Okay, so I've beaten it.

Lame.

On the bright side, I got a Dratini as a prize!

You can't beat that. Lorcan, as the Dratini was named, quickly showed his tremendous worth in battle, awing both his opponents and myself. As we basked in his breathtaking strength, Lorcan fought on with valor. After the battles were done, he looked upon us as though to say, "Yeah, I know I'm awesome...but you don't need to stare so hard."

Then he did that celebrity twirl where they act pointedly oblivious of everything around, and most of the female Pokémon swooned.

Most of them, because I remember there was a female Weedle that didn't do anything.

First of all, I have to tell you, I did take care of the Pokémon tree.

"Be careful," the florist had said to me as she handed me the watering can.

I've done things more dangerous than watering a damn tree, but I wasn't about to tell her that.

I found my Pokémon tree shortly afterwards. With all my hatred for it renewed, I poured the cold, icy water over it. The "tree" hissed in anger. I glared at it.

It apparently didn't like that look on my face, because then it kicked me. This rude action offended Cinder, who was at my side at the time. Cinder blasted a wheel of fire at the Pokémon tree. The fire smoked at the contact, and I was reduced to coughing for the next few minutes. When the smoke cleared, I saw the tree had a stupid little grin on its face and was barely affected. That pissed me off, considering that any other leafy creature would smother at the fire's impact.

I came to the conclusion that the Pokémon was wearing some very expensive fireproof paint, or something like that.

Gritting my teeth, I took out Lorcan. Lorcan barely managed to finish the Sudowoodo off (I realized by then the name of the Pokémon), and the Sudowoodo fainted into the bushes. I looked upon coldly before turning back to the schoolgirl.

Yes, the schoolgirl was still there. She was there the entire fight, and probably the entire day and night I've been gone at Azalea and back. Her determination was staggering, if not foolishly misguided.

"That was fun!" she exclaimed to me.

"You've done naught," I felt the need to point out.

She shrugged the comment off. "I'm not much of a Trainer, to be honest with you. Though for entertaining me, I'll give you this."

She handed me a pot for berries. I nodded for a thanks.

"With that Berry Pot, you can grow berries from any region without worries," the schoolgirl explained. "I'll give you some berries to start with."

She was so nice, I began to regret my harsh comment from before. The berries she gave me were partially squashed, though. Still, it was the thought that counted. I placed the berries in a pocket in my schoolbag and tried to forget about them.

"I have to get back to Goldenrod City," the girl told me after a moment. "Are you heading for Ecruteak?"

"Depends. Do they have a Gym or a good steakhouse?"

"Gym, yes."

"Okay, yeah, I'm heading there."

"Then you should go north from here. Good bye!"

We parted more quickly than we've met. I went north to Route 37, with the sun's warmth ramming disturbingly into my back. Kitty evolved into a Togetic, a process I will not describe, in effort to eliminate a lot of unnecessary screaming. Not from me, but from the twin toddlers we've been battling. I was totally calm about the process. I was like, "Kitty, brush your hair."

It took some time later before I've reached the National Garden, and more importantly, the Pokéathlon Dome that recently opened.

With victorious contentment swimming around me, I walked confidently into the Pokéathlon thing. I knew almost nothing about it, but I figured it was just another place for Lorcan to show off his awesomeness. (I had thought it was a battle arena, or something like that.)

I was soon approached by a man of...indeterminable age (he had a mustache and hair as white as snow, but no wrinkles). He stopped, right in my way, wallowing desperately into the layers of my awesomeness. Lorcan's awesomeness too, but mostly mine (Lorcan was behind me).

"This...this..." He was at loss for words for a few moments. I waited on patiently. Finally, he cleared his throat.

"The twinkle in your eyes! The twinkle of friendship! You're quite something, and your Dratini is quite a Pokémon."

"Thank you," I said. Lorcan sneezed. Then he straightened up to look presentable.

The white-haired man beamed at us both. "It's ready to participate in the Pokéathlon, buddy. Most of all, your solidarity with Pokémon makes me believe in infinite potential."

At this point, I was beginning to hope that Lorcan's ego wasn't going to inflate like a balloon. He already thought too highly of himself to begin with. Sure, the man was mainly praising me, though Lorcan has the character of trying to take every comrade's praise for himself. He's a bit too conceited, that boy.

"All right," the man said, ending his speech. "Follow me."

He turned back and walked us to the dome.

"What do you think? This is the Pokéathlon Dome."

"Seems pretty interesting," I noted.

It seemed like your typical sports stadium, in a good way. I observed the Dome as the man continued on speaking.

"Pokéathlon is a sports festival for trainers and Pokémon," he explained. "Inside the Dome, there are various challenges awaiting trainers and Pokémon to test their friendship. Why don't you try it?"

"It might prove interesting," I said, turning back to the man. "I will certainly participate."

The man beamed. "I'm glad to meet a trainer with so much potential here. It is a pleasure."

He introduced himself as Magnus, then left.

To be honest with you, I had no idea I gave such an exalted impression, but I'm not about to complain. I walked around the area that surrounded the Dome, occasionally pausing to talk to the other trainers, most of them who were in fervent bursts of excitement. I was given an Apriblender to make Apricorn sport drinks, because, after all, the uses of Apricorns hardly flounder. There was a trainer who had his Pokémon do running exercises, the poor chaps. One trainer jogged with her Pokémon. They used to do it together until I talked to her—and then her Pokémon ran on without her, cherishing at the fact that he was finally at the lead.

I turned to all my Pokémon, examined them, and I figured that maybe we'll try the Speed Course. I figured it couldn't be too hard at all, so I got inside the Dome.

I came inside a dark room, the floor illuminated by neon lights. There were television sets up on the walls and vending machines next to eccentric looking plants. I hadn't said a word at the front desk before Whitney came charging forth.

"Hi, Lyra! Are you here for the Pokéathlon?"

I emotionlessly turned back to the clerk.

"Yup," I breathed out, holding out the last letter.

"Me too!" Whitney exclaimed. "I have been so excited since its construction. It is close to Goldenrod City, you know?"

"Right. I'm excited, too. In fact, I was just about to ask to participate..."

Whitney jumped back, gaping at me.

"Eh?" I said.

She walked up to me, her face full of disgust. "Were you going to participate in the Pokéathlon looking like that?"

"You don't like my overalls?" I looked down, inspecting it for chocolate stains. My love of chocolate goes too far.

Whitney's frown deepened. "You're not prepared at all, are you?"

"For what?"

"For fame. I don't know why you dress like every day it's Halloween, but today, you have to be serious about what you wear." Whitney nodded importantly. "You'll be a sports star soon, if you're successful. You've gotta look like you have a fashion sense."

I stared back at her.

"All right," I said slowly, "my mother made me wear these clothes, so she could pretend that her little girl's here again."

It's a long story, really—my older sister Kris died and then stuff happened, including my mother having a bunch of Kris's old clothes, and...yeah. I'm used to the little girl clothes by now.

Whitney, however, was not.

"I'll buy you a jersey," she promised. "Wait right here!"

She sped away, then sped back. I apparently forgot to count the seconds.

"This is just right for you!" she said, giving me a red shirt.

After that she left.

She came to the Dome all right, but she, the gym leader, forgot to bring her Pokémon. I'll try not to think about that.

As for the challenges...

The rules of seniority dictated for Cinder to be the leader, while Kitty and Lorcan made up the rest of the team. We went against a Ponydash's team, a Pidgey's team, and a Hoppip's team.

For the Hurdle Dash, Kitty won in the first place, followed by Lorcan. Cinder was fourth.

We were second place in Pennant Capture. My Pokémon were too nice to steal.

We did win the relay race, however.

Potential, my friends! Potential!

Winning the Speed Course at the first try clearly meant that we were destined for greatness, so I then proceeded to win the rest of the competitions, all in the same day. Though there was a certain lapse in our teamwork during the Goal Roll, overall, my Pokémon performed superbly.

At Goal Roll (a game akin to soccer), all my Pokémon were screaming at each other. It was pretty easy to understand what they were yelling at each other about.

"Damn you, Lorcan!" Cinder shouted, approaching his own goal. "Why can't you be a decent goalkeeper for once?"

This was followed by a large variety of Pokémon cursing from Cinder's end. The enemy Pokémon mindfully ignored Cinder.

Lorcan hissed back at Cinder. "I was trying to pass the thing to Kitty."

There was no mistaking the pointed look directed at Kitty. Here, Cinder softened towards Lorcan, because his remark was not made without truth—Kitty had spent the entire game standing at the sidelines and doing nothing. Cinder focused his anger at Kitty, glaring at the little one with an expression of steel.

Kitty flinched and started crying, shrieking about how scared he was. This immediately startled Cinder and Lorcan, who then started comforting the little Togepi. This distraction caused another ball to roll into Team Lyra's goal, after Lorcan backed up and accidentally knocked it in.

We won at the end, anyway.

I've been supportive of my Pokémon for most of these events, expect for the Smash Block one. It involved, as the name so unsubtly suggests, smashing as many blocks as you could and the winner is the team that smashed the most. My Pokémon tried their best in this most strengthy of quests, but I knew they wouldn't win. A baby, an awkward teenager, and a scrawny ladies' man (yes, Lorcan, you are scrawny) can have no hope in this contest of muscles.

They did good at Circle Push, even though some of the competitors were more than a little stingy. They were particularly aggressive towards Cinder for some reason. At Circle Push, all of your Pokémon have to get into a circle during each round, and if they do get in, they get points. If they don't, they don't get points. There are multiple circles, to clarify matters.

And some of our opponents were of such bad character, that even if there was enough room in the circle for two of them, they were still intent on getting a certain timid Quilava out. The Skiploom in particular was a bit too pushy. In fact, the other opponents didn't seem to like the bossy little thing either—I mean, it would always enter right in the middle of the room looking attentive and showy, and ordering all its teammates about. When one of its teammates expressed annoyance, the Skiploom snapped at it into submission.

Anyway. Yes, that skippy Skiploom was not too kind with Cinder.

It's funny, but for a strength competition, Kitty was doing awfully well in this event. He would just squeeze into the circle that everybody else was trying to get to, and then just stand there as everyone else pushed about around him. Lorcan usually went inside the lesser used circles that gave out extra points, and he acted somewhat territorial whenever someone made him feel threatened. Cinder was a total pushover, to the point that somebody (*cough* SKIPLOOM *cough*) pushed him out of the ring altogether. Cinder came back in the next round—only to be ignored. He just stood at the edge of the ring the entire time, doing nothing. Apparently, without me bossing him around, he won't do anything. Lousy kid.

Also, the announcer gave out awards for extra points at the end of the Power Course.

"The No-Miss bonus!"

One team had all their Pokémon get the points for that. None of my Pokémon got that.

"The points leader!"

It was the Skiploom—can you believe? The Skiploom went on to look shamelessly pleased with itself, and it glowered at everyone. The other Pokémon glared at it, even its teammates. In response, the Skiploom determinedly glowered harder.

"The Pokémon that hit the most..."

None of my Pokémon got that.

"For effort—the Pokémon that failed the most—"

Certainly, none of my Pokémon would get that, I thought with excessive confidence.

"Cinder from Team Lyra!"

Cinder looked on in shame. I looked away.

"Lorcan from Team Lyra!"

Lorcan pretended that he didn't exist. I was still looking away.

All the other teams had failures as well (expect Skiploom's team), but the two failures of my team took their positions very deeply.

Kitty was a baby, and even he didn't get the award.

We still totally won, though. We're just awesome that way.

However, we did not win the Skill competitions with one try, like we did with everything else. Well, we did beat everything by the end of the day, but not at first. My Pokémon were crappy at throwing snowballs, a fact I was blissfully unaware of until now. As for the jumping competition, we won that only narrowly. Kitty threw up in the middle of the entry hall after that disaster. It wasn't a bad performance, though. The worst team was way worse than us. It consisted of a Magi-Crap, Seaking, and Feebas. During the jumping competitions, they acted like fish out of water.

It took us several times to win the Skill Course. At the end, we barely were able to do it. Then it took several more tries for the Block Smash. Holden's Power Juice aided us quite nicely, but really, it took us a while.

Still, the record remains! We had beaten the record for every single event in three days with only three different Pokémon to work with, and the week was ours. We got a room that had golden statues of us in it! It was pretty amazing.

At this point, you're probably wondering about Pikachu. Before I was fervently trying to beat him in the race to become Champion, now I just don't care?

Well, I decided a while ago (prior to my Game Corner addiction, mind you) that Pikachu is just too blindly ignorant about the Pokémon world that I won't have to worry about him for a while. He doesn't give a damn. At least, a real damn. He's all talk and no real ambition (maybe no real brains but I'll be nice), and he hadn't beaten Whitney yet. I doubt he'd even beaten Falkner yet. At this point, I'm starting to wonder if he's just stalking me to annoy me. I wouldn't be surprised if such a scandalous thing came out. He seems like the kind of creep to attempt exactly that kind of thing.

I understand that the summer months get dull, but if he's actively stalking me, that's getting into a whole other level here. Pikachu Boy needs to relax and read some good books, or something. Or at least, engage in some kind of reading that would teach him the vaguest picture of morals.

As for Ethan...he is magical. He shows up right in front of me no matter what I do, and I doubt he has really considered himself to be a Champion yet. As far as I can figure, he's just a random boy with teleporting abilities that wants to have fun decorating his Marill with lovely crimson threads. He hasn't even asked to battle me yet, which is what most serious aspiring Pokémon trainers would do.


Author's Note

If you're wondering why Lyra is so naturally good at the competitions, understand that in another life, she had devoted more time to Pokéathlon than battling. Therefore, she had an entire lifetime honing the skills she own now, and those divine skills were passed down into every reincarnation of Johto's Pokémon Trainer Lyra.

Not only is that partially true, there is truly no other logical explanation for this sudden spurt of Mary-Sue-Awesomeness.

At least, one that doesn't break the fourth wall.

Also, some notes about grammar. You can skip this part if you don't really care about those stuff, but I'm aware that some people do and may be occasionally bothered with my irregular grammar when referring to Pokémon related things. This section is for them.

Pokémon is (generally) consistent with its own grammar inside the actual game, but the rules are confusing at times when I write it out in a story format. More often than not, I only apply the in-game rules when it comes to Pokémon names (there is no "togepi," only Togepi), and I usually capitalize the items, such as "Hyper Potion."

The thing is, Pokémon bloody well capitalizes anything it wants! Video games in general do that. Even in Soul Silver, the names of all the Pokémon are in default with all capital letters (TOGEPI, QUILAVA). Of course, I would never write this thing like that, but you get my point. The game also capitalizes some regular nouns I find to be fairly ordinary (at least inside the game), like "Radio," "Berry," and things like that. It starts to get confusing whenever I write things out, especially because I adjust some quotes as necessary.

Okay, here's the deal: I'll only capitalize things if they're not common in our world. Berries and radios don't make the cut. Apricorns, however, do. I don't think I've been consistently capitalizing "Pokémon Gym" or "Pokémon Trainer," but I'll look into that little problem. On the subject of berries, the word "berry" itself wouldn't be capitalized, but "Oran Berries" will be written thus because then I'll try to view it as an item only found in the games. As for radios, "radio" itself wouldn't be capitalized, but "Radio Card" will be written that way for the previously written reason—I view it as an in-game item. Bicycles wouldn't be, because we have them in our world. This is a fairly casual piece of writing, so I can't imagine Lyra capitalizing everything "properly" anyway. A more informal tone would be key to the teenager's laid-back approach to writing in her diary.

Now, the Pokéathlon part is the most confusing thing here. In the end, I thought, "To hell with it," and I capitalized all the courses and their names. I tried to amend some of the damage by writing "competitions" occasionally, but since this is the chapter with the most mentions of the Pokéathlon, I suppose it wouldn't matter later on.