I stared across the field at my opponent, Kevin. He had been selected to make the first move and so I waited. David had already won his match this afternoon and now it was my turn. I felt like I had taken a little bit of a risk with my team and my heart beat just a touch quicker for it. The cameras and the people were beginning to be less distracting now that I'd dealt with them before.

"Shiftry, you're first!" Kevin announced.

I had never seen a shiftry up close before. It was humanoid but with skin the color of bark. It had a single prong on the bottom of each foot that it stood atop, reminding me of some ancient Japanese sandle. Instead of fingers, each hand was a trio of big leaves. A huge white, furry mane ran from the top of its mouth all the way over its head and down its back. Angry eyes stared out from beneath the mane at me.

"Right!" I said, feeling even more confident about my choice now. "Steelix, let's go!"

Steelix burst onto the field. Shiftry immediately took a step back, probably not in fear but more to allow for Steelix's massive bulk. The rock spires that littered the field didn't bother my pokemon one bit. It simply crushed them if they got in its way. Steelix lowered its head to look Shiftry in the eye. To the grass-type's credit, it didn't flinch. It stared back with its cold yellow eyes.

"Shiftry, use shadow ball!"

"Block it with iron tail!"

Shiftry held up its two leafy hands together and the black orb fired out from them. Moving quickly for a creature of its size, Steelix had slithered back and snapped its glowing tail around. Impact with the shadow ball stopped Steelix's tail's progress but the ghost-type attack detonated.

"Now Steelix," I called, "use ice fang!"

My steelix was fast. I had purposely worked with it during the spring to increase that particular stat. Shiftry, however, was light-years beyond us. It actually backflipped away from the jagged blue bolts, landed horizontally against a rock spire and launched itself back at Steelix.

"Brick break!" Kevin shouted.

Sparks crackled around Shiftry's right hand and it slammed it down on Steelix's head. Steelix was driven down but quickly recovered and slipped away.

"Smash it with iron tail!"

Steelix whipped around and smashed its tail into the ground. Rubble and debris went everywhere. Shiftry somehow managed to avoid the initial impact but was showed with rock pieces.

"Double team!"

Suddenly there were shiftry everywhere. When I had seen double team used in the past, usually a ring of copies surrounded my pokemon or there was a line of them. These copies were everywhere. Standing on spires, in holes or actually moving around independently of each other. I had never seen a double team so intense.

I didn't panic though. I had a plan, possibly even a good one. "Steelix, use dig!"

The steel snake disappeared into the ground, taking a pair of illusionary pokemon with it. The shiftry all tensed, waiting for Steelix to emerge. Now I knew I had been on the right track. This double team was amazing but it took a serious amount of concentration to maintain all these illusions, let alone illusions that were moving independently. Now with Shiftry bracing for impact its concentration was limited. Now all I needed was for it to make a move. Steelix should be able to at least get a general idea of where the real Shiftry was.

Shiftry took a step back.

"Now!" I yelled.

Steelix exploded out of the ground, scattering shiftry and rubble everywhere. The shiftry all disappeared, except one.

"Ice fang!"

Shiftry wasn't about to land and recover in time. The blast of icy lightning slammed into Shiftry's back and drove it through a spire. I held my breath that I might get lucky and the round would be over. I had no such luck as Shiftry was back up faster than I would've thought possible.

"Leaf storm!"

The white mane on Shiftry glowed green and actually lifted away from its body. A barrage of leaves erupted from it, forming a spiral and slamming into Steelix. My pokemon was thrown back, fighting to stay upright.

"Flash cannon!"

Suddenly a beam of shimmering silver was pressing back against the leaf storm. The beam was emitting from Steelix's wide jaws and forced the leafy attack back enough that it was no longer damaging my pokemon. The two attacks became unstable and detonated in a cyclone of silver and green energy. Shiftry came soaring through the explosion, hand cocked back to use brick break.

"Iron tail!"

Unless you're a flying-type, there's no way to dodge in midair.

Steelix's tail slammed down on Shiftry. Hard. There was an indent in the ground probably three feet deep and Shiftry was at the bottom on it. Oddly enough, Kevin didn't seem to even be considering switching his pokemon. At that point, I would've swapped out for a fresh pokemon. Heck, I was considering switching just to change up the pace.

"Shiftry, use shadow ball!"

The hole that contained Shiftry exploded with shadow balls. Dozens of them came flying out, slamming into and exploding against my steelix. Moments ago, victory had seemed almost certain. Now it was back up in the air again.

"Shiftry, return!" Kevin commanded, finally doing what I had expected him to do. "Rhyperior, go!"

It had been a while since I had seen a rhyperior. Sure, David had one but I hadn't battled it. My only real experience had come when battling one while trying to escape from Pallet Town. It hadn't exactly been an ideal situation for studying the creature. It still looked an awful lot like a rhydon, only with rocky orange plates covering parts of its already thick hide. There was also an extra horn on its head. The arms had been elongated to compensate for whatever internal mechanism allowed it to fire things out of the holes in its hands. It seemed like an odd switch though. Every attack Steelix had used would be super-effective against Rhyperior.

"Steelix, flash cannon!"

"Rock wrecker!"

Rhyperior raised its hands above its head. From the two holes in its palms, rocks began to shoot out. The rocks smashed into each other and fused together to create an enormous boulder outlined in red. With little effort, Rhyperior flung the boulder into the oncoming flash cannon. The steel-type beam blew apart the boulder but faded away itself. Rhyperior took a deep breath and didn't move.

"Hit it while it's resting!" I shouted. "Ice fang!"

The recharge time from rock wrecker gave Rhyperior no chance to block or dodge. The two icy jets slammed into the rock pokemon's chest and threw it backwards. It rolled back to its feet, the recharge time apparently past.

"Flamethrower!"

Rhyperior thrust out its arms, palms forward. Fire erupted from the holes in its hands. The two blasts of fire combined into one powerful one that slammed into Steelix. Steelix roared and crashed to the ground. That was unexpected.

"Steelix, return!" I had a choice to make but I made it quickly. "Sceptile, go!"

Purposely sending in a pokemon when the opponent had just demonstrated a powerful attack that would be super-effective send a murmur through the crowd. Sure it was risky but to me, it seemed like a good plan. Rhyperior was not a fast pokemon while Sceptile ranked amongst the fastest known pokemon. I was confident that my pokemon could avoid the flamethrower.

"Sceptile, leaf blade!"

"Hammer arms!"

As Sceptile raced in, Rhyperior's forearms began to glow white. Rhyperior slammed a fist down but Sceptile slithered undneath and slashed a glowing green blade across Rhyperior's chest. Rhyperior swung its other arm. Sceptile used its powerful legs to jump right over Rhyperior, twisting around and slashing with another leaf blade.

"Get clear and use energy ball!" I shouted as Sceptile jumped back to avoid another hammer arm.

"Flamethrower!"

The green orb slammed into the gout of fire and the two attacks detonated.

"Rhyperior, return!" Kevin had apparently decided that his rock-type had had enough. "Shiftry, back out!"

I found that interesting but put it out of my mind. "Sceptile, use leaf blade!"

"Brick break, Shiftry!"

Sceptile's blade was met with a sparking leafy fist. The power of the attacks forced the two pokemon apart. They charged back in with the same result.

"X-Scissor, Sceptile!"

A light blue glow came over Sceptile's claws. The pokemon slashed its claws across Shiftry, leaving visible streaks in the air in the shape of an X. Not expecting that, Shiftry was hurled backwards and was having trouble getting back up. There wasn't much left in its tank.

I had a decision to make and I took the first real risk of my tournament career. "Sceptile, return!" Now there was a real rumbling in the crowd. I had Shiftry on the ropes and it appeared I was taking my foot off the gas. Well, the crowd didn't know what I knew. "Krokorok, go!"

There was actually a moment of quiet as most of the crowd saw a pokemon they'd never seen before. Now I'd show them what I was up to.

"Krokorok, use brick break!"

Kevin snapped back to the moment. "Shiftry, brick break!"

Shiftry was probably faster than Krokorok but not in its worn down state. Krokorok ducked under Shiftry's brick break before driving one of its own into Shiftry's chin. Shiftry's head snapped back. For a moment, nothing happened. Then Shiftry slowly tipped over backwards.

"Shiftry is unable to battle!" the ref declared. I had to feed him my pokemon's name before he could continue with, "Krokorok is the winner!"

As Shiftry was removed from the field, a glow washed over Krokorok. Its eyes got big and all its muscles bulged. Not an enormous bulge but definitely noticeable. Everyone saw it but very few knew what it was. Last I knew, the name being tossed around for this particular ability was Moxie but more importantly, my pokemon's attack had just been amped up.

"Rhyperior, go!" There was something about Kevin's facial expression that told me he was waiting for something. Or maybe hoping. It dawned on me that he was hoping I'd send Sceptile back out. Whatever pokemon he had left he didn't want to have to face Sceptile. I'd have to disappoint him.

"Krokorok, use dig!"

My pokemon disappeared underground. Rhyperior tried to flush it out by launching a stone edge that it tried to drive deep into the ground. There was no response from Krokorok. Rhyperior tried to crush the ground with hammer arms where it thought Krokorok might appear. Krokorok exploded out of the ground right between Rhyperior's arms. A driving uppercut knocked the big rock-type back several paces.

"Stone edge!" Kevin and I shouted.

Rings of white spots turned into pointed stone shards that flew at the pokemon. Normally, Krokorok's attack might've been overwhelmed. With its attack boost, it was equal to Rhyperior's.

"Brick break!"

Krokorok launched itself at its foe through the falling rock dust. The impact of the brick break was thunderous. Rhyperior staggered back and teetered dangerously far back on one leg. It gathered itself and began to charge for a rock wrecker.

"Crunch!"

Its teeth glowed white and grew slightly sharper as the ground- and dark-type pokemon clamped down on Rhyperior, just below the left elbow. Now Rhyperior was holding a giant boulder above its head with no way to aim it at its target. It flailed around, Krokorok swinging with it like a flag in the wind.

"Ready?" I called out. "Now! Dig!"

Timing it just right, Krokorok released its grip and was launched into the air. With a flurry of limbs it disappeared back underground. Rhyperior hurriedly flung its boulder but even if it had been in time, its aim was no good. Now it was stuck recharging. Krokorok ripped out of the ground with a full body tackle. Rhyperior was completely laid out.

"Time to finish it!" I stuck out a hand, palm out. "Brick break!"

Krokorok leapt into the air. Sparks crackled around the fist it drive into Rhyperior's stomach. Despite the heavy armor, the big pokemon folded right up.

"Rhyperior is unable to battle!" the ref announced. "Krokorok is the winner!"

Energy flowed off of Krokorok and its muscles bulged as Moxie kicked back in again.

Then it exploded in white light.

Even I was caught off guard by this. I hadn't realized that my pokemon could evolve again. When the light faded, the pokemon retained the same basic form that it had had as a krokorok, only bigger. It had swapped its brown color for red and a pink belly for white but its stripes remained black. The long snout had narrowed a little though and the claws on the hands and feet were even bigger than they had been. I had to admit, it looked a heck of a lot more dangerous now.

I whistled to get the pokemon's attention. "We need to stop doing this in public settings. What do I call you?"

"Krookodile!" it responded with a three-fingered thumbs up.

"Game on then, Krookodile!" I gave it a thumbs up of my own, secretly pleased it had only taken me one time to get the pokemon's name.

As Kevin changed pokemon, I saw I was right in my thinking that he didn't want his final pokemon to face Sceptile. The gelatinous pink body and brown shell of a gastrodon was now on the field. Now it was me who was faced with the decision. I had Krookodile, fresh off its evolution and brimming with power but at a type disadvantage. Or I had Sceptile who yielded grass-type attacks that would be doubly super-effective.

I decided to go with the hot hand. "Krookodile, use stone edge!"

As stones swarmed around my pokemon, dirty water erupted from the base of Gastrodon. The muddy water slammed into the stone edge and completely neutralized it. Krookodile had to use dig to avoid getting washed away.

"Earthquake!" Kevin shouted and Krookodile was forcefully ejected from the ground.

"Sorry, Krookodile, but return!" I felt a little guilty killing the pokemon's groove but I had to be smart about this. I would need it fresh if Gastrodon somehow bested Sceptile. "Sceptile, go! Use energy ball!"

Gastrodon tried to defend with muddy water again but the energy ball was a harder target to hit than a big group of rocks. The grass-type attack exploded and sent the water pokemon flying.

"Recover!"

"Oh no you don't!" I shouted. "Leaf blade!"

A gold aura had just begun to wash over Gastrodon when Sceptile arrived. A slashing green blade cut the attack short and threw Gastrodon back again. Sceptile gave chase and drove another blade into it. The gulf between the speed of the two pokemon was enormous. Gastrodon couldn't retreat fast enough to counter-attack before Sceptile sliced it for a third time.

I threw out a fist. "Finish it with energy ball!"

Sceptile jumped into the air and formed the energy ball above its head. It came down and drove the attack down onto Gastrodon. The water- and ground-type pokemon disappeared in the green explosion along with my own pokemon. Only one pokemon exited the explosion.

"Gastrodon is unable to battle!" the ref declared. "Victory to Sceptile and the red trainer!"

I tried to play this one cool since it wasn't my first League victory. There was some fist-pumping but I managed to restrain myself from further celebration. As I was trying to head back into the locker room, I was stopped by a television reporter who wanted to ask me a few questions. I agreed.

"So tell me," the pretty female reporter said, "what was your logic in pulling your sceptile out when it had Shiftry on the ropes? Our announcers have yet to come up with a reason that they could understand."

I laughed. "Well the answer is simple enough: Moxie."

"Moxie?" she repeated into her microphone and then extended it back to me.

"Moxie," I confirmed. "It was Krokorok's ability. At least that's what I'm pretty sure they're calling it. When it defeats an opponent, it gains a strength boost. I saw Shiftry almost done for and I knew Krokorok had an attack that would be super-effective. That extra power boost would allow Krokorok to go head to head with more experienced pokemon. Like that rhyperior."

"Were you worried about it backfiring?"

"Sure but there's risk to any plan. If it didn't work, I was confident in Sceptile and Steelix to clean my mistake."

The reporter thanked me for my time and hurried off with her camera crew in tow. I wiped the film of sweat off my forehead and wished I had thought to do that before going on camera. Maybe they could edit that out.

Inside the locker room there was a event staffer leaning against a row of lockers.

"Tim." It wasn't a question.

"That's me," I replied, wondering if I were in trouble.

"Come with me," he said. "There's a conference room waiting in the main stadium."

I pressed the worker for more details as he lead me out of the locker room and to the main stadium. At first he played coy but eventually admitted that he didn't actually know who he was bringing me to. He swiped a key card and we entered the restricted area. A flight of stairs led us up to a hallway devoid of everything but doors. Clearly this wasn't an area a lot of people saw. My guide indicated a door and said he'd wait out in the hallway.

A voice greeted me as soon as I opened the door. "Ah, Tim! There you are!"

"Oh, hey, Professor," I said with a smile. "I probably should've guessed it was you who wanted to see me."

There was a big square conference table taking up most of the room with a dozen padded leather chairs around it. Three of the chairs had swiveled towards me. One held Professor Oak. It took me a moment to connect names to the faces of the other two people there.

"Tim, let me introduce you," Oak said as he climbed out of his chair. "First, we have Professor Rowan, expert in pokemon evolution."

Rowan rose and I realized he was quite tall. A bushy gray mustache met his equally gray sideburns. Despite all the gray, he still had all his hair. His handshake was firm and I could feel the calluses on his hands.

"Nice to meet you," Rowan said, reminded me that he was actually Scottish. "I've heard a lot about you."

"Next we have Professor Juniper," Oak said, turning to the female.

I don't have any issues saying this: Professor Juniper was kind of hot. Her light brown hair was piled atop her head in a stylized messy look. The white top really brought out the green in her eyes that matched her green skirt.

"A pleasure," I finally managed to get out. Regaining my composure, I said, "So why am I here?"

"Simple," Rowan scoffed. "We'd like to see your new pokemon."

"Oh, right. Duh." I probably should've seen that one coming.

I found the correct poke ball and touched the button to release its contents. Krookodile managed to contain its surprise that it wasn't back on the battlefield. It had already met Professor Oak but I introduced the pokemon to the other Professors.

"Quite fascinating," Juniper murmured. She stooped down to get a closer look at Krookodile's jaws. The pokemon stretched them open obligingly.

I rolled my eyes. "Suck up."

The three professors observed my pokemon for probably at least fifteen minutes or so. Each of them jotted down notes on a pad of paper with the exception of Juniper, who used her iPad instead.

"Correct me if I'm wrong," Rowan said, turning to me, "but you do possess a fraxure, evolution of axew?"

"Yes sir, I do."

He nodded sagely. "Good. Please keep me up to date on that pokemon, if you please. There has been whisperings that there is an evolution of fraxure but there has been no corroborating evidence. If you do experience such a thing, do let me know."

"It's the least I can do," I said.

Rowan smiled. "Good kid. You remind me of your father."

That comment took me by surprise. "My father? You knew my father, too?"

"Of course!" Rowan said with a laugh. "He and Professor Oak were good friends so naturally I met him. A fine trainer. I'm sure you make him proud." He paused. "Your father isn't here, is he?"

I shook my head. "He and my mom couldn't get away from work. My mom's a teacher. They're planning to head over for the next round. Well, assuming I make it that far."

"You've shown a lot of promise, m'boy," Rowan said, surprising me with the compliment. "If you didn't at least advance beyond the initial sixty-four of the next round, I'd be shocked." He placed a heavy hand on my shoulder. "You and your friends stood toe-to-toe with Team Rocket. This should be a piece of cake compared to that."

I grinned. "It's certainly less pressure."

Rowan laughed. "That's the spirit."

Something clicked in the back of my mind. His mention of my friends had done it. Dylan's match was supposed to be starting shortly. It took a few more minutes for me to extract myself from the conversation before I could start hustling for the water fields. My guide who had waited in the hallway took me a different way out that placed me closer to the water fields. A glance at my watch told me that I was still going to be late.

"Where've you been?" David asked when I finally found him in the crowd some fifteen minutes later. "This match might be over already."

I looked up at the scoreboard for the first time. All three squares under Dylan's picture were lit up, indicating he had already entered all three of his pokemon into battle. The three squares showed pictures of a gyarados, electivire and feraligatr. His opponent's showed a darkened cloyster and an active swampert that Dylan literally just defeated with his gyarados' hyper beam to leave just one remaining pokemon.

"Geez," I said. "He's really taking this guy to school, isn't he?"

"It hasn't been pretty so far," David agreed. "Curtis, the other guy, I think is one of the people that had to battle just to get in."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "I guess he's lucky he got this far. He does look pretty young."

Curtis had dark skin and a face that made him look about ten years old. I knew he was older than that just by the way he carried himself and the sound of his voice but he still looked like a kid. He stared intently at his final poke ball that he held in his hand. If I didn't know any better, I'd think he was regretting his choice.

"Ferrothorn, go!" he shouted.

The crowd all rose up. This was a pokemon we'd never seen before. The main body was silver and roughly ovaloid with sharp spikes jutting out in rings separated by black stripes. Yellow eyes that were rimmed in green stared out at its opponent. Three appendages emerged from the top of the pokemon that operated like feet. They were long, almost vine-like, with spiked discs at their ends that reminded me a bit of Ferrothorn's main body.

"Damn," I breathed. "Never seen anything quite like that."

"I wonder what type it is," David wondered aloud. "All that silver makes me think steel but that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It wouldn't be at a disadvantage but it'd also have no real advantage."

Down on the field, Dylan seemed as perplexed as the rest of us. He was clearly struggling with what he should do now. He could either switch out his pokemon for a fresher one or take his chances with Gyarados. There wasn't enough information for him to make the call on so he ended up leaving Gyarados on the field.

"Gyarados, use hyper beam!" Dylan shouted.

"Ferrothorn, flash cannon!"

From in between Ferrothorn's eyes, the shimmering silver ball welled up into existence. It exploded out into a beam at the same time the yellow orb of energy Gyarados had been gathering did the same. They slammed together and detonated. The explosion nearly threw Ferrothorn off its raft. Despite entering its recovery phase, Gyarados managed to not be thrown back.

"Thunderbolt!"

Ferrothorn erupted with lightning. Still recovering, Gyarados never had a chance to do anything. The dragon-like pokemon roared in pain before crashing down into the pool. A wave washed over the edge, soaking the shoes of the judge.

"Come on, Gyarados!" Dylan yelled. "Get up! Get up! Get up and use ice beam!"

Although I'd like to take credit for the tactic used next, I was pretty sure I wasn't the first to do it. Ferrothorn jabbed one of its appendages into the water and the whole pool erupted in yellow light. It wasn't quite the light show Raichu and I had put on, but then again, we had used Thunder.

"Gyarados is unable to battle!" the ref declared. "Ferrothorn is the winner!"

Dylan made an unhappy face as he recalled his pokemon. Not only had he lost a pokemon, he was no closer to figuring out just what type his opponent was using. Flash cannon and thunderbolt were moves that were available to almost all types of pokemon.

"What would you do here?" I asked David.

He thought for a moment. "I might use Electivire. One water pokemon already got fried so we know that'd just happen again to Feraligatr. Using Electivire reduces the moves that Ferrothorn can use too, unless it wants to give Electivire a speed boost."

Although not part of the conversation, Dylan concurred. Electivire was sent out to do battle with the mystery opponent.

"Flash cannon!" Curtis shouted.

"Thunder!"

Electivire thrust its hands out forward as it exploded in a huge lighting bolt. The yellow blast slammed into the silver beam and detonated into a rather beautiful yellow and silver fireball. Electivire then burst through the explosion using giga impact. It slammed into Ferrothorn with enough force to dislodge the pokemon from its raft. Instead of a nice, normal landing though, Electivire seemed to land awkwardly like it had hurt itself.

"What the hell was that?" David asked and Dylan's expression said he was asking himself the same thing.

"It got hurt," I said. "Electivire got hurt when it hit Ferrothorn. Maybe its got some kind of variation of Rough Skin or something."

While Electivire was recovering, Ferrothorn clawed its way back up onto the raft. Its appendages glowed a bright green as they wrapped themselves around Electivire. Dylan's pokemon roared in pain as the glow intensified.

I involuntarily rose out of my seat. "That's giga drain! It's a grass-type! Maybe a grass/steel-type! Has there ever been one of those?"

"I don't think so," David said, almost coming out of his seat too. "Man, what do you hit that with? It'd only be weak to… fighting and fire?"

Dylan didn't have either of those elements at his command so his pokemon erupted in lightning. Thunder was enough to make Ferrothorn loosen its grip. An ice punch cleared some room between the pokemon and allowed Electivire to jump back to another raft. It shook out its hand when it landed, clearly having been effected by touching Ferrothorn again. Not only did Ferrothorn take hits like a champ, you couldn't touch it without hurting yourself.

"I think I want one of those," David said.

There was a moment of hesitation and then it seemed like Dylan had made an adjustment. He had completely abandoned ice punch and giga impact in favor of thunder and thunder punch. It didn't make a lot of sense to me. Ferrothorn could withstand whatever thunder blasts it took that it didn't black with flash cannon and the same went for thunder punches it didn't counter with poison jab. Dylan had abandoned his only attack that actually caused average damage in ice punch.

"What's he up to?" David asked himself as much as me. "Is he just buying time for his feraligatr?"

The mention of Feraligatr was what did it.

I snapped my fingers. "That's it!"

"Buying time for Feraligatr?"

"No, not buying time but setting up for," I corrected. "If he sends in Feraligatr in now, it'll get fried from a thunderbolt before it can attack. He's trying to paralyze Ferrothorn!"

As if on cue, yellow sparks crackled around Ferrothorn after Electivire avoided a poison jab and slammed a thunder punch into Ferrothorn. The big steel pokemon took a step back and winced.

"Electivire, return!" Dylan knew it was now or never. "Feraligatr, go!"

"Ferrothorn, use thunderbolt!"

Being struck with paralysis doesn't necessarily mean completely immobilized. A blast of lightning slammed into Feraligatr, hurling it off its raft. The crowd nearly came out of their seats. Everyone had known this was Dylan's best shot. There was an audible sigh of relief as a blue and red claw emerged from the water to drag the pokemon's bulk back onto a raft. Feraligatr did not look especially well after taking that hit.

"Ferrothorn, another thunderbolt!" Curtis could sense this was his moment.

Lightning crackled but this time it immobilized Ferrothorn.

Even from my seat I could see Dylan's eyes get big. "Feraligatr, superpower!"

Feraligatr reared back and flexed. Huge biceps and pectoral muscles pushed against its blue skin as a light blue aura washed over the pokemon. Dropping into a crouch for maximum launching power, Feraligatr flew across the water field at Ferrothorn. The water pokemon delivered a solid right hand right between Ferrothorn's eyes. Despite the grip its spiky appendages had, the pokemon went flying. It smashed into the arena wall where it slumped to the ground.

"Ferrothorn is unable to battle!" the ref declared. "Victory to Feraligatr and the red trainer!"

Dylan looked visibly relieved. He waited until Curtis had gathered up his pokemon before making a quick trot around the pool to where he was standing. Dylan offered his hand and the two opponents shook. My friend leaned in closer and offered some words that I couldn't hear. They must have been encouraging because Curtis' face formed into a genuine smile. With a final clap on the shoulder, Dylan headed back to his locker room.

David and I met up with Dylan back outside the arena. We took a moment to congratulate each other on our advancements in the tournament. When formalities were out of the way, food was the next order. Although there was no way the concession stand food could possibly be healthy, the discount we got for being active participants was too much to pass up.

After our bellies were full we all only had one thing on our minds: training.

I had gone to both David and Dylan's matches and each of them had had close calls. While this match had gone better, my first match was no walk in the park. If we wanted to keep advancing, we were going to have to keep improving and that meant working with our pokemon that hadn't battled today. We slipped away from the arenas and into the heart of the city. There wasn't a whole lot of sunlight left by the time we were able to secure enough working space but we made the most of it.

"I think that was a good exercise," Dylan said as we were walking back to our hotel. We were all sweating like we had just exercised even though it was our pokemon doing the real work.

I took a swig from the water bottle I'd bought from a street vendor. "Agreed. I feel like I made some real progress. I feel a lot better about this next round now."

"You were worried?" David asked, surprised. "About battling on a grass field?"

In truth, I wasn't worried. At first I had been though because when I pulled up the tournament's website on my phone, the cramped proportions had made it look as if David and I would be battling. That had sent a jolt of fear through me. Instead we were battling at the same time on different fields. Although we had battled many times before and I was fairly certain I had come out on top in most of them, David was one of those trainers that I would rather not come up against in an important tournament like this. All his pokemon were extremely powerful because he didn't have as many to cycle through like Dylan and I did. He had recently closed the numbers gap considerably but his core group had probably seen more action than mine. I refused to admit my hesitation to battle him though and just made up some excuse as to why I had felt nervous.

"You'll get no sympathy from me," Dylan said. "I'm on the ice field. I've got no pokemon that gain an advantage from being on ice."

"Neither did I," David reminded him.

"Oh yeah, you've been on the ice field. Any thoughts on that?"

It took David about half a block to gather up his thoughts. "In theory, trainers would be bringing ice-type pokemon into battle. They'd feel the most at home. I didn't have any so I made plans to counter them. I brought in Duke, Sumo and Zippo. Between those three, I had a pretty fair coverage of types."

"Fighting, normal and fire," Dylan mused.

"Fire/ghost," David corrected.

"Who would you take with you?" Dylan asked both of us.

"Of your pokemon?" I clarified. "I guess if you're following David's tactic, Croagunk would be first and foremost. After that… well, you kind of have an ice issue. I guess Typhlosion and Feraligatr?"

I looked to David. He nodded and added, "Excadrill wouldn't be a bad option. I don't know how well ground-type moves would work on a ice field though. Electivire might be a good choice too, especially if you taught it a fighting-type move."

Dylan arched an eyebrow. "Between now and my match?"

"Hey, you asked for advice," David said with a shrug.

"Who are you using tomorrow?" I asked David, curious of what I might have had to face.

"Not one-hundred percent certain yet, but I'm thinking Lenny, Al, and either Shinigami or Maverick."

I nodded at this. A torterra, crobat and either a scyther or rufflet. Either of the lineups I was considering would've matched up well against those teams. It wouldn't have been a guaranteed win but I would've felt good about my chances.

"If we ever do end up facing each other, I'm not telling you my team." It was like he had been reading my mind.