A/N: Finally this (extra-extra-long) chapter is finished! I hope I'll now be able to return to the update-every-5-or-6-days pace rather than my usual update-every-7-days one.

Jake probably should have seen it coming, but he didn't expect the whole fact that he was Bertha's nephew to immediately become the center of everyone's attention. However, once he stepped out into the stadium's battlefield, the cameras that were there focused on him in order to allow the spectators to get a better look at the trainer that was about to battle. Then, after a matter of perhaps a second or two, one of the announcers just couldn't resist the urge to mention it into his microphone (announcer, in this case, is one of those people who gets paid to "review" pokémon battles by saying obvious things like 'this pokémon has a type advantage over this one' or 'that attack seems to have caused a lot of damage').

"Good grief…" muttered Jake quietly to himself as he did his best to ignore all the cheering he was getting. The battle he was about to have hasn't even started yet, so he obviously couldn't see a true reason as to why he was getting such a reaction from the audience. As much as it made him feel uncomfortable, he wasn't going to let it get in the way of an opportunity to battle Flannery, Chili and Flint. It was true that battling the two fire-type Gym Leaders, something which needed to result in triumph in order to get a chance to battle the Elite Four member, would most likely result in him losing to them (not to mention that he still had the entire tournament ahead of him). However, that didn't make the whole 'possible opportunity to battle Flint' thing any less exciting.

His opponent was already waiting on the other side of the battle field, and he too seemed to be quite annoyed by all the noise Jake was causing. Well, Jake wasn't intentionally causing it, but Colton didn't seem to really care (probably because this directly related to his whole "don't think you're something special because your aunt's an Elite Four member" speech from earlier). He didn't seem to even take notice of the fact that Jake looked just as bothered by the racket as he was.

After a few seconds he arrived at his side of the battlefield and threw a wave in Jacob's and Melanie's direction. The two were sitting some distance away on a bench along with some of the other trainers who were waiting for their turn to battle. They were probably shouting things like "good luck" but it was obviously impossible to hear them because of all the noise.

Still doing his best to ignore the spectators, Jake turned to look at his opponent. He put on the biggest smile he could muster and shouted "Good luck! Let's have an enjoyable battle!" Colton seemed to have somewhat heard him and raised an eyebrow with an annoyed look on his face. It was kind of hard for Colton to annoy somebody when he / she were unaware of the fact that he completely disliked them. Little did he know that Jake was simply pretending to be nice in order to give him a taste of his own medicine (and in order to amuse himself, of course).

The audience carried on cheering for a few more moments before finally calming down, at which point a referee walked to side of the battlefield and looked at the two trainers. "Let me remind you that this will be a two-on-two match!" he said, raising his voice because they were both a little far away from him. "One pokémon at a time! Substitutions are only allowed immediately after knocking out one of your opponent's pokémon and if you wish to substitute you must do so before your opponent sends out his next pokémon! The match will be decided when both pokémon on either side are no longer able to battle! Any questions?" The look on the referee's face suggested that he strongly hoped that all the other participants were listening as well, even if they weren't battling at the moment, so that he wouldn't have to repeat himself again and again.

"No sir!" said Jake with a hearty smile, giving the referee a two-fingered salute.

The referee then looked at Colton, who simply rolled his eyes and silently shook his head. "Very well then," said the referee after a short silence, putting his hand up in the air and then lowering it, "begin!"

Jake couldn't help but smile. Getting to battle another fire-type trainer was exciting, even if trying to engage that trainer in a conversation was like talking to a brick wall. He and Colton had each been given one of those small microphones that are barely noticeable and are attached over one of the ears so that the audience would be able to hear what they would say to each other and to their pokémon. It was obvious, now that the match has started, that the microphones were working, unlike a few moments earlier.

"I think I'll start things out with this." said Colton, his voice loud and clear through the speakers, "Go, Lampent!" He threw a pokéball into the air and the dual ghost-fire-type pokémon appeared.

Jake has, of course, been reading a lot about fire-type pokémon, but the only fire-types he has seen so far were either his own pokémon or pokémon that were only native in Kanto. Seeing a fire-type pokémon that was all the way from Unova was definitely something he hadn't expected considering how he was facing a trainer from Kanto. Not that it was a bad thing. "Okay then." Since Lampent was also a ghost-type he knew just what pokémon to use. "Flareon, let's go!"

"I wonder why Flareon out of all of his other pokémon?" asked Melanie, looking at Jacob who was sitting next to her on the bench. "Why not use Boldore?"

"I don't know." said Jacob with a shrug of his shoulders as he watched, obviously curious. He silently observed as Jake told Flareon to use a Flamethrower attack. Colton didn't even tell his Lampent to dodge and the attack landed a direct hit. However, it didn't seem to have dealt any damage at all.

"Are you being serious?" asked Colton, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know." said Jake with a shrug of his shoulders, looking quite clueless. "Serious about what?"

"Lampent's ability is Flash Fire; you can't damage it with fire-type attacks." he answered, smirking. "All you did was raising Lampent's power. It's basic stuff."

Jake was quiet for a second or two before bringing a hand to his chin. "Oh yeah! I completely forgot!" he said, chuckling.

Jacob couldn't help but facepalm. "Well, this is embarrassing…" said Melanie with a blank expression. Even Flareon looked at his trainer with embarrassment.

Colton looked at the trainer in front of him with obvious annoyance and then frowned. "You better take this battle with me seriously!" he said, gritting his teeth, "Play time is over!"

Jake was quite aware of the fact that he had just messed up in front of a huge crowd (as well as in front of Flint, Blaine and 2 other fire-type specialists), but it didn't bother him too much. After all, the battle was just getting started. "I never play." he said, smiling.

"I know that look…" said Jacob, squinting his eyebrows.

"What look?" asked Melanie, clueless.

"It's his 'I have a plan' look."

"Oh really?" asked Colton with a hint of mockery in his tone, not looking too impressed. "Lampent, get close and use Astonish!" He knew that a pokémon like Flareon also had the ability Flash Fire, so he wasn't even going to bother using a fire-type move.

"Use Quick Attack and dodge it!" Flareon didn't have a problem getting out of the way in time with the extra speed provided by the use of Quick Attack. "Now use Quick Attack again to charge at Lampent!"

"He's not planning to try hitting Lampent with a normal-type move, is he?" asked Melanie with a raised eyebrow. "Lampent is also a ghost-type."

Again Colton didn't tell his pokémon to judge (probably so that he could rub it in Jake's face again). However, once Flareon got close to Lampent, Jake issued another order: "Use Bite!" *

Colton seemed like he was taken by surprise by the sudden use of Bite, but it didn't look like he was worried. He was, however, unable to ignore the fact that Flareon was faster than he had originally expected when the Eeveelution chased Lampent as it tried to get away and landed another Bite attack. Bite wasn't a remarkably strong move but it was still super effective, and he knew that he was going to be in serious trouble if Flareon just kept landing those one after another. He waited for Flareon to go in for another attack and then ordered Lampent to use Astonish again. This time the attack landed, causing his opponent's pokémon to flinch and giving Lampent the opportunity to move away.

Seeing how Lampent was struggling with Flareon's speed from up close, he realized that the best strategy would be to attack Flareon from a distance. "Use Shadow Ball again and again!" he said, pointing at Flareon, "Don't let them get close!"

Jake knew that Flareon's speed was quite reliable, especially when combined with Quick Attack, but he also knew that it would be easier for Lampent to land a direct hit the closer Flareon came to it. It appeared that he was going to have to resort to the reason he had chosen Flareon to be the one to face Lampent to begin with. "Hey, we have one of those!" he said after watching Flareon avoid a few Shadow Ball attacks with relative ease, chuckling.

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Colton with a raised eyebrow as Lampent stopped attacking (however both pokémon remained completely still, waiting for an order from their trainers).

"Allow me to answer your question with a question." said Jake upon realizing that Colton really wasn't getting the hint.

Colton sighed and rolled his eyes. Blaine's tendency to quiz everybody was annoying as it was, and the last thing he wanted was to have another trainer who would annoy him with random questions.

"Do excuse me if I'm mistaken," said Jake with a smile after a short silence, "but Shadow Ball is a move that Lampent learns at a rather late stage of training. If I'm correct, by the time a Lampent has learned Shadow Ball on its own it's already been trained enough in order to evolve into a Chandelure through the application of a Dusk Stone."

"So?"

"Here is my question. Did Lampent learn Shadow Ball through training alone or did you also use a TM to help it learn the move faster?"

"So what if I did?" asked Colton, looking annoyed. "Lots of trainers do. What's wrong with using a Technical Machine?"

"There's absolutely nothing wrong with it." said Jake with a look of innocence on his face. "In fact saying that it was wrong would be very hypocritical of me." There was a short silence. "Still not getting it?"

"Enough with this nonsense! Lampent, use Shadow Ball!"

"Flareon, go up!" Flareon nodded and then evaded the attack by using Quick Attack in order to jump into a height that would have otherwise been impossible to reach. "Now," said Jake with a smile, snapping his fingers, "Shadow Ball."

"Wait, what?!" Lampent, who hadn't thought Flareon knew any non-fire-type ranged attacks either, did not react fast enough in order to move out of the way.

"Lampent is unable to battle!" declared the referee after a few seconds, seeing that Lampent wasn't getting back up. "Flareon is the winner!"

Flareon couldn't help but proudly puff out his chest and let out a few happy barks as the spectators began to cheer. The only thing that wasn't good about this situation was the fact that Vulpix hadn't witnessed his victory because she was in her pokéball. The excited fire-type turned around and ran over to his trainer, who seemed like he couldn't help but smile at how much the pokémon seemed to be enjoying himself. "You're doing great." he said, kneeling down and scratching behind Flareon's ears, causing him to wag his tail.

"Hey, I'm still here." said Colton as he returned his Lampent into its pokéball, frowning. "We're not finished here."

"I know." said Jake bluntly, looking down at Flareon. "Do you want to keep going or would you like to rest for a while?" he asked, remembering the rule of being able to substitute pokémon only immediately after knocking out one of the opponent's pokémon. Flareon shook his head. "Okay, I won't be substituting pokémon."

"Very well." said the referee. "Continue!"

"This is my second pokémon." said Colton, looking a bit more confident about this choice but at the same time not as arrogant as before. "Go, Magcargo!"

It appeared that this time Jake wasn't facing a pokémon that could completely resist fire-type moves but a pokémon like Magcargo still had a pretty high resistance to fire-type attacks, not to mention that Jake also had rock-type moves to worry about. At least Shadow Ball was going to do normal damage, and he would most likely be able to take advantage of Flareon's speed against a slow pokémon like Magcargo. Magcargo's slow speed was also going to give it a hard time dodging attacks. "Flareon, let's use Shadow Ball!"

Colton knew that his Magcargo was too slow to dodge most attacks, so he wasn't even going to bother trying. "Counter it! Use Stone Edge!" The two attacks collided, but to Jake's surprise Flareon's Shadow Ball lost all of its energy before coming in contact with all the tiny stones produced by Magcargo's Stone Edge. The rest of the rocks kept going forward and hit Flareon directly, sending the surprised fire-type off his feet. Despite having not landed with its full force, the attack still did a significant amount of damage. "Again! Don't even give Flareon a chance to stand back up!"

The 2nd attack landed a direct hit, just like Colton wanted it to. "Flareon is unable to battle!" declared the referee, "Magcargo is the winner!"

"That's some impressive strength your Magcargo has." said Jake as he returned Flareon to his pokéball. "I guess you learn something new every day, huh? Now I know that Shadow Ball isn't strong enough to block a Stone Edge attack!" He chuckled. Colton said nothing. "Take a good rest, Flareon, you earned it. Alright, Charmander, let's go!" If there was anything Bertha was really good at when it came to helping trainers and their pokémon train, it was ground-type moves.

"Magcargo, Stone Edge once again!"

"Dodge it, Charmander!" Unlike Flareon, Charmander hasn't been it with anything and was on her feet, so it wasn't too difficult for her to dodge the attack. "You don't seem to like it when people don't just go ahead and say what they have to say, so I'll just cut to the chase this time. Charmander-"

"Stone Edge, Magcargo, with full force!"

"-use Dig, go underground!"

"Your Charmander knows how to use dig?" asked Colton as Charmander disappeared, once again with a surprised look on his face. "Doesn't matter. A non-ground-type that is this small can't possibly dig its way in a pace that is fast enough to pose a threat to a trainer who knows what he's doing." Jake only smirked and said nothing. "Magcargo, listen carefully to the noise below you and, after dodging, use St-" He was interrupted by Charmander, who suddenly emerged from underneath Magcargo, who had obviously not expected the attack to arrive so quickly. "Wait, what?!" he asked, shocked. Obviously the ground-type attack had inflicted a lot of damage because Magcargo had a double weakness to ground-type moves. "How could such a small pokémon use Dig so quickly?! That's impossible!"

"Normally, that would have been the case." said Jake with an amused look on his face, his hands in the pockets of his jacket. "Charmander and I came up with a little method to speed things up. Take a close look."

Colton, who was obviously confused, looked at Charmander with squinted eyebrows before noticing that the little dinosaur-like pokémon's claws were glowing. "Wait… Metal Claw?!"

"Correct. While working on this move we discovered that using Metal Claw to dig through the ground was significantly faster." There was a short silence. "Charmander, let's wrap this up. Dig, one more time." As much as Colton hated to admit it, he knew that Charmander's Dig would be impossible for a slow pokémon like Magcargo to avoid because of the use of Metal Claw, especially after it had taken such a large amount of damage. He would have told his pokémon to at least try to dodge, but he knew that there was no point in doing that.

"Magcargo is unable to battle! Charmander is the winner!" declared the referee, signaling the end of the match, "Which means the victory goes to Jake!"

The crowd turned out to be so excited about Jake's victory that the victor in question actually found himself covering his ears because of all their cheering and yelling (whether it was partially because of his aunt or not he could not tell). Charmander ran over to her trainer and looked up at him with an enormous smile on her face. "Hey, Charmander! Great job! That training sure paid off!"

"Charmander!" exclaimed the pokémon with delight, hopping in her place a couple of times.

"Come on, up top!" He held out his hand and chuckled as Charmander jumped up and gave him a high five.

"I understand…" said Colton, walking over to his opponent as Charmander jumped onto Jake's shoulders, "I'll bow out gracefully." To Jake's surprise, the trainer was smiling. Their microphones have already been turned off so it was a little difficult to hear what he was saying. "It's about time somebody serious joined this Gym." Jake didn't know whether that was a compliment or just Colton's way of expressing his opinion of the other trainers who were a part of Blaine's Gym. "I need a rival that will be able to keep me sharp. I'll admit that I misjudged you. Bear this in mind, though… Our next battle won't end this way." With that the defeated trainer turned around and walked away.

Jake, obviously surprised by Colton's rather calm reaction, silently stood there for a few seconds before also turning around and leaving the battlefield. He looked towards where he had last seen Jacob and Melanie (before the match) and saw that they were no longer sitting on the bench. They were nowhere to be seen, meaning that they had most likely gone back into the area located beneath the spectators' seats (backstage area, if you will), which was where all the participants were supposed to wait while not viewing other matches or battling themselves. He entered the backstage area, which was obviously a more convenient place to talk at because of all the noise outside, and found them waiting for him there.

"Hey Jake!" said Jacob with a wave of his hand as he and Melanie ran over to greet him. He was about to say something else when, as always, Melanie cut him short.

"Ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh!" Jacob couldn't help but roll his eyes. "Charmander, you were as adorable as ever!" The brunette was holding her own Charmander with one hand, and she soon reached out and took Jake's Charmander as well. "You two lovebirds still owe me a cute picture for the desktop of my laptop!" With that she walked away and sat down of the floor with the two Charmanders, who seemed rather uncomfortable.

"How come it never bothers you that Melanie just randomly grabs hold of one of your pokémon without your permission?" asked Jacob with a raised eyebrow, unable to help his curiosity.

Jake shrugged. "Because I know she won't hurt them or anything." he said, "Besides, if Charmander really wanted to, she would just get up and walk back over to me."

"I suppose that's true…" said Jacob before falling silent for a second, "Anyway… that was an awesome battle!"

"Oh, thanks." said Jake with a smile, slightly surprised at Jacob's overstatement (the way he saw it, at least). "I kind of owe this to Bertha; she helped a lot during that one week we were in Pewter City, especially with the TMs."

"Combining Metal Claw with Dig certainly was a good idea. I don't think anybody saw that one coming. I can't help but ask, though…"

"What?"

"Why Shadow Ball?" asked Jacob. "I thought dealing with rock, ground and water types was your top priority?"

"Oh!" said Jake, chuckling as he released his exhausted Flareon from his pokéball. "Misty's Starmie, of course!"

"I see." said Jacob, chuckling. "You're really serious about beating her one day, aren't you?"

"Of course I am." He took out a potion from his bag and a few Oran berries and began to take care of Flareon's injuries from the battle against Magcargo. "You'll see. One day I'll be dealing with most water, ground and rock type pokémon just like Misty dealt with all those Team Plasma grunts back at the Cerulean City daycare."

"Still," said Jacob, "experienced trainers like Misty, for example, won't go down without putting up a fight."

"Obviously. You know what I meant."

"Gee, Jake," said Jacob with a chuckle after a short silence, "you're not collecting Gym Badges but it already feels like you're starting to get ahead of me."

"I wouldn't say that." said Jake, smiling as Flareon opened his eyes, "We still haven't had an actual battle. You may not have a single pokémon with a type advantage over fire-types yet, but we both know that that does not necessarily mean that I'll win if we battle each other right now."

"Either way, don't think that I'm going to let you get ahead of me. When this tournament is over, if we don't get teamed up against each other, we've got to have an actual battle." said Jacob with a determined smile. "That one time where Brad interrupted us and didn't let us finish does not count."

"Sure. I'm looking forward to it." said Jake as he gently picked Flareon up. "You know what I just remembered all of a sudden?"

"What?"

"That the pokémon center set up a station for healing pokémon here, which means that I just wasted a potion." Jacob chuckled. "When are you and Melanie going up to battle?" asked Jake, not wanting to miss their battle.

"We're not battling each other." said Jacob. "I'm up after 3 more battles, including the one that has just started, and Melanie's up right after my battle."

Jake was about to say something else when somebody came up to him from behind and placed a hand on his shoulder. He turned around and saw Blaine standing there, but it was kind of impossible to determine where in the world he had just come from. "Hah! I like your style!" said the Gym Leader with a jolly smile. "You make up your own rules, just like me!"

"Oh, um… Thank you." answered Jake with a polite smile. "That means a lot."

"Momma used to tell me not to light up fires in my room in order to be able to see at night because it might have burned down the house." continued Blaine, "Did it anyways! Light bulbs were expensive!" With that he turned around and disappeared without a trace.

"I think this guy is a little crazy." said Jacob after a short silence.

"I know." said Jake with a blank expression before smiling. "I love it!"

"Sometimes I wonder whether you're crazy too, by the way."

"Could you make sure Melanie doesn't accidentally strangle Charmander until I get back?" asked Jake, ignoring Jacob's statement. "It'll only take me a minute or two."

"I'll do my best." said Jacob, chuckling once again as he watched Jake walk into one of the corridors.

"Aww, come on, Charmander!" came Melanie's annoyed voice from behind him. He turned around and was kind of unable to determine whether she was begging to her Charmander or to Jake's Charmander (he couldn't even tell which one belonged to whom because they looked exactly the same). "You two were meant to be! It's obvious! Now stop being shy and let me take one normal photo please!" The brunette was holding her camera in a rather clumsy way while also trying to convince the two pokémon to listen to what she was saying. It was a rather amusing sight, but at the same time Jacob was glad that he wasn't a Charmander (or any other pokémon, for that matter).

The next day

"Welcome back to the Cinnabar Tournament!" declared an announcer, his voice booming through the speakers and reaching the ears of all the cheering spectators. Since such a large number of trainers had entered the tournament it ended up requiring more time than most tournaments usually had. The tournament wasn't over yet as a result of that, which only meant that it had to be continued over the course of the day following its beginning.

"We sure had a thrilling day of pokémon battling yesterday and I can guarantee that today will be just as exciting if not more exciting!" continued the referee. "We are down to 16 trainers, and only 8 of them will be able to proceed into the quarter finals! But before we carry on with the next round, we have a little surprise for you. We've decided that the exhibition matches will take place now instead of before the semi finals!" This obviously caused the crowd to cheer even louder, seeing how many of the viewers were also there in order to watch the exhibition matches. "We have a few of our Kanto Gym Leaders as well as some who travelled all the way here from their respective regions just for this event! The first match will begin in a few minutes, so don't go anywhere!"

Meanwhile, in the backstage area, the remaining 16 trainers were either preparing for their next battle or waiting for the matchups to be posted on the screens. While some of the trainers who had already been booted out of the tournament in the previous rounds were also there to watch the remaining battles, it certainly felt a lot roomier because most of the trainers who were no longer participating were not there.

"How cool is it that we're both in the top 16, huh?" asked Jacob, nudging his friend in the shoulder with his elbow. "Maybe we'll get to battle each other in the next round."

"Good luck to both of you…" said Melanie, who was sitting on a bench behind them while staring down at a pokéball she was holding with an upset expression on her face, "I'll be cheering you on from here."

"Come on, Melanie," said Jacob as he sat down next to her, noticing that she was rather depressed, "you shouldn't be so upset because you lost a battle…"

"I'm not upset about having lost…" said Melanie with a sigh, "It's why I lost that bothers me. When you fall you should look at where you tripped rather than where you fell." She was one of the two last trainers to battle during the previous round (the top 32) but lost as a result of deciding to try using her Seadra, who once again refused to listen to anything she said to him. "But the only way to eventually get to this pokémon is to keep trying." she said after a short silence, looking determined. "That's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm not giving up."

"Hey, I bet all the Gym Leaders will come here soon to prepare for their matches." said Jake, sitting down on the bench as well. "Maybe you should ask Misty to give you some advice?"

"That might be a good idea." said Jacob. "You could also try talking to Cress, Chili's brother. I'm sure at least one of them will be happy to help you out."

"That might help." said Melanie, rotating Seadra's pokéball in her hands. "I'll keep that in mind." Suddenly she smiled, "But hey, at least I managed to get a good picture of my Charmander and yours!" She took out her camera from her bag, "See? They're rubbing noses!"

Jacob sighed. "Melanie, we can see your hands in the photo holding their heads in place… How did you even take the picture if both of your hands were occupied like this?"

"I…" she paused, bringing a hand to her chin, "You know what? I don't know."

Jake was about to say something else when his Xtransceiver began ringing. "Oh, it's Bertha." he said after looking at the screen, rising from the bench. "I'm going outside for a few moments to answer her."

"Okay, but hurry back." said Jacob. "The exhibition matches will be starting soon."

"Yeah, I'll be right back." He really didn't want to miss those matches, especially Chili's and Flannery's (which was most likely going to be the 1st one to take place, seeing how the tournament was being held in order to celebrate the reopening of a fire-type Pokémon Gym).

He went outside of the stadium and picked up the call, which led up to one of the usual "how are you" conversations they've been having on a daily basis ever since Bertha had gone back to Sinnoh. "By the way," said Bertha at some point, "I've been trying to watch you on that tournament through TV but there are just too many participants… I'm too old for this!"

Jake chuckled. "That's quite alright. I'm still in the tournament."

"Oh, I know." said Bertha with a smile. "Flint told me. By the way, he seems to be quite impressed with you."

"He is?" asked Jake, resisting the urge to jump excitedly while laughing like a little girl.

"Yes. I'll try to catch a glimpse of you today, but I can't make any promises! Well, run along now!"

"How cool is that, huh?" asked Jake after Bertha had hung up the call, looking at Charmander who was sitting on his shoulders.

"Char!"

Jake was about to turn around and head back into the stadium but he found himself staring away from the stadium. The streets were completely empty, and he might have ended up getting the impression that they were in an abandoned city if it weren't for the noise coming from the stadium. "Wow, it's almost like nobody lives here… Well, let's go back inside." Just as he was about to enter the stadium, Charmander suddenly jumped down from his shoulder and ran back to the point where they had stood just a few moments earlier. "What's wrong?"

"Charmander!" The little fire-type pokémon appeared to be pointing at something, and when Jake finally figured out where exactly she was trying to divert his attention to he realized that there was a bird pokémon flying in their direction.

"Looks like a Pidgey to me." The streets may have been empty but it was still very unusual for a wild pokémon to be in a city. Seeing a wild pokémon intentionally approach a stranger was an even weirder occasion. "Um…" Jake found himself at quite a loss for words when the little flying-type pokémon arrived in front of him and just flew there without doing anything. "Hello!" he said eventually, smiling.

The wild Pidgey let out a few cries. For a moment Jake thought that it wanted to battle but Charmander seemed to have gotten a different impression. "Charmander! Char!"

Jake stared at Charmander for a few moments before realizing what she was trying to say to him. "Does it want us to follow it?" The little dinosaur-like pokémon nodded her head in approval. "Uh… What about the exhibition matches?" Before he could even finish his sentence Charmander ran after the Pidgey, which was already flying away from the stadium. "Hey, wait for me!"

A short while later

"Charmander! I really think we should start heading back now!" The wild Pidgey was still leading Jake and Charmander away from the city, but as far as Jake was able to tell it wasn't taking them towards anything of any importance. To his annoyance, however, Charmander ignored him and kept following the flying-type pokémon. "Geez," he muttered to himself at some point, "I don't recall Charmander actually being able to run faster than me!" The annoyed trainer let out a sigh as Charmander disappeared into a patch of tall grass. "Great…" Since he knew that Charmander was following the wild Pidgey they had encountered outside of the stadium, he looked up just in time to see it descend and disappear in the grass as well. "At least it looks like we're here… Wherever 'here' might be…"

He carefully made his way through the tall grass (to avoid accidentally kicking and enraging any wild pokémon that might have been there) and eventually found Charmander, who seemed to be waiting for him. "Well? What is it? Where did that Pidgey fly to?" Charmander then turned away and began to walk, causing her and her trainer to eventually arrive at what appeared to be a small clearing (kind of like a forest clearing but with tall grass instead of trees).

The first thing Jake and Charmander once there was no longer tall grass blocking their view was the wild Pidgey, which was currently standing next to a sleeping Ponyta. After standing there for a couple of moments without saying anything Jake noticed the small scar over the Ponyta's left eye. "This is the same Ponyta from the day we met Blaine!" said Jake with a surprised look on his face, looking at Charmander. "The one which Blaine said was causing trouble all the time." He was silent for a few seconds. "Wait a second…" he looked at the wild Pidgey, "It's not sleeping… It's injured, isn't it?"

The wild Pidgey nodded, flapping its wings a few times. "Still…" muttered Jake quietly, bringing a hand to his chin, "I bet wild pokémon get hurt in the wild from time to time… They almost never come to people for treatment, though… What could have caused this Pidgey to decide to go look for a trainer that will help it out?" He took a few careful steps forward and then noticed what appeared to be a snake bite on one of Ponyta's hind legs. "It's poisoned." From the looks of the bitten area it must have been quite some time since the wild Ponyta had been bitten, which made the entire situation even worse.

All of a sudden Ponyta opened its eyes. Of course, when it saw Jake standing just a few meters away from it, it wasn't happy at all. It glared at the wild Pidgey, which flew away and stood on a tree, before setting its gaze directly on the human in front of it and baring its teeth, letting out what sounded like a growl. "Okay, um… Calm down, alright? I can help you…" said Jake quietly as he took a slow step forward, only to take another two backwards as the Ponyta opened its mouth and launched a very weak Flamethrower attack (which missed). There was no doubt that it was weak despite the rather convincing way in which it was trying to scare Jake away.

"Charmander, I need you to get back into your pokéball for a few moments." Jake slowly kneeled down next to his Charmander as he said this, getting a confused stare from her. She didn't seem very thrilled about the idea of leaving her trainer alone with an aggressive fire-type pokémon, regardless of how weak it was. "Look, it might feel less intimidated if my pokémon are not with me." He sighed. "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine." He then returned Charmander into her pokéball without really waiting for an answer.

"Here, look at me." said Jake after a short silence as he took off his backpack and placed it down by his feet before removing all the pokéballs that were attached to his belt and placing them in it, making sure that the wild pokémon was looking. "No pokémon or pokéballs, okay?" He then took out a small yellow spray bottle from his bag. "This is my last antidote. I can tell it's been quite a while since you were bitten but it should do the trick. I'm going to leave my backpack here and slowly come over, alright?" The Ponyta didn't seem to be showing any signs of resistance, but it also didn't seem to be displaying any signs of approval.

After slowly making his way over while making sure not to perform any sudden movements Jake sat down next to the poisoned Ponyta, which was still looking directly at him with a not-so-happy stare. "Okay… This might sting a little." He then brought the spray bottle he was holding close to the area where the wild Ponyta had been bitten and then pulled the trigger. But no substance came out of the bottle. Jake frowned and shook the bottle a couple of times before trying again, only to end up with the exact same result.

Meanwhile, back at the stadium

"Ooooh! How exciting is this!" exclaimed Melanie with a huge smile as she gave her unsuspecting Charmander an unintentional squeeze. "I've never seen 2 Gym Leaders battle each other before! This is gonna be sooooooo cool!" According to what one of the announcers had said just a few moments ago, the exhibition matches would begin in exactly 5 minutes.

"Have you seen Jake come back by any chance?" asked Jacob as he looked around somewhat restlessly. "I'm sure he wouldn't want to miss watching all of these matches…"

"Ooooh!" continued the brunette, as if he hadn't even said a single word, "There're Brock and Misty! And someone else I've never seen before!" She stood up and waved her hands a few of times in order to draw their attention. "Hey guys! Over here!"

"That 'someone' is Erika." said Jacob with a smile as the three came over. "She's also a Gym Leader."

"Hey, you two!" said Misty with a smile. It's been a while since she had last seen Melanie and Jacob, and she was always happy to come across a familiar face. "How have you been?"

"We-"

"Look! Looooook!" exclaimed Melanie, cutting Jacob short (much to his annoyance). "I have 2 Gym Badges now!" She took out her Boulder Badge and Thunder Badge from her pocket, waving them enthusiastically.

"I don't believe I've met your friend." said Erika, drawing Jacob's attention away from the noisy brunette.

"Don't worry." said Jacob with a chuckle. "According to my calculations you'll meet her in about 5 seconds."

"What do you mean-"

"Heyyyyyyy!" said Melanie, barging into the two's conversation. "You're a Gym Leader too, right?! Tell me, what pokémon do you use?! Are they cute?! Oooh, can I see them?!"

"Oh, um… Hello…" said Erika, looking slightly taken aback by the brunette's enthusiasm. "Uh, yes… I'm Erika, and my pokémon are of the grass-type. It's nice to meet you."

"I can't wait to see all of you battle! Then I'll be able to see all of your pokémon, too!"

"Have you seen any of the other Gym Leaders anywhere?" asked Jacob.

"We met Blaine on the way here." said Brock. "But if you're talking about any of the Hoenn or Unova Gym Leaders that are here, then no."

"They'll probably get here in a minute or two." said Misty. "The matches will begin soon."

"I'm hoping this time Winona will show me her Altaria!" said Melanie with a huge smile. "I bet it has the cutest face!"

"You mean you hope she won't run away from you like you're some kind of maniac like she did yesterday?" asked Jacob with a smug grin, getting an annoyed frown in return.

"Excuse me." Jacob and Melanie turned around and saw Roxanne standing in front of them with a confused look on her face. "Hey, we met yesterday, remember? You two are from Kanto, right?" The two nodded. "Have you seen the Pewter City Gym Leader anywhere? I'd like to talk to him before our battle but I'm afraid I've never had the chance to meet him before so I have no idea what he looks like… Oh, my, this is embarrassing…"

"Don't worry about it." said Jacob with a smile, turning around and pointing at Brock. "That's him."

"Hey, Roxanne!" came the voice of Flannery, who eventually showed up from one of the hallways. "Did you find anybody?"

"Yes. Brock is here." said Roxanne, looking at Flannery over her shoulder for a brief moment before turning her attention back to Brock. "Hello, I'm Roxanne from Rustboro City. It's nice to meet you!" The two shook hands before drifting off into a separate conversation.

"You two must be Erika and Misty, right?" asked Flannery with a smile, looking at the other 2 Kanto Gym Leaders in front of her.

"Where's Winona?" asked Melanie with a disappointed look on her face, staring at Flannery. "And her Altaria? Don't try to hide any details from me, missy!"

"Um… I don't know…" said Flannery with a nervous chuckle. "She's probably somewhere looking for Skyla." Before she even had the chance to say anything else Melanie broke into a run and disappeared into one of the hallways.

"Hey, watch it!" came the voice of somebody else from that same hallway, followed by another two:

"Good grief!"

"Quiet down, you two… You're, um, getting people to stare at us…"

"How can people not stare at us?" asked the first person with a hint of annoyance in his tone. "We're dressed up as waiters! And look at the colors of the hair on our heads!"

"I think I just found your opponents." said Jacob, looking at Flannery, Misty and Erika as the Striaton siblings emerged from the hallway.

"Hey!" said Flannery, beckoning the three to come over. "You three must be-"

"Yeeeeooow!" exclaimed Chili, who recognized Flannery right away, holding his fist up in the air, "Time to play with FIRE! I'm the strongest of us brothers!"

"But Chili," said Cilan, looking embarrassed by his brother's antics, "your match hasn't even started yet…"

"I swear, Cilan," said Chili as he crossed his hands in front of his chest with a sigh, "sometimes I feel like you're the biggest stick in the mud our triplet has to offer…" **

"You must be Cress, then." said Misty, looking at the blue-haired sibling.

"Correct!" exclaimed Cress, making a snapping sound with his fingers. "It shall be I and my esteemed water-types that you must fact in battle!" This resulted in Misty raising an eyebrow in a 'who in the world talks like that nowadays' way. "Just as water flowing from high places to low places is natural," continued Cress, "so is my victory."

"Excuse me?" asked Misty as she frowned and clenched her fists. Unfortunately Cress wasn't the type of trainer she could ever grow to like.

"No need to get upset so soon!" said the latter, much to the growing annoyance of the tomboyish Gym Leader. "I mean, think what incredible luck this is for you! You get to battle the best among the three of us!" He ran his hand through his hair before turning around and beginning to walk away. "Ciao!"

"Why you little pest…" said Misty through gritted teeth, "Get back here!" She would have most likely given him chase if it weren't for Brock who had decided to hold her back.

"I take it you're the calmer and more rational one of the three." said Erika, looking at Cilan.

"Are you, er, Erika?" asked the grass-type trainer, looking somewhat nervous.

"Yes." said Erika with a friendly smiled. "I'm pleased to make your acquaintance. So you three are from Unova? How nice…"

"Yes… Um… Nothing personal… No hard feelings… me and my grass-type pokémon, um… We're gonna battle, come what may." Erika smiled. In her opinion meeting different kinds of pokémon and trainers was one of the more wonderful things about being a pokémon trainer and a Gym Leader. "So, um, if you're OK with me, I'll, um, put everything I've got into being, er, you know, your opponent…"

"Very well." said Erika. "But I shall not lose."

Back at the clearing

"Right, um… So as for my plan to use this antidote…" said Jake with a blank expression as he angrily tossed the yellow spray bottle away. "It appears to be empty, which is quite the predicament. But! There's no need to worry, I'll think of something! I usually do." He was about to get up and walk back over to his backpack when he suddenly remembered that he didn't have any remaining Pecha Berries either. This scenario was kind of giving him a feeling of déjà vu (with the only difference being that Charmander hadn't been poisoned when he had discovered her at the Viridian Forest). "Just don't panic! Fast heartbeat is bad in these types of situations." One thing he knew for certain was that he had to come up with an idea quickly because Ponyta's poisoning was only going to get worse, and he wasn't going to let a pokémon die on his watch.

Back at the stadium

"Flannery, Chili," said a man wearing a headset and holding a clipboard as he approached the group of trainers, "you're up. Come on, the audience is waiting." From the looks of it he was probably in charge of supervising all the technical things regarding what was happening in the backstage area.

"Looks like things are about to heat up!" exclaimed Chili with a chuckle. "See what I did there?" He smiled an excited smile before turning around and following the man with the clipboard.

"By the way," said Flannery, looking at Jacob. "Where's your friend? I wanted to wish the two of you good luck but I haven't seen him anywhere."

"I'm not sure." said Jacob. "He went outside to talk to his aunt, but that was quite a while ago…"

Flannery was about to say something else when the supervisor called her once again. "Well… Looks like I need to go… Why don't you just give him a call?" With that she turned around and ran outside, not wanting to keep the already impatient spectators waiting any longer.

"Right, how silly of me…" He was just about to press the dial button when the noise of running footsteps from one of the hallways caught his attention. He turned around and was most surprised when Winona arrived in front of him and came to a stop, looking as if she was out of breath. She looked at him and the Gym Leaders that were still there for a few moments before turning around and running into a different corridor. Melanie showed up a moment or two later.

"Have you seen Winona anywhere?" she asked.

"Uh…" Jacob didn't know whether he should tell Melanie the truth or not.

"Darn it, I lost her!" She looked around with squinted eyebrows and eventually picked a random corridor. "Winooonaaaaaaaa!" she yelled, running into it. "Are you hiding in here?"

"Okay… That was…" Jacob looked at the Gym Leaders, who looked just as confused and disturbed as he was, before shrugging his shoulders and sitting down on a bench. "Never mind…" he said with a sigh, pressing the dial button on his Xtransceiver.

Back at the clearing (again), about 10 minutes later

"We're running out of time…" muttered Jake nervously as he continued pacing from his dropped backpack to the poisoned Ponyta and vice versa. The wild fire-type was surprisingly not making any further attempts of scaring him away, but there was a pretty high chance that its sudden 'relaxation' was actually a result of its poisoning.

*insert badly timed phone call here*

"…" He was in no mood to try to figure out what Jacob might want that could possibly be more important than this. "What is it, Jacob?" he asked, scratching the back of his head nervously. "I can't really talk right now."

"Dude, where are you?"

"I don't know, really." said Jake as he looked around. "Unfortunate, isn't it?"

"I've been trying to call you for like 10 minutes!"

"You have?" asked Jake, still scratching his head. Don't get the wrong impression; he was having a completely normal conversation but he was still on the verge of losing his mind. "I must have not heard it ringing."

"Well the exhibition matches are almost over and you're up next."

"That's a shame."

"What are you talking about?"

"Sorry, bit of a rush… There's a sort of… thing, happening… Very important that I, uh…"

"Now you're just talking nonsense."

"I never talk nonsense." said Jake, looking around restlessly. "Well, hardly never."

"Hold on." said Jacob after a short silence before talking to somebody in the background. "I just talked to one of the referees.' he said after a few moments, 'He said you'll be disqualified if you don't make it in time for your next match."

"Figures. Some things are more important than winning a tournament."

"Would you mind explaining to me what's going on? Are you in trouble?" However, before Jacob managed to finish talking, Jake hung up the call. It occurred to him that perhaps he should have asked Jacob for help, but then again how would he have explained to Jacob where he was? The only statement he did have in mind that could describe his location was 'somewhere outside of the city', which could be interpreted as 'anywhere on Cinnabar Island' and therefore wasn't very informative.

"Wait, that's it!" he exclaimed all of a sudden, slightly startling the barely-conscious Ponyta. "It's such a simple solution; I should have thought about it 20 years ago!" He ran over to his backpack and then took an empty pokéball from it before returning to the wild pokémon, again leaving his bag behind. "I'll just carry you to a pokémon center with this!"

Ponyta raised its gaze towards what he was holding and its eyes widened once it realized that it was a pokéball. It once again bared its teeth and growled, and even went as far as attempting to stand up (not that it was successful). "What, are we going to play that game again?" asked Jake with a frown. That Ponyta was reminding him a lot of himself in a certain way, but even he had admit that this whole thing was getting really old.

"Look, I don't know what in the world has caused you to detest people so much and I honestly couldn't care less at the moment. That is not what's important right now." All the wild Ponyta did in response was to continue squirming. "Really? You're willing to die just because of the slightest chance that I'll betray your trust and not let you go? Well excuse me, then, but you just have to be the dumbest pokémon I have ever met!"

Pokémon and people were very different beings. They have always been. But, at the same time, there were also many similarities between them. It was no wonder to some people that some trainers had an easier time bonding with their pokémon rather than with other people. Whether somebody agreed that people and pokémon had a lot in common or not, there was never any way of denying that the pokémon world and the human world were two worlds that existed alongside each other.

To simply reject a world that coexists alongside yours, whether it be the pokémon world or the human world, is simply the loss of the rejecter.

Jake knew that now, even if he hadn't back when he had first found Charmander. That was the reason why that Ponyta reminded him so much of himself, whatever the circumstances may have been in Ponyta's case. Being able to understand Ponyta's reasons might have helped him think of a way of taking it to a pokémon center without causing it so much discomfort and stress, if he could simply understand what it was saying and fully communicate with it. However he doubted a person like that could ever exist.

"I'm sorry. I'm really sorry." he said with a sigh as he gently dropped the empty pokéball onto the frightened pokémon. It wasn't that much of a surprise when the pokéball stopped shaking after a matter of perhaps 5 seconds, signaling that the weak pokémon had been unsuccessful in breaking out of it. "You'll just have to trust me on this one." He let out another sigh and picked up the pokéball, and that was when he heard a loud hiss behind him.

He froze and, after a very long hesitation, slowly looked over his shoulder. "Oh! Hello!" he said with a smile, slowly rising up and turning to fully face the wild pokémon. "You're what they call an Arbok, are you not?" The wild Arbok let out another hiss and stood on the lower part of its body, making itself look bigger and taller. "Big, aren't we?" He forced out a natural-sounding chuckle. "You're quite magnificent." Even though he was making sure not to break eye contact with the serpentine pokémon he could easily notice that Arbok was standing directly between him and his backpack where all of his pokémon were (inside their pokéballs). Brilliant.

Arbok slowly crawled a few inches closer to the helpless trainer in front of it and then stopped, hissing once more. "Oh, I see! It appears I've stolen your meal." All the while he made sure to keep up the smile and the relaxed body language, regardless of the fact that he knew more than well that he was in trouble. It was important to never show fear in these types of situations." Yes, yes, I quite understand why you're angry," he said as the pokémon bared its teeth and crawled even closer, "but I'm afraid I can't let you eat this pokémon." Arbok didn't seem very happy about the response it had been given. "Um… Have you ever considered berries before?"

'Right then…' he thought quietly to himself as the wild poison-type continued coming closer in a "this is your last chance" sort of manner. 'I'm sure I can get to my backpack… Maybe I can try covering its mouth with my jacket or something…' he slowly took off his jacket,'Surely the effects of a snake bite won't appear this quickly. All I need is to do grab hold of one of my pokéballs. As for the bite…' he gulped, 'I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.'

"Torkoal, Overheat!" Jake must have set a new world record for backwards long jumping when he bounced backwards as a huge flame engulfed the wild pokémon that would have otherwise attacked him. The attack eventually ended and faded away, revealing a fainted Arbok. "Woohoo, bull's-eye!" he looked at the source of the attack and saw Flannery and her Torkoal. The Hoenn Gym Leader looked at him and couldn't help but chuckle at his surprised expression. "I don't know whether you're just very relieved or whether you're happy to see me!" She giggled. "I'm fine either way, to be honest with you."

* Bite a ghost. It makes no sense but it's super effective anyways.

** Keep in mind that this is Cilan from the games, not the anime. Unlike his anime counterpart, B/W Cilan appears to be rather timid.

A/N: My head hurts from proofreading this…

Jake: Like anyone cares…

A/N: Shut up!