Sam was up against a trainer slightly older than him who seemed to have battled while he and Jake were talking with Dave. He had no idea what to expect. He decided to send out his strongest pokemon, Growlithe, first, hoping he'd get a type advantage. He didn't. His opponent's first pokemon was a Geodude, and a big one. Sam returned Growlithe, sending out Diglett. His opponent, Brian Cosgrove, returned Geodude, and paused for a second, before releasing a Stanter. Neither pokemon had an advantage, so Sam was happy to battle like this.

"Dig underground, Diglett. Attack when you're ready."

"Keep moving, Stantler. Don't let her do the same against you as that other Growlithe." Once again, the opponent's strategy was playing right into Sam's hands.

A Stantler galloping made a lot more noise than a Growlithe, and it took far less time for Diglett to find his opponent. Once again, the ground seemed to explode, and Diglett shot upwards, slashing and hacking. She managed to land a couple of blows on her opponent, but as she was diving down, the Stantler caught her in one its antlers, tossing her to the other side of the battlefield. It galloped over, and before Diglett could bury herself completely underground, it sent a Confuse Ray her way. It hit, and Diglett suddenly found herself disoriented and confused. She did not duck underground as she would normally do as Stantler's hooves came crashing down. Sam winced every time Diglett was hit. He called her back, knowing she was defeated.

"Bad luck, Diglett," he said as he returned the pokeball to its notch on his belt. "Go, Scyther!"

The battle resumed. Sam had spoken to Scyther before the battle, telling him to fly up in front of the sun, like he did against Dave's Growlithe, as soon as he was released. This strategy once again worked, and Scyther flew in close, landing six Fury Cutters in a row, before being shoved away by a wild swing of the Stantler's antlers. Scyther was barely hurt by this, but Stantler was obviously tired and injured. Scyther once again flew up in front of the sun, but this time, Stantler had the sense to look away. It kept the Scyther in the corner of its eye, but was unable to see him clearly as a result. So the Razor Wind that hit it came as a complete surprise. With a mere nod from Sam, Scyther unleashed the attack. This brought Stantler crashing to the ground, unconscious, and Brian returned it.

"Go, Geodude," he called. "Hurl some rocks at him."

The Geodude scooped up loose dirt, turning it into rocks as he hurled them towards Scyther. Scyther dodged a few, before being struck by several at once. He fell to the ground, battered and bruised, but pulled himself back up.

"Land some fast Fury Cutters, Scyther!"

Scyther darted in, slashing away with his scythes. Geodude had curled itself into a ball, however, absorbing the attacks without sustaining too much damage. As Scyther began to dart in again, Geodude started rolling away.

"Pursuit, Scyther!" ordered Sam.

Scyther's speed suddenly picked up even further, and he crashed into his opponent, sending the rock pokemon flying a couple of feet, before gravity brought it crashing back down to the battlefield. As Scyther came in to finish it, however, Geodude sprang up, grabbing Scyther and throwing it into the ground in a perfectly executed Seismic Toss. Scyther was out of the battle. Geodude was tired and obviously hurt, though, and when Sam sent Growlithe out, a quick Flamethrower knocked him out.

Sam had no idea what pokemon to expect next as Brian returned his Geodude. He was horrified to see a Quagsire emerge from Brian's third pokeball. Growlithe had a double disadvantage to the water/ground type, and both trainers knew it. Brian had a triumphant smile on his face, while Sam was frantically trying to think up a plan.

"Alright, Growlithe. You're a lot faster than that Quagsire. Keep moving, and bite him when you can."

"Blast water at Growlithe when it gets too close," ordered Brian.

Whenever Growlithe tried to get close, she immediately had to veer away to avoid the water. The two pokemon were in a stalemate in which Growlithe was slowly tiring from the running. Sam knew this wouldn't work, so he tried something different.

"Growithe, next time he uses Water Gun, use Flamethrower at the stream!"

Brian examined Sam's face from across the battlefield, trying to determine what Sam was planning. He found out soon enough. The next time Growlithe tried to attack, Quagsire blasted water at her once again, but this time the blast was met with Growlithe's own blast of fire. This created a massive eruption of steam where the two attacks met. For about ten seconds, the steam made it impossible for the pokemon and their trainers to see a thing. Growlithe, however, had a far superior sense of smell to Quagsire, and quickly figured out that Sam wanted her to use this to attack. She dove in to the steam, finding her opponent and sinking her claws and teeth into his back. She inflicted as much damage as she could, and as the steam cleared, everybody but Sam was shocked to find Growlithe on top of her opponent, biting and tearing at him. However, before she could knock him out, Quagsire, being naturally slimy, squirmed around onto his back, and blasted Growlithe in the face with a powerful blast of water. At such close range, the effect on the fire dog was devastating. Sam watched Growlithe flopped to the ground in front of him, unconscious. The battle was over. He'd lost.

People began cheering in the stands, all except Jake. Sam was terribly disappointed at having lost, but went to shake hands with Brian. Brian, however, was not interested, passing Sam by as he made his way to the tent to get his pokemon healed. This left Sam's blood boiling, but a calming hand on his shoulder from Jake stopped him from approaching the arrogant boy.

"Hey, man, that was bad luck," said Jake consolingly, "He just had the type advantages over you. I reckon you actually battled better than him."

"His pokemon were just too good," Sam lamented as they walked over to the tent.

"Maybe," Jake replied, "but you still almost beat him. That idea with the steam was great. It almost had him. Had you two practised that?"

"No. I'd sort of mentioned it, but we'd never even practised it, let alone used it in a battle."

They waited while Brian stood in front of the machine, waiting to retrieve his pokemon. Jake could have sworn it was difficult to breathe, the tension in the air was so thick. They stood in awkward silence while Brian waited for his pokemon. After what seemed like an eternity, but was in fact only two minutes, the machine beeped, and he collected his pokemon. He departed without a word to either Jake or Sam.

"Arsehole," muttered Sam, turning his head to watch as Brian started talking to the officials about the final. "Hope we don't meet him again."

Sam still had another battle to go. He was going to battle the loser from the other semi-final for third place, and the one thousand dollar prize. He healed his pokemon, and left to be organised by the officials for his next battle, while Jake went to the stands to watch. Sam was battling almost immediately, as the other semi-final had taken place earlier. There was a ten minute break between battles, but that was soaked up mostly by healing pokemon. Soon, the both trainers were ready to battle.

Sam was battling a young kid named Robert Fielding. He was only about thirteen, and looked genuinely surprised to have made it as far as he had. The battle was over quite quickly, Sam having large type advantages over his opponent's Abra, Butterfree and Electrike. The kid looked disappointed, but not at all surprised. While they were healing their pokemon, he revealed that it was only his first competition. He explained that he'd grown up on a farm in Kanto, and had grown up with his pokemon all his life, battling his brothers and parents. He'd only just started his journey, and had no badges, but was still quite advanced. Jake offered to let him travel with them, but he was travelling in a large group already, with two of his brothers and a couple of frreinds. They swapped numbers, however, after talking for a while and getting to know one another.

Robert, or Rob, as he liked to be called, and his brothers and friends all sat with Sam and Jake as they watched the final battle. Sam was really hoping Brian didn't win. He figured his head was big enough as it is. Rob was going for the girl who'd beaten him, since he figured that if she won, it would make him look better. They were both disappointed, however, when Brian emerged victorious, and by a considerable margin too, having not even used Quagsire.

There was a small ceremony for those who had placed in the competition. First, Sam went up onto the podium to collect a small bronze coloured trophy of a Magnemite, shaking the hand of the organiser as he did so. He then received a cheque for one thousand dollars. The girl came on next, also shaking the organiser's hand and receiving a similar trophy, though this time it was silver. She also collected her cheque, and stood beside Sam. Finally, Brian stepped up. He took his gold trophy, shook the organiser's hand as though it was an afterthought, and grabbed the cheque. He held the trophy up high, making sure everyone could see, and even blew a couple of kisses, which made Sam hate him even more. After a few seconds of applause and cheering, they stepped down, and the crowd began to clear.

Rob and his group invited Jake and Sam out that night. Rob's brothers were older than he was. Bill was fifteen, while Adrian, or Ade, was nineteen. Their friends were both girls. Jen was Ade's girlfriend, and was his age, and Bec, who was fifteen, was her sister. They had all known each other since they were born, as they were neighbours in Saffron City, before Rob's family moved to the farm when he was only two years old. They had kept in contact when they moved, though, and often the girls would visit them on the farm. They had all wanted to become official trainers at the same time, so they decided to travel in the one group.

Jake and Sam both felt a little bit uncomfortable with this large group. They felt like they were blowing in a bit, as they really didn't know them that well. However, the group were nice enough, and even invited them to a party that they were going to later that night. Jake and Sam weren't planning on starting the hike to Azalea for a week yet, so they figured a mild hangover the next morning wouldn't be too bad.

Dawn had broken many hours before Jake's eyes forced themselves open. He closed them once again when he noticed the severe pounding in his head. He rolled to his right, and found his face immersed in a wall of reddish brown fur.

"What the h- Chestnut?"

Chestnut had been curled up next to his head, which was now one of his most favoured sleeping positions. Jake rolled back over, moving too far and falling off the other side of the bed. He landed in a tangle of sheets, himself and Silvio, who had been dozing next to the bed, basking in a ray of sunlight that was sneaking through a gap in the closed blinds. He hadn't landed directly on top of Silvio, thankfully, but the small Eevee was still startled. He padded away quickly as Jake thrashed his arms and legs, trying to free himself from the grip of the bed linen.

"Ah, you're awake," said Sam cheerily, coming in from the bathroom. "You had a few too many last night."

Jake just glared at him as he finally freed himself from the sheets.

"Why are you so cheery this morning?" Jake asked as he flopped back down on the bed. Lemon jumped up as well, both she and Chestnut playing next to him. Every jostle and yip made Jake's headache worse, until his hand scrambled around on the end table next to his bed, searching for their pokeballs. His hand found one, and, hoping it was one of the right ones, pointed it in the two Eevees general direction.

Chestnut crashed to the ground when, as he was about to tackle Lemon, she disappeared. Without Lemon to stop him, Chestnut tumbled off the side of the bed, landing in a heap on the floor. Jake released Lemon onto the floor, and the two Eevees continued playing next to the bed, while Silvio watched from beneath a desk.

"Unlike you," replied Sam with a grin, "I didn't get absolutely hammered last night."

Jake tossed a pillow towards Sam's voice. He had buried his face in the bed, holding his hands over his ears.

"You're a mean drunk, by the way," said Sam, a little more seriously, as he dodged the pillow.

"What?" asked Jake, turning his head towards Sam.

"After you'd had a few, and I mean a few, you picked a couple of fights. Nothing happened, luckily for you, because they would have beaten the shit out of you in your state. You could barely stand up at that point."

"No I didn't," said Jake, unable to remember a thing, "Did I?"

Sam nodded solemnly. Jake groaned, and once again buried his face in the sheets.

"How many did you drink, anyway? I didn't see you drink that many."

"I can't remember. I remember having my third, when we were in the garden, but from then on, I don't know."

"Do you drink often?" asked Sam, a knowing smile creeping onto his face.

"Not really. Only a few times with school friends from Olivine. It was a boarding school though. Strict. Couldn't get away with much."

"Sheesh, no wonder you got drunk. You had at least three vodkas and another beer after that third. And that was only what I saw. Dude, you gotta know your limits."

Jake groaned, and pulled another pillow over his ears. He wasn't in the mood to be lectured.

"Listen to me, Jake," said Sam, taking the pillow. "You were lucky I was there to stop those fights. You could have gotten into some serious trouble."

They sat in silence for a while.

"You were bloody funny, though," admitted Sam, chuckling. This even managed to get a smile out of Jake.

Neither of them felt like doing much that day. Despite what Sam may have said, he wasn't feeling too good after the night before either. Sam had let Jake go back to sleep for another hour, before they finally went down for breakfast. Though by that time, it was actually more like lunch.

Their pokemon were ravenous. Having stayed in the room all night, rather than going out like their trainers, they were not tired, and had been awake all morning. Sam had fed them some snacks, but when they got some real food at the centre's cafeteria, they dug in like mad. Jake was not particularly hungry, but Sam convinced him to eat a little.

After they'd eaten, they decided to see a movie. Neither of them had anything in particular they wanted to see, but there wasn't anything else that they felt like doing.

The day went by fairly quickly. The movie ate up a good three hours of the day, with the time it took to get there and back. They spent the rest of the day watching TV with their pokemon. Sam even released Diglett for a while, to show Jake what her whole body looked like.

The rest of the week went by in a flash. Jake trained his pokemon a bit further, as did Sam. After winning the competition, Sam was not feeling any great need to make money. As a result, he decided it was time to battle his Poochyena against some trainers. Poochyena was nowhere near his other pokemon's strength or skill, and Sam knew that he'd lose more battles than he'd win battling with him, but it would be good experience. All pokemon have to start battling some day.

Jake, once again, had a fairly good day. He started the day with $955, and made another $110, taking him well past $1000. Sam was, as expected, not very successful, losing about $200. For Jake, this would have been disastrous, but this was not unusual for trainers of Sam's level.

Jake, after taking receiving his winnings, decided to do two things. The first was to put all of his money in a bank account, because he was worried he'd lose his wallet. $1065 is a lot to carry around in your wallet. One of the many benefits of becoming an officially recognised trainer is you get your own private bank account, which was accessible through the Pokedex, so long as it had your trainer details on it. The second thing he decided to do was to follow Peter's advice and buy a new, better quality tent. He'd noticed that after just three days on the way from Olivine to Goldenrod, a couple of rips had appeared. Nothing serious, but they could well develop. He and Sam went to the Dept. Store, and Sam helped him pick out the highest quality one he could afford. He paid using his Pokedex to access his new account, and watched as 749 of his hard earned dollars were transferred. He was happy with his new tent, though. It was the model Sam had had previous to the one he was using now, and he said it would last him a long time.

The pair's second last day was spent restocking themselves with food and medicine for themselves and their pokemon. Jake also bought a couple of water bottles. He'd used some leftover plastic bottles from bottled water on his way to Goldenrod, but he wanted some sturdier ones that he could hang on his belt. He didn't throw out the old bottles, though. He wanted to keep them in his pack in case they went a couple of days without seeing a town, or in case of an emergency. They packed their bags, and got to bed early, both of them wanting to get plenty of rest before leaving the next day.