We decided to treat ourselves the first night there.

Decked out in the suits we had brought just in case, we found a moderately fancy restaurant for dinner. Somewhere in the backs of our minds, we had hoped to be treated like celebrities since we were super-skilled pokemon trainers in town to enter the League Tournament. Unfortunately as we heard snippets of other conversations, so was half of the restaurant crowd. We still managed to have a fantastic dinner.

"So I was thinking," Dylan said, sipping from his water glass after our dinner plates had been cleared.

I rolled my eyes. "Another theory? Haven't you got enough?"

"No, no," he waved me off. "This is something different. I was thinking about… you know. That event."

It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out he was talking about the arrival of the Fifth Generation.

"So I'd been thinking about it and how we were there and how our involvement was pretty crucial. What I'm wonder is… did we save the world? Because I'm pretty sure that we did."

I had to take a glance around real quick. Everyone knew about the Fivers but no one knew about us. We still weren't sure if we were allowed to talk about being there. Not even our families knew we were involved in the event. No one seemed to have overheard him. Even so, we all learned in closer to the table.

"I'm not so sure about saving the world," David objected. "Prevented pokemon enslavement, sure."

"What do you think Team Rocket was going to do with all those pokemon?" Dylan pressed. "What good were they going to do just sitting in poke balls? They wanted to capture them all, get into the Sanctuary and get even more. They wanted an army."

"I still think it's a bit of a stretch," I said. "You can probably make a case for it but unless you actually knew what they were planning, you can't prove it."

"Ah!" Dylan held up a finger. "But that means you can't disprove it either!"

He had us there.

After dinner, I found myself relaxing alone in my hotel room. I was stretched out on the bed, my laptop on my legs and the television providing low background noise. It was actually a little weird to be alone.

I checked my email and found that I had one from the Pokemon League. I quickly clicked on it. Inside was an itinerary for the tournament. Thursday was the opening ceremonies and a time was provided for trainers to be there by. Thursday night was the technical start of the tournament which came as a surprise to me. I had thought that the battles didn't begin until Friday. Thursday night would actually be a series of one-on-one battles between trainers that would receive a notification to help narrow down the field of competitors to the proper number. Those chosen were trainers that the League felt might still not be ready for the tournament despite gathering the prerequisite number of badges.

Clicking out of the email, I looked at my inbox to see if I had been sent another email. None had arrived. I gave it another minute before assuming I might not be getting one and going back to reading the one I had gotten.

Friday would be the start of the tournament that was televised on more than ESPN-P. Trainers would be randomly selected to battle on different elemental fields. There were four fields in all: water, grass, rock, and ice. These battles would be three-on-three battles. These were also single elimination battles, meaning the loser went home. Once all trainers had either won on all four fields or been sent home, the next round would begin and feature sixty-four trainers. That round would also be three-on-three but fought on a neutral field. All battles after that round would be full battles and would be waged on neutral fields as well. It would take five rounds of six-on-six battles to decide the champion and a total of ten days ending a week from Sunday. Then the Tournament Champion would have the option to battle the Elite Four and the League Champion that following week.

Following the description was a loose timetable for when matches would be. At the very bottom of the email was a link that was labeled "Trainers". I clicked on it. A webpage opened, ran through some verification and then opened. It was a database. The description at the top of the page explained that this was a compilation of all the trainers that were entered into this year's League Tournament. Clicking on a name would provide information about said trainer and his or her pokemon. While the information was not necessary complete as a trainer may have captured a new pokemon or evolved one already owned, it was what had been gathered and speculated upon by scouts and Gym Leaders.

I gave a low whistle as I scrolled through the page. There had to be over three-hundred trainers listed on here. On the side were option on how to organize the names. They could be separated by gender, home state or ranking. I clicked on ranking and after the page changed, it offered an explanation. Although battle opponents were randomly selected, there were technically "power rankings" of trainers. This was based upon age, years dedicated to training professionally, other tournament placing, scout input, Gym Leader input, and previous experiences in the Tournament.

Just for kicks, I looked at the top ten to see if I was there. Obviously I wasn't. I expanded to the top twenty and didn't find my name. Pressing the down arrow key on my keyboard I went all the way through the top fifty. Still no me, Dylan or David. We weren't in the top seventy. Or one-hundred. My heart began to sink. Dylan was the first to appear at one-hundred and eighty-six. I was at one-ninety and David was two spots behind me.

That made no sense to me. I had fared better than Dylan in our last two Gym battles. I had beaten Gary while he had fought him to a draw. He had struggled with Lucas and I had stomped him flat. I had won one of the tournaments in Anaheim with the Fivers. In short, anything he had done, I had done better. I clicked on my name with a little more fury than necessary.

The first thing I noticed was they actually had a picture of me. I stared at it, trying to figure out where it had been taken. It was me from the chest up, a look of sadistic enjoyment on my face as I was sweeping a hand through the air. A more badass picture had probably never been taken of me. It had to have been taken in either Arizona or at the poison Gym in New Jersey.

Below the picture was a few basic facts about me. Name, age, hometown, the basics. Underneath that was a header that said "Scout's Take" and then a paragraph that read:

Trainer shows remarkable skill for having been professionally active for less than one year. However, lack of preplanning does not allow for a higher ranking. Without a battle plan, trainer is often at a disadvantage and has to rely on random chance and sheer creativity to be victorious. Though this has worked thus far, luck can only carry a trainer so far. Proper preplanning paired with high levels of creativity could make this trainer exceedingly hard to match up against.

At first I was angry. Then I read it again and was pleased. Then the third time I was just confused. It seemed to be telling me that I didn't think in advance which was my Achilles heel but at the same time what made me hard to beat. The whole random chance thing seemed like a bit of a low blow unless they were referring to my pokemon evolving during matches. I guess that was pretty random chance although it'd only happened twice in regulation battles.

Putting the synopsis of me out of my mind, I scrolled down the page even further to find the list of my pokemon. I wasn't sure if it was listing the species name or my pokemons' names since they were the same but they were all there next to a stock picture of each species. I was glad they didn't have actual pictures of each one of my pokemon because that'd be a little creepy. They were almost all there. True to his word, Gary hadn't put anything in the system about my snover. Krokorok was in there but Fraxure was still listed as being an axew just like Crawdaunt was still listed as a corphish. There were a few others that didn't appear at all. Next to Charizard was a small asterisk. I hovered my mouse icon over it and a small window appeared with a note in it. The note simply said "Believed first pokemon". That was interesting, made even more interesting by the fact that there wasn't an asterisk next to Sceptile. There was definitely an advantage to be had with that.

I was up well into the night checking out other trainers and their profiles. There were lots of people with uncommon pokemon but there were even more with common ones. I realized that I'd have to be ready to counter this but then it dawned on me that they would know that I knew. Then I wondered if they would know that I knew that they knew. And then what if they knew that I knew that they knew that I knew? The whole thing was one giant logic bomb. Eventually I got tired of trying to wrap my head around it and just went to sleep.

The next day we were determined to do some training. Unfortunately, so were the other three-hundred plus trainers in the tournament. If I had to guess, I would say that the thought of being eliminated before even getting to battle on the elemental fields was in the back of everyone's minds. San Francisco was a big city but there was only so much room available for pokemon training. Realizing there was probably a better chance of us finding space for one instead of space for three, my friends and I separated with the promise to meet back up for dinner.

I ended up taking a trolley through the heart of city which was unfortunately where all the tourists were. It took me another hour to negotiate my way back out to the fringes of the population. Even there it was hard to find a decent amount of space. Trainers weren't really looking to battle each other as much as they were just looking to fine tune their pokemon's attacks.

"Kind of busy out here, isn't it?"

I turned to the random voice. It hadn't been spoken by anyone I knew but for some reason, I thought he looked familiar. The guy who had spoken was probably close to thirty with black hair peaking out from underneath his red ball cap. His hands were tucked in the front pocket of the sleeveless blue hoodie he wore over a navy t-shirt. I figured he had to be pretty warm since I was in shorts and a light jacket but he seemed fine in his hoodie and long jeans.

"Yeah," I responded lamely, not really sure how else to respond. "All I wanted was enough space to do some training."

He eyed me with one of his brown eyes. "League Tournament?"

I nodded. "First time. Didn't get the email that I have to battle on Thursday though. You?"

The stranger didn't respond. He simply watched some trainers off in the distance. A gout of fire split the sky before he said, "I'm just looking for a tune-up before the big event. You want to have a quick battle?"

Tons of thoughts streamed through my head. This guy might just be trying to check out the competition. He might just want to see what kind of pokemon I have. I wouldn't want to give away any of my new pokemon. I also probably shouldn't use one of my core pokemon. Maybe one like Sandslash who was strong, but not one of my most powerful just so I wasn't giving everything away. Then it dawned on me how quickly I had accepted the idea of battling.

"You're on," I said. "One-on-one?"

"Works for me." He held up a poke ball. "You know who you're using?"

I held up a poke ball of my own. "Already decided." I was feeling good about my choice. Something about this guy told me he might use an electric pokemon.

He put some space between us and then shouted, "Let's do this. Donphan, I choose you!"

I was wrong about the electric pokemon. We were going to have a battle of the ground-types apparently. The light gray bulk of the donphan was familiar and I knew it was going to have some pretty tough defenses. Sandslash flexed its claws in preparation of getting through those defenses.

"Hey!"

I looked up. "Yeah?"

"What's your name?"

I didn't see why it would matter but I called back, "Tim!"

He nodded. "You can call me Red."

It was a strange name but I didn't dwell on it. "Sandslash, use dig!"

Sandslash dove into the ground, throwing clots of dirt and grass everywhere.

Red waited for Sandslash to disappear completely before shouting, "Earthquake!"

Donphan reared up on its hind legs and brought its front legs crashing down. Powerful shockwaves rippled across the ground. I almost fell over. Sandslash was hurled out of the ground like it had been fired from a gun. It crashed hard but got right back up.

"Ok, underground isn't going to work," I muttered. "Rollout!"

Sandslash became a rolling ball of rock-type might. It plowed into Donphan and knocked the pokemon aside. Sandslash slowed to a stop and I shouted, "Rollout again!"

"Donphan, use rollout as well!"

The two spinning pokemon smashed into each other. The impact threw them apart. They raced towards each other again. Sparks of energy crackled as they backed apart and slammed into each other again. Neither gave ground until Donphan gave a mighty push and Sandslash went sprawling aside.

"Go after it, Donphan!"

"Focus blast!"

Sandslash spun around to display the glowing orb in its claws. It hurled the attack at Donphan one-handed. The explosion sent the bigger pokemon crashing to the ground. Sandslash quickly chased after it.

"Use slash!" I yelled.

"Take down!" Red countered.

Donphan bolted back up and charged at my pokemon. Sandslash dodge-rolled to the side and slashed its claws down Donphan as it thundered past. Donphan weren't made for pinpoint turning and it had to make a wide, arcing turn to get back facing its opponent.

"Focus blast!" With the amount of space between the two pokemon, it seemed like the best bet. Donphan had shown nothing but short-ranged attacks.

"Hyper beam!"

The yellow beam that blasted out of Donphan's mouth completely swallowed up Sandslash's focus blast like it hadn't even been there. The beam slammed into my pokemon and detonated. When the smoke cleared and the debris stopped falling, Sandslash was laying there motionless.

I was frozen in place. Without a type advantage, that donphan had just taken down my sandslash with only three attacks. Either this guy was really good or I may just not have gotten my notification that I had to be in the pre-rounds.

"Hey, you're pretty good," Red said as he walked back over to me.

I shook off my paralysis. "Did you not watch that match? You took me apart pretty easily."

He shrugged. "That's all a matter of opinion. For a first time entry, you're pretty decent. I'm pretty sure I wasn't as good as you the first time I entered."

"How many times have you been in the tournament?" I asked. Things were starting to make a little more sense. This guy had must be an annual competitor.

He didn't answer. Instead he turned to face a woman that was coming up to us. "Hey hon."

"Hey yourself," she said.

She was a pretty woman, probably around the same age as Red or maybe a few years younger. She had on a pleated pink skirt which matched her ugg boots and showed off her long legs. A black top made it obvious that her dark hair wasn't black but some dark shade of blue, almost the polar opposite of her sky-blue eyes. Walking behind her was a piplup and a pikachu. For some reason, she seemed familiar but I knew I'd never met her.

"How'd it go?" Red asked.

She shrugged. They both liked to shrug a lot, I noticed. "It was a fun little contest tournament. I miss the days when contest battling was all the rage. We won though. Thanks for letting Pikachu help me out."

The pikachu then moved to stand next to Red. I knew that guy had an electric pokemon feel to him. Then the woman looked at me. "Getting some last minute training in?"

"Always time for more training," Red answered. He nodded his head towards me, "This is Tim. Tim, this is Dawn."

Something flashed behind Dawn's eyes but other than that, she betrayed nothing. "Nice to meet you, Tim." She shook my hand. "First time entering the tournament?"

I nodded. "I've only been at this for a year now."

"Well don't let this one get you down. Even the best trainers sometimes have a disheartening loss." She leaned into Red and poked him in the chest with a finger. "Like, remember that time that you-"

"I don't want to talk about it," Red cut her off. He looked back at me. "She's right though. Don't ever let a loss shake your confidence. Although it's never fun, losing is what helps you learn. You learn what works and what doesn't work. You learn what you should try next time and what you should never try again."

"Ooh! You mean like-" Dawn wasn't able to finish her sentence after Red put a hand over her mouth.

Red rolled his eyes and looked at me. "Anyways, it was nice meeting you. Hopefully we'll get to battle again so you can prove to yourself that this was just a fluke."

I smiled. "I'd like that."

"Don't let this get you down," Dawn chimed in, finally allowed to speak. "Your pokemon are going to get stronger as you progress throughout the tournament. If you continue to train in your spare time, if you were to meet the Elite Four you would be at least close to their level."

We shook hands and then I shook hands again with Dawn. The two of them strolled away, her arm looped through his. His pikachu rode on his shoulder which was rather impressive since those pokemon usually weigh in at around thirteen pounds. Dawn's piplup was content to just walk besides them. I smiled as I watched them disappear into the distance. They clearly had a special relationship that seemed to center on their mutual love for pokemon. It was the kind of relationship that most trainers would like to have some day.

I decided to take Red's advice and not let my loss to him get me down. Now that I had some space to myself, I copied the other trainers in the surrounding area and worked on perfecting my pokemon's moves. By the end of the day I was actually feeling pretty good about myself again. Satisfied with my progress, I packed up and headed back into town. Lead by text messages from Dylan, I met him and David at a restaurant not too far from our hotel.

That night, after we had all adjourned to our rooms, I tried to find Red in the trainer database. It was easy enough to search by name and there was definitely no one named Red. Clearly he had lied to me to make it harder for me to prepare for what I had decided was our eventual rematch. I guess I couldn't really blame him. I probably should've made up a name too. I searched for Dawn, the lady I assumed was his wife. She didn't show up either. Pulling up profiles of the top ten trainers in the power rankings and comparing their photos didn't produce a result. The idea of clicking on ever single profile in an effort to find one guy seemed ludicrous so I just went to bed.

Wednesday flew by and before I knew it, Thursday and the start of the Pokemon League had arrived.

As we walked up to the stadium that afternoon, it became clear that it was much larger than I had ever imagined. There was one primary ovaloid stadium that held a neutral field. That would be the primary battling field once the competition was down to just a few matches and had significantly more seating than any of the other attached fields. It also had a much larger surrounding field than the other battlefields to allow for all the trainers to be on it at once for ceremonies. High above it was a golden cauldron that would eventually hold the flame of Ho-oh. On either side of the longer part of the stadium was a smaller pod that also contained a neutral field. Those would be used when there was too many matches to have in one day on a single neutral field. This pair of fields had less seating than the primary field but more than the groups of fields at the "corners" of the primary field. There was a group of three fields at each "corner", each group containing a different elemental field; either rock, water, ice or grass. All the stadiums were connected via various walkways and tunnels and an uncountable number of vendors sold everything from funny drawings to ice cream shaped like a pikachu.

A huge line had formed behind a blockade of folding tables manned by event staff. Our huge mass was formed up into six different lines according to your last name. Once we reached the table, your trainer card hard to be swiped and a secondary ID had to be shown. After each were officially registered, they were issued their pass card. It was a laminated ID card basically that hung down on a lanyard long enough to hang down to about mid-torso. It gave the trainers name, ID number and even had a picture, the same one that was used on the website database. Those trainers that had been entered into the system began surging towards the stadium.

We followed the hoard into the main stadium. Spectators were allowed for the opening ceremony but only trainers were to be at this first part an hour before hand. We flowed into the seats and were herded down to the lowest seats by the event staff. It took a while to get everyone down to the bottom. Only a few feet away from the railing was a small stage. On it was a microphone and an elderly man. He was awfully thin judging from the way his clothes hung off him. A thick beard covered his face and despite his somewhat frail appearance, there was a glitter of life in his eyes.

"Hello everyone!" he said into the microphone once everyone was settled. "I'm Charles Goodshow, the president of the Pokemon League. I'd like to be the first to welcome you all to the Tournament!" He paused to allow us all to clap. "Now you should have all received your itineraries by now. If you haven't, please see one of our staffers. Anyone that is to battle today should have also been notified.

"Posted on the website is a detailed schedule for tomorrow. Everyone's battles have been scheduled for a precise time. Make sure you are at your designated field at least an hour before hand. You will need to get checked in and register your chosen pokemon. Remember, ignorance is no excuse. If you do not show up, you are disqualified.

"I know many of you know this already but for those of you who are new to the Tournament, there is a zero-tolerance policy. By entering this tournament, you are now a representative of the Pokemon League. If you are caught doing anything detrimental to the image of the Pokemon League, you will be removed from this tournament and possibly banned from future events. This is nonnegotiable."

He talked for a bit longer about the match rules. It was nothing out of the ordinary. Go until your opponent has no more pokemon and switching was allowed at any time. Once that was out of the way he gave us instructions for the opening ceremony. Mr. Goodshow went over everything again and then got his workers to shoo everyone out of the stands. It had to be a lot of work controlling a mob this size. Especially when a good chunk of it was teenagers like me and my friends. There was definitely a lot of older folks, well older than us, but I'd say the average age couldn't have been much higher than twenty-one.

The opening ceremony was certainly something to behold. I had seen it on television before, with all the trainers walking out in neat rows of six from the outside into the main field but being apart of it was something completely different.

I was probably about halfway back in the formation, flanked by my friends. As we got closer and closer, I could hear some kind of noise. It kept getting louder and louder. It was just a garble of noise. When we broke the plane of the entrance, I learned what it was: people cheering. In that short time that it had taken to get all the participating trainers out of the stands and into our formation, the stadium had filled back up with spectators. There wasn't an empty seat in the house. People were hooting and hollering. Some had signs or noisemakers. You could tell when a fan favorite from a previous year entered because the noise volume went up just a touch.

When all the trainers had entered the field, we closed the gaps with the trainers in front of and behind us so the doors would be able to be closed. Then our formation split right down the center. The three trainers on the left took a big step to their left and other side a big step to the right to form an aisle. The crowd cranked it up a few more decibels when a figure appeared in the entrance and began walking down the newly created aisle. In his hand was a torch he held aloft. It burned with a heat and power that I could sense as he walked past me. Once I got a closer look at him, I realized his name was Tyson and he was the winner of the tournament from last year. He wasn't the League Champion, just the Tournament Champion as his bid to defeat the Elite Four had fallen short.

Tyson carried the torch down the aisle and up a long flight of stairs that led to the golden cauldron. Flanking the cauldron were four figures that I couldn't make out. When I squinted, I realized there was actually five. Well, six if you counted Mr. Goodshow. There seemed to be two woman and three men. It could only be the Elite Four and the Champion. I now regretting my position in the formation. I wasn't close enough to see them and not far enough back that I could look at the huge video screens with my peripheral vision. We had been instructed to keep facing forward otherwise I would have had no problem turning to look at the screen.

The torch was presented to Mr. Goodshow when pushed it into the cauldron. The fire spread quickly and flames soon raged high above the stadium. The crowd went wild. Mr. Goodshow addressed the crowd, saying some words about good competition and the his pride in the new generation of trainers. I glanced at my watch and wondered if he was going to wrap it up soon. It was almost six. There were ten matches that still had to happen tonight and more importantly, I was hungry.

As if on cue, Mr. Goodshow wrapped up his speech to thunderous applause. We were given our cue to do an about-face and head back out of the stadium. I tried to sneak a glance at the video screen. The camera had moved off of the Elite Four though. Instead I saw the familiar faces of Professor Oak and Professor Birch. They were laughing and waving like they were having the time of their lives. I couldn't help but laugh too. As soon as the formation exited the stadium, it began to break up. Some trainers had the same idea as me and went for the food vendors. Even more flocked to the battlefields to secure a seat in the section that had been set aside for trainers. The first battles were to begin within the hour.

I missed the first battle while standing in line for a walking taco. It was totally worth it though because it was an amazing walking taco even if it did cost me seven bucks. I managed to find David in the stands of one of the smaller neutral fields. He got the people next to him to scoot over to make room for me. Once seated, he filled me in on the current match.

Trainer A seemed to be the crowd favorite. That didn't surprise me at all. Just going by his appearance, I would have been surprised if he was older than fifteen. He clearly had skills though. Trainer B was a woman who was probably closing in on thirty. She seemed to be the more experienced of the two and held the upper hand but the kid wasn't going quietly. The kid and his shiftry eventually fell to the woman and her purugly.

It was a good match and I ended up staying for the next match which was just a little less exciting. I debated staying for a third but I had work to do. The schedule for the next day was available and I needed to see it. The website had it as a PDF file and it was too large for my phone to open. David agreed with me and we headed back to the hotel.

Back in the hotel, I eagerly opened up the schedule file. It was clear why it was too big for my phone. Not only was every trainer in the tournament battling but they had included pictures along with our names. The only names that lacked pictures were those that had still to be decided by the matches currently being fought. At the bottom of the PDF was a note saying that the rest of the tournament would be kept track of on the website with real-time updates. It took me a few minutes to track down my name. I was listed under the second water battlefield and was the third match of the day, approximate start time of noon.

Well, at least I didn't have to think about my team too much. The water field almost demanded that you use mostly water typed pokemon. There were only five floating rafts that could hold up a pokemon but not even any pokemon. Steelix would sink like a rock if it tried to balance on one of those. A big, shiny rock. Swampert and Crawdaunt were the core of my team whether I liked it or not. Thinking back to what the database had said about me, I slipped the third pokemon into my team and arranged them in my belt holster.

I was ready. Now all I had to do was wait.