Overall, both Sam and Jake had pretty successful days. They both left with more money than they came with, and their pokemon, especially Jake's, we're a lot better for the experience. Jake had been far more successful than he'd expected against the GPA students, and even faced some slightly more advanced trainers. He only lost four battles out of eleven, two of which were one-on-ones against fighting types. One of these, against a Machop, he'd almost won. His opponent, a girl slightly older than him who was not a GPA student, was so impressed that she let him keep his money anyway. As a result, Jake had now more than tripled his money, going from $110 to $370. Sam fared equally well, fighting tougher opponents for more money. He only lost two from eight battles, and was also feeling considerably richer.
The two boys decided to eat out that night, to celebrate their success. They ate at the place Sam had suggested the night before. While they were there, they saw some of the trainers they'd battled earlier. One of them, a girl about their age with darkish blonde hair and a nice face came over. Sam had thrashed her earlier that day, but Jake had the feeling, just by watching their battle, that she would be able to thrash him if she got the chance.
"Hey, Sam, was it?" she asked uncertainly.
"Yeah, that's right," Sam replied, trying in turn to remember her name. "Jess, right?"
She nodded, and Sam offered her a seat.
"This is Jake, by the way," introduced Sam.
"I saw you battling today," she said to Jake. "You were good. Is it true you only started four days ago?"
"Uh, yeah," he said, embarrassed at the compliment. "I wasn't that good. I only fought weak trainers. I saw you two battling. You would have kicked my arse."
"Yeah, probably, but I've been a trainer for more than a year now," she replied. "No badges, though, unfortunately."
"Hey, it took me more than eighteen months," said Sam. "I've only got one, and it's from Violet City."
Jess wrinkled up her nose at that.
"Violet City's got the easiest Gym in Johto," she laughed.
"I pretty much did it with one pokemon," he protested. "My other two were a bug type and a ground type. Useless against flying types. Anyway, I'm thinking about challenging the Goldenrod Gym while I'm here. I heard some people today saying that it's not too hard, but a couple of steps up from Violet City."
"That's not a bad idea. So where are you guys off to next?" she asked.
Jake looked at Sam, and they both shrugged. They hadn't really thought about it.
"Maybe Azalea town?" Sam suggested. "If I don't beat Whitney at the Gym I could always go for that one. Growlithe would like it. It's a bug type Gym."
"Sounds fine to me," said Jake.
"I'm off to Olivine tomorrow," said Jess. "I'm going to catch a ship over to Hoenn."
"Hey, I've been there," said Sam. "It's a good place for catching pokemon. A whole lot of pokemon you don't find here, because it's isolated by water."
"Yeah, that's why I'm going. Only having two pokemon can be limiting."
Jess had a Bellsprout and a Jynx, which were defeated by Sam's Scyther and Growlithe respectively.
"Well, if we ever find ourselves in Hoenn, why don't we get in touch," suggested Sam. "What's your phone number?"
They all exchanged phone numbers, and then Jess went back to her friends.
"She was nice," commented Jake.
"Hot, too," replied Sam, and they both chuckled.
"So how long do you want stay here before we leave?"
"A couple of weeks, maybe three," suggested Sam. "We could even get some part time work for that time, but I doubt it. Besides, who wants to work?"
"What'll we do while we're here?" asked Jake. He really had no idea.
"Train, battle, that sort of thing. You still need to make some more money. But staying in cities like this is fun. We can relax, or go out with people we meet, that sort of thing."
They agreed to stay for three weeks. Any longer than that and your sort of expected to rent a hotel room, or stay at someone's place, rather than drain the Pokemon Centre's resources.
The weeks went by quickly. Jake trained his pokemon further, helping them get their new moves more effective and accurate. The Eevees were still growing at quite a rate, and according to Sam, Chestnut was almost adult size. Just out of interest, Sam convinced Jake to have his Eevees sized and weighed. Chestnut was now a foot and a half long not including his tail, and three quarters of a foot tall. He weighed ten pounds, which was apparently just four off the average for adults. Lemon was slightly smaller, though noticeably slimmer, and much lighter, weighing in at only seven pounds. Silvio was not even as long as Lemon, nor as tall, but was also seven pounds, as he had a similar body shape to Chestnut. Jake supposed it was to do with gender. He asked the nurse what the usual growth rate for Eevees was. She'd said that Lemon was right on track for a female her age, but Chestnut was big for his age. Silvio was definitely small, being the same age as Lemon and Chestnut, but he may catch up, or even pass his siblings in size. She also said that they slow down dramatically after a while, and it may take about a year before they reach their full size, though this was still quick compared to most pokemon.
Jake wasn't sure what the point of finding out their exact sizes and weights was, but Sam insisted it was useful. As they were leaving the Pokemon Centre to find more battles, he explained.
"Knowing their sizes now and comparing them in a month can help you see what kinds of pokemon they are developing into," he said. "That'll help you decide how to train each pokemon, what moves to teach them, and, in your case, what to evolve them into."
"What kind of pokemon have yours developed into?" Jake asked, interested by this concept.
"Well, Growlithe's a female, and they're like Eevees in that the females tend to be lighter and speedier, while males tend to be stronger. She also isn't fully grown yet, as she's only three years old. She's still bigger than most of other female Growlithes her age, though, and she's pretty strong, so I've balanced my training of her between speed and strength.
"Scyther's fully grown. Males and females tend to be roughly the same for Scythers. He's a little bit larger than the average adult male, so I concentrated on training him for power. It's weird, though. His size doesn't seem to have slowed him down. I guess it's because his wings are larger, because I've battled a couple of smaller full grown Scythers and he's kept up no problem.
"Diglett is a different story altogether. She's not very big, as far as Digletts go, but she's still far from full grown. If the trainer I got her from is telling the truth, she's only three years old, and they don't reach full maturity until they're about six. Females and males are roughly the same size, and the larger and stronger they are, the faster they dig, so there is no advantage to being underweight, really. Unless you can think up some radical new strategy. I haven't, but I haven't needed to. She's right on track in terms of size and weight for her age."
Jake listened with interest as Sam spouted all these facts. He felt guilty that he hadn't spent the time to research his pokemon. He decided he would do some in-depth studying of all of Eevees' evolutions as soon as he got the chance. All of a sudden, a thought about Sam's Diglett jumped into his head.
"Hey Sam, what happens when you release Diglett inside, or on concrete?" he asked, wondering if they destroyed the ground, trying to dig.
"Well, if you don't tell her not to, she'll try to dig through the ground. And if it's anything softer than steel, she'll probably succeed. If you tell her not to as you're releasing her, though, she'll just stay above ground, fully exposed. She doesn't like that, though, which is why I always keep her inside her pokeball."
Jake suddenly realised that he'd never seen a Diglett fully exposed before.
"What does she look like?" he asked.
"Well, she's got a mean set of claws, which are mainly used for digging, but battling Digletts like her also use them as a weapon. You've probably seen them before, when she was battling."
Jake nodded.
"She's also a lot bigger than you would expect. All that pops out of the ground is her head. Her whole body is actually about two feet long, and she has pretty powerful hind legs. You don't see that when I release her because she digs underground so quickly, almost before she fully materialises."
They eventually saw an ad for a small, private competition. It was close, so they decided it would do. It was open to intermediate and advanced trainers, so Sam was going to enter. Jake would still have tremendous difficulty at any level of competition, let alone intermediate or advanced, despite his improvement, so he was just going to watch. He had made a lot of money so far, and was not feeling particularly like battling today, so he wasn't going to challenge anyone there. If someone of his level challenged him, however, he was prepared to accept.
It was now a familiar scene; a small crowd, a makeshift battlefield, food and drink stalls. The only thing that seemed to change was the actual location. League sponsored ones, like the first one Jake attended, usually occurred at public parks, while private ones, like this one, were held on private property. The setup was the same each time, however, and Jake had no problem finding some seats while Sam signed up.
Sam found where Jake was sitting, and sat next to him.
"When are you up?" Jake asked.
"Third battle. They're all three pokemon each, which is good. That's how I battle best. You can also reintroduce pokemon you've returned, but only once. Oh, and it's a cash prize. Three thousand for the winner, two thousand for second place and one thousand for third."
"Big money," Jake commented.
"Yeah, I was surprised, for such a small competition, that's massive."
The first battle was over quickly. The winner had a Weepinbell, a Spoink, and a Magmar. Sam was pleased with this, because it meant that if he faced that trainer later, he'd have an advantage over each pokemon with at least one of his own. The second battle wasn't much slower, with the winner also having a Magmar, as well as a Slugma and a Houndour. Sam was also happy with this, since Diglett would have a field day against the fire types, and Growlithe knew how to fight without fire. With that, Sam went down to get into position for his own battle.
He was facing a man of about thirty, with dark hair and bright, friendly eyes. He introduced himself as Dave Normington, and he and Sam shook hands. They moved to opposite ends of the battlefield.
"Have you both indicated to the officials which pokemon you will release?" asked the referee. Both competitors nodded. "Very well then. Begin."
Sam released Growlithe at the same time that Dave released a Hitmonchan.
"Growlithe, Flamethrower!" called Sam, straight on the offensive. The flames brushed the Hitmonchan as he dodged.
"Agility, Hitmonchan. Don't let it hit you, then get in close."
The fighting pokemon dashed in and landed a volley of punches on Growlithe, which sent her flying backwards. She landed on her feet, a little battered, but fine.
"Bite it next time it comes close, Growlithe," Sam called. He was worried about the Hitmonchan's speed. "Get it in the leg."
The next time the opponent's pokemon darted in, Growlithe dived for its right leg, and locked its jaws around it. She let go quickly, to avoid being hit, but the Hitmonchan was noticeably limping afterwards.
"Good, Growlithe. Go for the other leg next time."
The opponent may have been slowed down, but it was still dangerous, and the next time it darted in it pulled off another volley of lighting quick punches, while avoiding Growlithe's lunge at his left leg. When the Hitmonchan tried the same manoeuvre a third time, however, Growlithe sent a burst of fire slightly to its left. The fighting pokemon did a half-pirouette as lost its balance trying to dodge the flame, and Growlithe shot around to the right, catching the left leg of its opponent as it swung around in its jaws. While she had his leg in his mouth, she blasted a stream of fire, which burnt the leg quite severely. The Hitmonchan lashed out, and knocked Growlithe off, but the damage was done.
"Flamethrower, now," called Sam, and a blast of fire shot at the injured pokemon as it hobbled up. It hit, knocking the pokemon back to the ground. At the other end of the battlefield, Dave conceded defeat, returning his battered pokemon.
The next pokemon he sent out was a Lombre. Sam had seen these before in Hoenn, and knew they were a grass/water type. He returned Growlithe, intending to save him for later, and released Scyther.
Seeing the Scyther, and realising that he was at a disadvantage, Dave took advantage of the switching rule and returned Lombre, instead sending out his own Growlithe. At this, Sam returned Scyther and sent out Diglett. Dave, still unwilling to fight with a disadvantage, recalled his Growlithe, and sent out Lombre once again. He could now no longer make any substitutions without forfeiting that pokemon. Sam realised he had the upper hand, returning Diglett and once again releasing Scyther. Now he had the type advantage, and if he used it properly, would against the Growlithe as well, with his own Growlithe spare.
"Alright, Lombre," shouted Dave, "Grass moves are useless here. Try to drench Scyther's wings to slow it down."
Lombre shot a jet of water at Scyther, who dodged in the air.
"Fury Cutter, Scyther," ordered Sam. "Use your speed!"
Scyther darted in towards the slow Lombre. It shot a jet of water straight at the Scyther, but he dodged again and slashed three times at the part-grass type, before floating back into the air. The Lombre was clearly hurt, but far from defeated.
"Try to keep it at a distance, Lombre," shouted Dave. "If it does get close, use Fury Swipes."
"Razor Wind, Scyther," ordered Sam. Scyther paused for a moment, before, with a swish one of his blades, he unleashed an arc of seemingly solid air towards his opponent. Lombre took the hit full on, and was flung backwards, but rolled back to his feet. In this time, Scyther flew back in close and struck with five consecutive Fury Cutters, each more powerful than the next. Lombre remembered what his trainer had told him, and lashed out with Fury Swipes. He was seriously hurt though, and another hit like that and he'd be unable to continue.
"Alright, Lombre, if he tries to use Razor Wind again, blast water at him as a distraction."
"That's OK, Scyther. Use Razor Wind whenever you feel like it. I won't call it so they won't know when it's coming."
"Dammit," Sam heard Dave say. "Just try to pick when he's going to use it, then, Lombre."
Lombre didn't pick it when it came. Scyther moved in a slow circle around Lombre for about 30 seconds, in which time he dodged four pre-emptive water strikes, before finally unleashing the Razor Wind. The attack struck home, and Lombre was out of contention.
When Dave released his final pokemon, his own Growlithe, Sam ordered Scyther to fly even higher, and fly in a fast circle to avoid the flames. Dave immediately ordered Growlithe to use a Flamethrower in the opposite direction to Scyther's flight, and nearly hit, Scyther only just swerving out of the way in time. Then, Sam was struck by an idea.
"Scyther, fly up high in front of the sun. Use it to blind Growlithe."
The flying bug complied, and positioned himself so that Growlithe had to look straight at the sun to see him. When he saw Growlithe wince and look away, he ordered another Razor Wind. Growlithe had the presence of mind to dodge, despite being disoriented and not knowing where the attack was coming from. The edge of the attack clipped him however, and Scyther followed up the attack with a strong slash from one of his blades. This brought him well within striking distance of the fire-type, however, and Growlithe blasted a hot stream of fire at him. He was knocked to the ground, and didn't get back up again.
"Good work, Scyther," Sam said as he returned him to his pokeball. "Your turn, Diglett."
Jake tried to get a glimpse of the Diglett's body from the stands before it burrowed underground, but it really was too fast.
Growlithe had used the pause to clear its vision, and shot a hot blast of flame, at Dave's order, straight at Diglett. Instinctively, Diglett ducked underground and the flames passed harmlessly overhead.
"Stay underground, Diglett. Dig down further so we can't see where you are."
She complied. She and Sam had figured how low she needed to go in order to not be detectable.
"Growlithe, shoot a Flamethrower down that hole!"
"Branch off quickly, Diglett," Sam said, caught off guard. Jake wondered if Diglett could hear Sam all that way underground, although he remembered reading somewhere that Diglett had excellent hearing.
"Now attack, Diglett," said Sam triumphantly.
Nothing happened. Growlithe, who'd flinched when he'd heard the order, looked around in confusion. Jake was worried that Diglett had been knocked out by the Flamethrower, but he could see a confident smile on Sam's face. Dave saw it to, and told Growlithe to be careful, and keep moving. Growlithe immediately started trotting around the field. Sam's smile broadened even further at this, but Dave didn't notice. They waited for a good two minutes. At first the crowd was silent, but they slowly broke into whispers, and then proper talking. Still, nothing happened, and still, Sam was smiling. The referee was in the middle of telling Sam that his pokemon had three minutes to show himself when the ground seemed to explode right at Growlithe's feet, silencing the crowd and the referee. Growlithe went flying into the air, and Jake just caught a glimpse of a brown blob with large claws underneath him. Even in the air, Diglett slashed and hacked at the Growlithe. She dove gracefully back into the hole she'd torn open, while Growlithe flopped to the ground. He tried to stand up, but collapsed once again. The referee pronounced him unable to battle. He offered Dave the opportunity to continue with Hitmonchan again, but he declined. He knew he'd lost, and didn't want to seriously injure his pokemon. The battle was awarded to Sam.
The two contestants went immediately to the healing machine under a tent. Sam allowed Dave to go first, since he had more seriously injured pokemon.
"You're a good battler, Sam," said Dave, remarkably cheery after the loss. "You handled Hitmonchan superbly, I must say. He was by far my best pokemon out there. That Gowlithe of yours was tough to take those punches."
"Yeah, she is pretty tough," Sam agreed. "I was lucky I had those type advantages though. Otherwise it might have been a completely different story."
"But you used the type advantages well. That manoeuvre you pulled with your Diglett was great too. How'd he know where my Growlithe was?"
"The vibrations from him walking," said Sam proudly. "Diglett have very sensitive hearing, and the vibrations from the footfalls get translated through the ground, letting her hear them despite the distance. You can imagine how happy I was when you told your Growlithe to keep moving. He would have been safer completely still."
"That's pretty amazing," said Dave. "Sixteen years as a trainer and I've never heard of anything like it. I'm raising some new pokemon, by the way," he added with a chuckle, seeing the look on Sam's face. "I've got stronger pokemon. I didn't spend sixteen years training to lose to some teenager with just the one badge. No offence."
"None taken," assured Sam, although this was not entirely true. Dave removed his pokeballs from the machine. Sam placed his own pokeballs in machine, and activated it.
"Would you like to see some of my stronger pokemon?"
"Now?" asked Sam in confusion
"Yeah, I've got three right here."
"Yeah, sure."
At that moment, Jake came around to congratulate Sam on his victory.
"Hey, congrats mate," he said, patting Sam on the back.
"Thanks. Dave here was actually about to show how much stronger he really is than me."
Jake looked worried that he meant it in a violent sense, but when he saw the smiles on both Sam and Dave's faces, he relaxed.
"How do you mean?"
"I'm just training those pokemon I was using. I've been a trainer for sixteen years, so I have some pretty impressive pokemon, at least compared with what we were using today. I was just about to show Sam a few. Would you like to see them too?"
"Yes, please," urged Jake, always excited to see strong pokemon.
Sam collected his pokeballs from the machine, as it had finished healing his pokemon while they were talking. After Dave released his first pokemon, they realised why they had moved outside. It was a giant Tyranitar, at least eight feet tall.
"Tyrant here was actually my father's, but he gave him to me the day I beat him in a pokemon battle. He was a Tyranitar even back then, ten years ago. I doubt I could raise one of these guys from birth to adulthood in a lifetime, let alone sixteen years. They grow real slow. In fact, he was my dad's starter, or one of them, as a Larvitar."
The next pokemon he showed them was a Blastoise.
"This guy was my starter. I was one of those that were sponsored by Professor Oak in Pallet Town, in Kanto. He used to give away a Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle every year. I think Professor Elm does the same here, but with Cyndaquil, Totodile and Chikorita."
Dave's third strong pokemon was an Espeon. Jake gasped, as he'd only ever seen one of those in his Pokedex, while studying his Eevees' evolutions.
"Wow," Sam breathed. "Hey, Dave, Jake here has three Eevees."
"What? Three?" Dave found it hard to believe.
"Yeah. Show him, Jake," Sam prompted.
Jake released Chestnut, Lemon and Silvio. Dave's eyes widened saw them, and widened even further when he saw Silvio.
"Amazing," Dave said under his breath as the Eevees examined his Espeon. "I've never seen an Eevee that colour before. And three Eevees. You're a lucky kid, you know."
"Yeah, I know." He briefly told the story of how he'd got them. He was becoming quite good at it.
"Any of them female?" Dave asked him.
"Yeah, Lemon. The light brown one," he said, pointing her out.
"Even luckier," Dave said. "Females are rare. That's part of the reason Eevees are endangered. Too many males competing for too few females. Espeon here is a female too. She mated with a male Eevee from a breeding program. I got a bunch of Eevees that way. My dad collects evolution stones as well as training pokemon, and he let me have a Fire Stone, Thunder Stone, and Water Stone. Now I have all the evolutions but one: Umbreon. It's hard to get a pokemon happy enough when you're raising about eight others of a similar age, and then to time it right, at night. But I'll get there. I've got another female, my Jolteon, so I can breed plenty more if I want."
They chatted for a little while longer, watching their pokemon interact. Soon, it was time for Sam to battle again. Jake and Dave returned to the stands to watch.
Sam was fighting the winner of the first battle of the competition. The battle was over quickly, with Sam emerging victorious. He took a risk and sent out Scyther first, because while he had a major disadvantage if his opponent sent out Magmar first, he had the advantage over two of his opponent's pokemon, Weepinbell and Spoink. Luckily, the first pokemon that was sent out was Spoink. Scyther disposed of it quickly. When Magmar was sent out, He returned Scyther and used Diglett. She used Mud Slap to good effect, to both harm and disorient the fire type, before finishing it off with a Slash attack. Finally, Weepinbell was sent out, and it faced the fire of Sam's Growlithe. The whole battle was over in less than five minutes.
After all the battles of the second round had been completed, the number of competitors had gone from sixteen to begin with, to just four. Sam was one of them. It was announced that there would be an hour's break before the semi-finals and final were held. Jake and Sam decided then was as good a time as any to get lunch, while Dave said it was time for him to leave. They thanked him for letting them see his pokemon, and left for a nearby café, discussing what strategies Sam was going to use in his semi-final battle.