With a newfound spring in our step we made our way out of the building. The world seemed like a much brighter place now that we had defeated Luke. We took our time getting back to the pokemon center, taking in the sites of the city. When we did get back to the pokemon center, I looked around for the nurse that had given me the tip about Luke's raichu but she wasn't working.

"So where are we off to now?" Vanessa asked once our pokemon had been healed. "Are we still going to see Dani?"

David looked at us. "If that's still ok with you guys. She's got a big patch of land, almost like a farm. There'd be enough room for us all. There's also a field that would make a nice battle area."

I snapped my fingers and point upwards. "Sold."

David stayed inside the center to make a phone call while the rest of us headed outside. The city still loomed above us despite not being in it's heart. There was a fairly constant flow of trainers going in and out of the center. Most of them on their way in did not have especially happy expressions on their faces. I could sympathize with them.

"Ok, we're good to go," David said as he emerged from the center. "She's expecting us. I figure it should take us most of the day to get there if we walk. Pretty sure I know how to get there but I got her address for the GPS just in case."

Punching in the address David gave him, Dylan frowned at the screen of his GPS for a moment. He tapped two buttons. After a pause, he nodded his head. "It won't be that bad."

I raised an eyebrow. "How long then?"

Dylan shrugged. "Well that depends. On a straight shot, it's still a couple of hours. I was thinking that as long as we're in Chicago, we might as well enjoy it. See a few sights. You know, just wander around like tourists for a few hours."

"There are some pretty awesome malls here…" Vanessa said slowly, a grin forming across her face.

"No. You're not going on a shopping spree. We can't carry the load," David said flatly. "But yeah, let's wander around for a bit."

Vanessa's assessment of the malls were indeed correct. We found a five-story tall mall just chock full of stores and stuff that we shouldn't buy.

That is, until we stumbled across a wing of pokemon trainer stores.

There was probably a half dozen of them, all geared towards different aspects of pokemon training. One of the smaller stores was strictly a TM store. Another store carried nothing but different types of poke balls, more than I even knew existed. Probably the largest store there was trainer apparel. The second largest was full of items to use on pokemon for something called contests or contest battles. I tried to get one of the workers to explain but it made no sense to me.

"I like this place," Vanessa said, grinning like a kid in a candy store.

The rest of us couldn't ignore the pull of the stores as well. I made sure to visit each one except for the contest battle one. That one still confused me. Eventually I found myself in the TM store with Dylan and David, thumbing through the thousands of technical machines available for sale.

"There's actually some good ones here," Dylan murmured. "Sadly, most of them are way out of our price range."

I looked over at the pile he was going through. "What'd you find?"

He held up two. "Hyper beam and fire blast. Both really good. Both absurdly expensive."

"Yeah, going to have to pass on those," I said, making a face. "Maybe we can come back here in a couple months or something."

"You know, not all the good TM's are really expensive," David called to us from a few yards away. "Check some of these out. They were sold back by trainers who didn't want them so they're discounted. Obviously not used since they break when you use them."

I caught the two that David tossed me. Flipping the two small discs over in my hands, I raised them up to my eyes. The brownish-orange one had 'Focus Blast' etched into it's surface. The word 'Reflect' was etched onto the pink disc. Reflect was familiar to me but I didn't know focus blast. Digging out my pokedex, I looked it up. It turned out to be a fighting-type move.

"You going to get anything?" Dylan asked. He had at least one in his hand.

Casting aside the reflect TM, I stared at the focus blast one. I had no idea what pokemon I was going to use it on, but I was drawn to it for some reason. Maybe it was because the picture with the description looked cool. "Yeah, I'm going to get this one."

We paid for our merchandise and hunted down Vanessa in the apparel shop. It took us a few tries but we were eventually successful at dragging her out. With our shopping excursion out of the way, we got back on track. We had lost almost three hours to the mall, making it mid-afternoon now.

Somehow the pace of the city had picked up even more. The roads were filled with constant bumper-to-bumper traffic and the sidewalks were swallowed up by the roaming people. Our big backpacks made it hard for us to weave through the masses. We often had to wait for a space to open up before we could pass slower moving groups, slowing us down considerably.

Once we began getting closer to the outer edge of the city, things began to thin out a bit. We were able to pick up our pace considerably in an attempt to make up some of the time we had lost. Given that the sun was still up in the sky, I decided that we weren't making too bad of time although it was definitely on it's way down.

Finally buildings and roads gave way to rolling plains: we were outside of Chicago. Dylan fumbled with his GPS and then pointed us in a direction. "About two hours that way."

The next two hours really seemed to drag. At least when we had been in the city, there were things to look at. Outside of the city, all there was were the occasional passing cars on the faraway highway. It was not exactly highly entertaining. We were all getting tired and weren't great conversationalists at the moment.

"There!" David exclaimed, pointing a finger.

Off in the distance, I could see what appeared to be a fairly sizeable, if not old, farm house. Around it were a few smaller buildings maybe half the size of the house. I could also make out the blurs of moving somethings, presumably pokemon, but I couldn't tell exactly what from this distance.

We bounded down the hill, a new spring in our steps. As we got closer I could see that the entire area had a wooden stake fence around it, maybe four feet high. Some of the blurs I had seen from afar began to come into focus. There was a group of small yellow pokemon I recognized as sandshrew. A group of larger grey pokemon that I didn't recognize grazed nearby. Down on all fours, they looked almost like a tire had been cut and laid across their backs. I had no idea what they were.

As we got closer, a girl emerged from the house that didn't look to even be our age yet. She had very long blonde hair and was very thin. When we got even closer I could see her blue eyes that sparkled with mischief. She was also very short. I was 6'1 and I wasn't sure the top of her head even reached my shoulders. Following her was a small pokemon.

The pokemon was a light blue although it's beak and feet were yellow. A patch of white also adorned it's face. There were two white spots on it's chest, almost like buttons. It actually kind of looked like it was wearing a snow suit.

David moved to the front of our group and embraced the girl. After a hug, they exchanged a few private words. David swung around, keeping his arm looped around her shoulders. He waved a hand out to encompass us all. "Guys, this is my cousin Dani."

After she and Vanessa hugged, I stepped up and offered my hand. "Hey there, I'm Tim. Nice to meet you."

She shook it. "You're awfully tall."

My eyes shot side to side, not really sure what to say to that.

"It's ok. I'll still let you in," she said with a smile.

Dylan introduced himself as well. While they were getting acquainted, I pulled out my pokedex and pointed it at the little pokemon. It was identified as a piplup, a rather uncommon water-type pokemon. Apparently being a breeder had some perks.

Dani ushered us inside and into the living room. It was sparsely decorated and most of it seemed to be amateur art but there were plenty of seats for all of us. Being the good host, she offered us drinks and snacks. We had failed to eat so we were more than happy to eat what she offered.

"So what do you guys think of the place?" she asked as she took a seat herself. "I know I didn't give you a tour but you could see it pretty well coming down that hill."

Dylan looked at me. I shrugged. "It's pretty nice."

Dani looked crestfallen.

"Well don't get my wrong," I backtracked, holding up my hands. "This is a pretty nice place. We've just been spoiled when it comes to pokemon ranches like this."

Dani's look changed from crestfallen to skeptical.

"Well we've been to one of Professor Oak's ranches. Not a whole lot can compare to one of those."

"It's true." David vouched for us. "They do know Professor Oak. He even called Tim the other day."

Dani's jaw dropped. "Seriously? You know THE Professor Oak?"

Dylan nodded. "Yeah. He's a friend of Tim's dad. He gave us a tour of his place in Michigan and then gave us both pokedexes and a pokemon."

"That is so cool!" she exclaimed. "Do you think you could introduce us somehow?"

"Um, well, I don't know," I hesitated. "We're not exactly tight. I think he mostly did it as a favor to my dad. Why do you want to meet him?"

Dani waved a hand about. "I'm a breeder. My livelihood is determined by my usefulness and my reputation. Being able to say that Professor Oak commissioned me to breed some pokemon for me would be huge!"

I glanced at Dylan and then shrugged. "Well sure. I can see what I can do. I mean it can't do any harm."

She winked at me. "Exactly."

"So what kind of pokemon are you breeding right now?" Vanessa asked, changing the subject. "I saw some sandshrew out there and some other pokemon I didn't know. Is that all?"

"Were they big and gray?" Dani looked at Vanessa and got a nod. "Oh, that's my donphan. Those are what I'm know for around the mid-west. You'd have to go up the Rocky Mountains to get them otherwise. There's a few various other pokemon floating around here too. I've got a small flock of mareep and some pichu. There's also some wooper and psyduck that live in the pond."

"That's quite a collection," Dylan said. "Did you breed those pokemon specifically or are they commissioned or something?"

"A little of both," the breeder replied with a shrug. "The pichu were commissioned and it produced more eggs than I thought so I just kept going."

"Is breeding hard?" I asked.

Dani nodded. "Some pokemon aren't able to breed with others. That makes things complicated when someone wants something bred and I don't have a pokemon that can breed with it. I've lost a few jobs that way."

With our curiosities about breeding satisfied, Dani began asking about us as trainers. Slowly that degraded into just normal chitchat. I liked Dani, she seemed like a good kid although a bit eccentric. She fit in nicely with the rest of us.

Eventually the day's travels caught up with us so our host showed us to our rooms. Dylan and I shared a room and David and Vanessa shared another on the third floor. Dani told us where anything we might need was, bid us goodnight and retired to her room on the second floor.

"Question for you," I said to David as I passed him on my way to the bathroom.

"Shoot."

"Where are Dani's parents?"

He chuckled. "She doesn't live with them. She's emancipated or something like that. I think it was pretty hard for her to pull it off since she's only sixteen but she's clearly doing pretty well for herself."

I laughed. "Yeah. Clearly."

When I got back to the room, Dylan had already nestled into one of the beds. I flopped down on the other. With a deep sigh, I relished having a real bed and not a crappy bunk for once.

"This sure beats the pokemon centers," Dylan said as if reading my mind.

I tried to think of something funny to say back but was asleep before I came up with anything.

With no travel planned for the next day, I slept much later than I had in quite a while. It was barely still considered morning by the time I rolled out of bed. After I got out of the shower, it was definitely afternoon. I felt a little guilty until I saw Vanessa emerge from her room on my way downstairs.

Dylan, David and Dani were all sitting around the kitchen table. Someone had apparently been telling a funny story because they were all laughing about something. I slid a chair out and dropped into it. Snagging a piece of fruit from the bowl on the table, I listened in.

"Yeah but anyway, we totally got away scott-free," Dylan concluded his story. "Needless to say, we haven't been back."

I didn't have a clue what he was talking about so I just munched on my pear. The conversation hit a standstill with Dylan's story over. Everyone took a moment to adjust their posture until they were comfortable.

"So what's the game plan for today?" I asked around a mouthful of pear.

"We were just going to hang out today," David said. "It's a nice day out. Just enjoy the weather and not going anywhere. Maybe toss the Frisbee around or something."

"Mrph," I choked down a bit of fruit. "We need to battle today. It's tradition."

Dani looked at me. "What's tradition?"

"We always battle after gym battles," I explained, wiping my mouth. "I don't know if it's actually been declared a tradition yet since we've only done it once so I'm declaring it now."

"Witnessed," Dylan said as he got up.

"See?" I nodded at my friend. "It's officially a tradition."

"Do you battle?" Dylan asked Dani.

She shook her head. "I do not. I can but I don't."

"Why not?" I asked as I looked for the trash to throw away my pear core.

"Under the sink." She pointed to it. "I just don't get into battling that much. I don't have that knack for it that some people, presumably you, have. I can though. Sometimes people have me breed pokemon specifically so the newborn will have inherited a certain attack. I always make sure it's learned it before I let the trainer know."

David focused on her. "Attacks are inherited?"

His cousin nodded. "Sure. A donphan doesn't learn fissure naturally. But if you breed it with certain pokemon, the offspring will know fissure. Or if you've taught a move to a pokemon and you breed it with a different pokemon, as long as that other pokemon can learn the same move, the offspring will know it too."

"That's how my heracross know aerial ace," I added. "Heracross native to this part of the world don't learn that move naturally. Mine's bred from one from… I don't actually know. Somewhere foreign."

They all got a good laugh.

"You ever run into issues when you're breeding?" Dylan asked, tipping back in his chair.

"Yeah, definitely," Dani sighed. "Sometimes people want me to breed a pokemon for them but I don't have a pokemon that can breed with it. Not all pokemon can breed with each other. If that happens, I have to try and borrow one that can. I need to somehow get a pokemon that can breed with anything…"

I saw Dylan scrunch his mouth for a moment. He was clearly mulling something over although I wasn't sure what.

"I am so hungry!" Vanessa moaned as she staggered into the kitchen.

David tossed her an apple and Dani filled the toaster with some bread. I leaned back in my chair and stretched my arms out. The warm sun filtering through the windows felt really nice. I was really going to miss it when the season changed.

With Vanessa fed and satisfied, Dani left us alone as she went off to tend to things around her home. At first we tried to settle in in front of the television. We quickly learned that Dani had only the most basic of cable and the only things on were soap operas and talk shows. As fast as we had claimed our couch seats, we vacated them.

I navigated my way outside. With my pokedex in hand, I wandered around the ranch. The donphan were the first thing I saw so I studied up on them. At first I was worried that they might charge me but they turned out to be fairly docile. I wasn't about to try and ride one but I felt safe standing a few feet away.

A group of smaller yellow pokemon wandered past and caught my eye. Most of them walked on two legs although a few of them were down on all fours. Their yellow almost looked scaly except for their soft, white underbellies. Several of them glanced at me with their big black eyes as they moved past. Even though I knew they were sandshrew, I still pulled up their pokemon profile in my pokedex. I found myself following their group as I read.

Dani appeared out of nowhere and fell into step beside me. "Got a thing for the sandshrew, eh?"

I laughed and gave her a shrug. "Sure. I just like them. I think they're cool."

Dani giggled and then headed the other way.

I stopped my following of the sandshrew and looked around to see what else I could find. A trio of elekids moved past but I ignored them. Out in the pastures something caught my eye. There was a flock of maybe a dozen pokemon that looked a lot like walking cotton balls. They stood on four blue legs and had a blue head as well. Two yellow and black striped ears poked out of it's head and matched the color scheme on their tails as well. There was also an orb on the tip of all of their tails.

"Aren't they cute?"

I jumped about a foot. Vanessa stepped up beside me, a huge grin on her face. She folded her arms and continued to watch the flock intently.

"What are they?" I asked.

"Mareep," she answered. "Electric pokemon. You can actually sheer off their wool and make clothes out of it."

Although I was willing to admit they were kind of cute, I was not nearly as taken by them as Vanessa. My attention quickly waned and I wandered off again. A pair of pichu caught my eye as they scampered off to play in the flock of mareep. They chased each other through the legs of the larger electric pokemon. The mareep seemed more or less oblivious to them.

I found myself back at the house. Dylan and David were seated in chairs on the porch, chatting. I hopped up the steps and lowered myself down into a wicker chair. Folding my hands behind my head, I kicked my feet up to rest on the railing of the porch.

"This is a pretty nice place," I said, not to anyone in particular.

Dylan looked over at me. "Yeah. She clearly does alright for herself."

My eyes shifted to the opening front door. "Speak of the devil."

Dani stepped out onto the porch. She put her hands on her hips and looked over the three of us. With a sigh, she shook her head. "Are we just going to sit around all day?"

"I'm ok with that," Dylan smirked.

"I'm not!" I jumped up out of my seat. Planting my feat, I stabbed a finger into David's face. "I challenge you to a pokemon battle!"

A grin spread over his face. "Alright. You're on. Dani, is there a place you wouldn't mind us battling around here?"

The blonde haired girl tapped a fingernail on her lips. "Probably outside the fences would be best. That'd keep any of my pokemon from getting in the way."

"We should go get Vanessa," Dylan said. "I'll battle her next."

"Vanessa!" Dani screamed. "You have to come battle Dylan after Tim and David battle!"

I turned my head away from the noise, wincing. "Or that. That'll work too."

"I do have a pokemon restoration machine," Dani mentioned as she lead us over. "It's an older model so it takes a bit and can only hold three pokemon at a time but it beats nothing."

"Sweet!" David's eyes lit up. "We could battle more than once if we wanted!"

Dylan barked a laugh. "You might want to concentrate on the business at hand before you start planning for later."

"That's right!" I added. "Speaking of that business, how many pokemon do you want to battle?"

David tossed an arm around Vanessa's shoulders as she caught up with us. "I'm thinking three pokemon. That should give us a decent battle."

I nodded my agreement as I took in the field that Dani had lead us to. There was really nothing remarkable about it. No big rocks or notable landmasses or anything that could used for an advantage. Just a big grassy plot of land.

The others leaned up against the fence and I took a long, hard look at David as we paced out a good distance for us to stand. The amount of pokemon he had greatly limited his team, especially since three of his seven had never battled. It was the four that had that worried me. They were all such different types that if I chose my pokemon wrong, the battle would be over before it started.

"Are you ready yet?" David yelled.

"Your face is ready," I mumbled.

I put Grovle in the third slot on my belt. It seemed like a good bet that David would use Vlad and I wanted to have a good counter to his most powerful pokemon. After that, I knew it was pretty hit or miss. I added Mudkip incase he felt it necessary to work with his geodude and then decided to start out with Pikachu. If nothing else, they were pokemon I hadn't used lately.

I gave a nod of preparation.

Dani stepped forward to give the official announcement. "This will be a three-on-three battle. You must defeat all your opponent's pokemon to win. David, the first move is yours!"

He already had a poke ball in his hand. "Let's get this started right! Al!"

I fought to keep a smile from my face. That was the best possible pokemon he could've started out with for me. "Pikachu, let's go!"

"Uh oh." David's face dropped. "That's not good."

"No playing around! Thundershock! End it now!"

Pikachu exploded with lightning. Al was quick, but not quick enough. The flying pokemon caught the electric blast right in the center of it's body. The zubat was quickly engulfed in the super-effective electricity.

"Get out of there Al! Bite!"

Al folded it's wings against it's body and suddenly dropped from the skies. Freed from the thundershock, it swooped low across the grass. I knew it was a desperation attack. Even as strong as Al was, that thundershock done a lot of damage.

I shook my head. "Not happening. Thundershock for the win!"

Pikachu's body arched back. When it flung itself forward, electricity lanced out. With the speed that Al was closing the gap, it didn't have a chance to dodge. The zubat was encompassed by the lightning. It held firm in the air for a moment and then crashed to the ground. A small tendril of smoke curled up into the air.

"Al is unable to battle!" Dani declared. "Pikachu is the winner!"

I allowed myself a smile. It couldn't have gone any better than that for me. Al wasn't the strongest of David's pokemon but it wasn't a pushover either.

David threw another poke ball out. "Let's even this up Duke!"

My smile wavered a bit. I had been hoping that he would use his geodude so I could switch out to Mudkip. None of my pokemon held any kind of advantage over his mankey. Grovyle most likely had the power to go toe to toe with Duke but I needed to save it since David most likely had his squirtle as his third pokemon.

"Ok Pikachu!" I called. "Third time's the charm! Thundershock!"

"Ka-chu!" Pikachu blasted Duke. The mankey braced itself and took the attack. Closing it's eyes, it clenched it's muscles. With a scream, Duke threw out it's arms and somehow dissipated the aura of lightning that surrounded it. Pikachu stopped pulsing lighting as it's jaw dropped.

I let out a little groan. "Oh that is not good…"

Duke looked more pissed off than hurt. It started jumping up and down in anger.

"Scratch!"

The mankey ran forward, arms pulled back. One single swing was enough to knock my pikachu back. A second scratch attack sent it spinning down to the ground.

"Hang in there Pikachu!" My mind raced. "Quick attack!"

"Fury swipes!" David countered.

Duke began swinging wildly at Pikachu. Quick attack had given Pikachu enough of a speed boost that it was able to dodge the flurry of blows. It was almost like watching an action movie.

Duck. Dodge left. Dodge right. Jump. Duck. Jump. Dodge right.

Then I saw an opening. "Iron tail!"

The electric pokemon's tail glowed a brilliant white as it swung it around as it was dodging a swipe. Duke was on the ball though and moved to avoid. The fighting pokemon wasn't quite fast enough. Part of the steel attack clipped the side of it's head and knocked it back a few steps.

Things were getting interesting now. David's pokemon was almost as fast as mine. It was clearly stronger and had better defense. Pretty much everything was going his way. I had to try and be smart if I wanted to pull this out.

"Double team!"

Suddenly Duke was surrounded by a ring of pikachu. The mankey let out a yip as it darted around trying to locate the real pokemon. It swiped at a Pikachu. The pokemon image fizzled out and then was replaced by another.

It was time to utilize the moment of confusion I had created. "Thundershock!"

All of the pikachu erupted with electricity. It was impossible to tell which one was real but the real one struck Duke. The fighting pokemon seemed a little more jarred by the attack than last time. The real Pikachu had to be somewhere at it's back.

"Screech!"

This was not the counter I had expected. I was figuring David would just start attacking random images.

Duke took a deep breath and then let out a bloodcurdling sound. I covered my ears. The screech didn't last long but lasted long enough to generate a disruption in the air. The ripple pulsed out from Duke and was all it took to vanquish all the images Pikachu had created. Pikachu wavered slightly from the ripple.

"Karate chop!"

In the blink of an eye, Duke was looming over Pikachu. It arched an arm back and brought down the flattened palm. Duke caught my pokemon right in the center of the head. The force of the attack was enough to drive Pikachu's head forward and smash it into the ground. Neither pokemon moved, Duke still touching Pikachu.

I shuddered. That was a brutal hit. I didn't even bother listen to Dani as she declared my pokemon unable to battle. Recalling Pikachu, I didn't even hesitate with my next pokemon. "Mudkip, let's clean this up!"

It was good to see the little blue water pokemon again. I hadn't battled with it since the first gym battle. Hopefully the extended time off wouldn't come back to bite me.

David hesitated, considering his options. "Go get it Duke! Scratch!"

"Show them what's up Mudkip!" I called. "Tackle!"

The two pokemon charged. Mudkip was able to duck under Duke's scratch and launched itself. The mankey staggered back and then lunged forward. This time the scratch attack connected.

I pointed at Duke. "Get some space between you! Water gun!"

At their close proximity, Duke never had a chance to dodge. The water gun hit the fighting pokemon square in the face and shoved it back a handful of yards. It's legs quivered for a moment, the first indication that I had actually done some damage. I had to move fast to capitalize.

"Rapid fire water gun!" I yelled.

Mudkip began firing it's water gun in short, rapid, controlled bursts like it had when we battled Steven's onix. I could only hope the water bullets would work as well as they had last time.

David gritted his teeth as a few blasts grazed Duke. "Fury swipes!"

Duke began swinging wildly. At first I thought it was a useless gesture. Then each blow connected with a water gun bullet and completely neutralized it. When Mudkip finally stopped firing, Duke was far more wet than injured.

"You have got to be kidding me!" I griped. "All we've done is give Duke a bath!"

My pokemon pawed at the muddy ground as the two pokemon faced off. David stood across the field from me looking confident. His strategy of countering everything I threw at him was getting on my nerves. It was like he could see everything coming…

That gave me an idea.

"Mud-slap!"

Digging a paw into the ground, Mudkip heaved a glob of mud at Duke. The mud ball splashed in the face of the mankey, covering it's eyes. The fighting pokemon screeched and began wiping at it's blinded eyes. The window of opportunity had been reopened.

I pointed at Duke. "Here we go Mudkip! Tackle attack and give it everything you've got!"

Even though the ground was wet and muddy at this point, my pokemon ran across it like it was dry. The water pokemon quickly closed the distance between the two opponents and launched itself. Mudkip slammed into Duke, it's head smashing into the fighting pokemon's nose.

"Duke! No!"

The mankey was thrown backwards. Unable to see the attack coming, it was completely defenseless. Duke bounced once on it's back and then ended up on it's stomach. I knew David's pokemon wasn't out of the battle yet but at least it was slow to get up.

The momentum had shifted my way.

"Finish it off! One more tackle Mudkip!"

Mudkip raced in at Duke. Suddenly two white spots appeared in the mud covering Duke's face. It took me half a second to realize that they were eyes.

Duke could see again.

"Karate chop!" David shouted.

As Mudkip threw itself at Duke, the mankey swung it's arm down. Duke was forced back a step. The karate chop drove Mudkip straight down, much like it had Pikachu. Advancing a few steps, Duke loomed over my pokemon.

We weren't done yet though. "Water gun!"

The water pokemon rolled itself over. Before Duke could strike or escape, Mudkip unleashed a torrent of water. Duke took the pillar of water like a straight uppercut, throwing it high into the air and back several yards. It crashed to the ground only a few feet in front of David.

I examined my pokemon as the two battlers slowly climbed to their feet. The water pokemon was clearly exhausted. That last karate chop had taken a lot out of it. I figured it could absorb just maybe one more attack before things were over. That's if I was lucky.

Duke began it's charge the second it got to it's feet. Both the pokemon and it's trainer knew that neither pokemon had much left in the tank. The next attack would most likely decide the winner of the round.

That's when luck kicked in.

Mudkip's water attacks hadn't done a whole lot of damage throughout the battle but they had accomplished one thing: the field was soaked. Duke took an awkward step and stumbled.

I had one shot. "Water gun full blast!"

Mudkip reared back on it's hind legs and let loose. The water blast speared the unbalanced mankey right in the face. It drove the fighting pokemon back, crushing it into the ground. I heard a gasp from the sideline. Mudkip sneered as we remained motionless.

"Duke is unable to battle!" Dani finally announced. "Mudkip is the winner!"

I let out a huge sigh of relief. Mudkip was wavering where it stood. It clearly had no gas left in the tank. We had finished that round just in time.

David gave a sad shake of his head. "You got lucky there. If Duke hadn't slipped, things would've ended differently."

All I had for him was an indifferent shrug.

"But now we're going to end things right! Vlad, you're up!"

As soon as the squirtle was on the field, I had a poke ball in my hand. "Mudkip, return!"

There was a stunned silence. This was the first time any of us had actually switched out a pokemon in one of our battles against each other. Normally we battled straight through. I planned to make this occasion a memorable one.

Putting Mudkip back on my belt, I grabbed Grovyle's ball. I held it up high for all to see. In my mind it looked really cool.

"Cometh… The Destroyer!"

"Wait, wait, wait!" David waved his hands, stopping me mid-throw. He put up a T with his hands. "Time out."

I gave him a wide-eyed look. "Um, what?"

"You don't give your pokemon nicknames," he stated.

"Um, right," I replied, unsure of where he was going.

"But you give them goofy titles."

"Wait, what?"

"The Destroyer? Come on. That's lame."

I frowned. "No way. It's not lame."

David rolled his eyes and held out his palms. "Sure. You think what you want."

I flashed him an evil smile. "We'll see what you say after you meet the Destroyer. Come forth, Destroyer!"

There was a collective gasp as Grovyle formed on the field. Clearly my secret had not leaked out. Now to show why Grovyle was "The Destroyer".

"Grovyle, bullet seed!" The grass pokemon dropped it's jaw and a hail of glowing seeds blasted out. Treecko had fired seeds in a single filed line. Grovyle blasted them out at least five at a time.

Vlad scrambled back as the seeds exploded all around it. It lost it's balance and toppled backwards. It tried to continue it's scramble on it's back, shoving with it's legs. The squirtle couldn't outrun the hail of seeds. They began pelting the water pokemon.

It was time to end it. "Grovyle, leaf blade!"

With blazing speed, Grovyle took off. The trio of leaves on it's right arm began to glow a bright, neon green. The expanded and fused together to form a glowing green sickle-like blade.

Bursting through the seed explosions, Vlad never saw it coming. With a right hook-like motion, Grovyle slashed the grass-energy blade across Vlad. The squirtle screamed as it was violently thrown back. The water pokemon crashed to the ground, face down. Grovyle's evolution had given it far more power than Vlad was ready to handle without evolving.

After a lengthy, shocked pause Dani stepped forward. "Vlad is unable to battle. Victory to Grovyle and Tim!"

On the sidelines, Dylan shuttered. "That was a brutal hit. Definitely a critical hit."

David had a scowl on his face as he collected Vlad and moved off to the side of the field. I removed Grovyle and walked over to him. "Nice match."

He didn't look at me. "You don't have to say it."

"Say what?" I was confused.

"You were going to say that Grovyle got a critical hit with leaf blade and that's why you won." David crossed his arms over his chest. "You want to be a nice guy. I get it but you don't have to make excuses every time you win. You just plain overpowered Vlad with super-effective moves."

Dylan and Vanessa had already started their battle by the time I responded to David. "I didn't realize that it was that annoying."

David sniffed a laugh. "It's not so much annoying as it is unnecessary. I'm not going to stop being your friend because I lost a battle to you. I'm not that shallow."

I chuckled as I watched Dylan's bulbasaur chase after Vanessa's rattata, trying to smack it with vine whip. "Well in the future I guess I'll have to be more of an arrogant asshole when I win."

David laughed and clapped me on the shoulder. "You don't have to go that far," he said with a shake of his head. "Just don't make excuses for being the better trainer."

I smiled but didn't say anything more. When I thought about it, he did have a point: only someone super shallow would end a friendship over a lost match. Apparently I needed to have more faith in my friends.

Before I could give the topic any more thought, my pocket began to buzz. I jammed my hand in and came out with my ringing cell phone. Answering it, I put it up to my ear. "Hello?"

"Tim! How are you today? I have good news for you!"

It took me a moment to place the voice. "I'm doing good Professor Oak. How about you?"

"Oh, I'm fine," he said casually as if it mattered for nothing. "I have some good news for both you and Dylan actually."

"Me and Dylan?" I repeated. "He's actually in the middle of a battle so I can pass along the news if you want. Well, or I guess you could wait but I don't know how long it'll be."

Oak laughed. "I wish all young people were as polite as you. It's nothing earth shattering, so you can just pass it along for me."

"Sure thing. What is it?"

"Some of your pokemon evolved."

I blinked a few times as I digested that information. He couldn't have known about Grovyle and none of Dylan's had evolved yet. "Um, I'm afraid I don't understand…"

There was a pause on Oak's end and then another cheerful laugh. "Pokemon don't only evolve through battle. Sometimes it's just a natural thing or you can use an item."

I was really lost now. "You can evolve them with an item? You mean like an elemental rock?"

"Kind of, but not really. There are things that you can put inside a pokemon's poke ball and the energy from it will transform the pokemon the next time it's released. Like if you put a metal coat inside the poke ball of an onix, it will evolve into a steelix."

"Seriously? That's crazy!" I exclaimed. "But we didn't do anything like that did we? I don't remember putting anything in a poke ball I sent you."

"Oh no, this was the natural evolution," Oak assured me. "Your metapod hatched into a butterfree and Dylan's wurmple evolved into a cascoon."

"That's fantastic!"

"I just wanted to let you two know in case you wanted to try out your butterfree, or if Dylan wanted to try out his cascoon once it evolves again."

I thanked the professor and we hung up. I gave my head a small shake. There was still so much about the pokemon world that I was completely clueless about. Hanging up the phone, I noticed that the battle had ceased. Vanessa and Dylan were in the middle of the field in deep discussion. Bulbasaur stood next to Dylan but Vanessa had no pokemon with her.

"What's going on?" I asked David.

He shrugged. "Not sure. Dylan beat Vanessa's rattata but he yelled something to her before she could send out another pokemon. Then they just started talking."

"Interesting," I said and started walking out towards them. After a moment of hesitation, David and Dani followed.

"Well do you think it's possible?" Dylan was asking, looking down at Bulbasaur.

"I don't know." Vanessa shook her head. "You'd have to produce an insane amount of leaves for that."

"For what?" I interrupted.

"Dylan wants to try blocking a fire attack with razor leaf," Vanessa informed us. "I don't think it's possible."

"I think it's at least plausible," Dylan countered.

David scratched at his beard. "In theory, sure. I'm not sure about in practice though."

"Tim, you're the final vote." Dylan looked at me expectantly. "If you think it's at least plausible, I get to try. I've already agreed to concede the battle if I get to try."

I didn't really have a choice but to side with my best friend. "I don't see why not. Might as well try it now when it doesn't really matter. We can all learn from it."

Vanessa produced a poke ball. "Ok but it's your funeral."

David, Dani and I stepped back as Vanessa's charmander emerged from the poke ball. Dylan and his bulbasaur stood together, looking determined. The grass pokemon pawed at the ground.

Dani looked up at me as we waited. "Do you really think this is a good idea?"

I laughed. "No. Well… not right now. If Bulbasaur evolves, then maybe. Right now though I don't think it can generate enough leaves to stop a strong fire attack. Ember, maybe. Flamethrower? No."

"Then why did you agree it was a good idea?"

"I wanted to see what happened," I said honestly. "I know how to block fire attacks with a few other types. If razor leaf could stop it, then there's a good chance maybe Grovyle's bullet seed could too. Since it's Dylan trying it out, I've really got nothing to lose."

David crossed his arms, not taking his eyes off the field. "That's pretty shrewd."

"Yeah, I like to think so."

"Ready?" Vanessa yelled.

Dylan balled his hands into fists. "Do it!"

"Flamethrower!" Charmander pulled it's head back and let loose the river of fire.

"Razor leaf!" Bulbasaur reared back and then a tornado of leaves erupted from around it's bulb.

We all held our breath as the two attacks met at about the halfway point of the battlefield. For a brief second, they held each other at bay. Then the fire began to overtake the rush of leaves. It was noticeably slower than usual, although not by much.

"Dodge it!" Dylan yelled and Bulbasaur cancelled it's attack, rolling out of harm's way.

"So much for that idea," Vanessa sniffed. "That didn't work at all."

Dylan returned Bulbasaur to it's ball. "Not really, no. I think if Bulbasaur had evolved further it may have. It would've been a much more powerful attack."

"Your grovyle doesn't know razor leaf, does it?" Dani asked. "You could try it."

"Grovyle doesn't know it," I said. "It knows three grass-type moves and you saw two of them in battle."

"While it might've held it for a second, it seems that just flat out dodging is a much better idea," David interrupted as everyone regrouped.

Dylan sighed. "Yeah, probably but you can't always dodge. What if you were backed into a corner? There's no dodging then."

"Unlikely but possible." I gave Dylan a tilt of my head. "Any one else have any ideas they want to try out?"

As the day turned into night, we occasionally returned to the field to try out another idea. Nothing we tried really seemed to work at all. David had minimal success using rock throw to subdue a flamethrower but we deemed it pointless because fire wasn't effective against rock pokemon anyway.

The most exciting part of the night was when Dani revealed that she had a washer and dryer. We crammed all our dirty clothes in at once. Other then when a pokemon center nurse had washed our muddied clothes before we reached Chicago, we had yet to clean any of our clothes. We had grown used to it but I had to image that our clothes didn't exactly smell spring-fresh.

With clothes cleaned and a busy day ahead of us, we decided to get some sleep. Retreating to our bedrooms, we laid down to rest in the warm summer night.

I awoke with a start a few hours later. I glanced around to see if I could figure out what woke me. Dylan was snoring softly in the other bed, arm draped over his eyes. Neither of our phones were blinking with incoming calls or messages.

Rolling my eyes, I rolled out of bed. I was completely awake now. I pulled off my shorts and replaced them with my jeans. Grabbing my glasses, I snuck out of the room. The house was mostly dark now with just a few lights strategically left on so we could see if we got up. Tiptoeing down the stairs, I slid my shoes on and headed out the door.

The cool night air felt wonderful as I trudged through the grass. I found myself at the wooden fence that lined the yard to keep the pokemon corralled. Placing my arms across it's top, I leaned on it as I gazed up into the clear sky. The darkness seemed to swallow me up as I became lost in my own thoughts.

"Penny for your thoughts there, Cowboy."

I nearly jumped out of my skin. Dani emerged from the dark to lean on the fence next to me. It took a few deep breaths to get my heart back to normal speeds. "What're you doing up and out here?"

She clucked her tongue. "I asked your first."

I laughed. "Just thinking."

"About…?" she prompted.

I shrugged. "You know, the usual. Life. Pokemon. Girls."

Dani looked me over for a moment. "You left a girl back home, I take it?"

Dipping my head, I gave her a small salute. "You nailed it. Well, kind of. We never really committed to anything with me about to leave for at least several months. I just kind of wonder from time to time if she's actually going to wait for me."

"Yeah, well, if you had committed, you'd just be wondering if she's being faithful," my host suggested. "Basically you're kind of in a no-win situation. You've just got to hold on to hope."

"It's about all I can do," I agreed. "I think it'll work out in the end. Things seem to be doing that for me lately."

Dani laughed. "Yeah it's kind of sounded like that. David told me how you and Dylan won a tournament within a week of becoming trainers."

"Technically it was two tournaments," I corrected her. "We won a doubles tournament as well."

She waved a hand. "I stand corrected."

I was about to say something out when a loud cracking noise punctured the night. Dani and I whipped our heads around, searching for the source of the sound. At first I didn't see anything but a movement down the fence caught my eye. About fifty yards down the fence I could see motion in the dark.

"What the hell is that?" I pointed down the fence.

Dani squinted into the night. "My donphan! Someone's stealing my donphan!"

My hand immediately dropped to my belt and came up empty. My head dropped down and my eyes locked onto my belt. All but one of my poke balls had fallen out of my belt holster. I touched the poke ball and instantly knew what pokemon resided inside.

I grabbed Dani by the arm. "Go wake everyone up. Find the rest of my pokemon. I think they're on the floor of my room. I'll go stall the thieves."

Dani froze. "But… I…"

"Go!"

After giving her a shove towards the house, I took off running towards the in-progress pokemon heist. I grabbed the poke ball off my belt and enlarged it to it's normal size. The ball was just slightly warmer than a normal poke ball and I had to hope my gut was right when it told me that Charmander was inside.

I skidded to a stop next to the hole in the fence. "Hey!"

The movements in the night stopped. "Get lost kid," said a voice in the dark.

I shook my head but realized it was an un-seeable. "No dice. These pokemon aren't going anywhere."

The next response was the one I was expecting: the sound of opening poke balls. Two more shadows joined us in the dark. I joined in by throwing my pokemon into the fray. The night was suddenly brightened along with my hopes as Charmander's tail flames burst into existence. What I saw next dimmed my hopes again.

A piloswine and a houndoom.

"Oh holy shit, no way!" I shouted. "It's you!"

Four familiar faces suddenly zoomed in on me. It was the four guys that had challenged us to the four-on-four battle before we got to Chicago and tried to attack us afterwards. Hate just radiated out of their eyes.