. "I've still got some pokemon left or we can head back to the pokemon center."

"We've both got two more left," David confirmed. "Hold on a second. Vanessa! You want to fight him again or do you want to battle Tim?"

Her eyes lit up. "Oh! Oh! I want to battle Tim now!"

I laughed. "There's plenty of me to go around. I've got enough pokemon for a few more battles."

Dylan looked up into the sky. "We might not have time for a few more battles. It's getting pretty dark. I'd guess one more each. Maybe two at the most."