A/N: Ch. 4 rewrite. Yep.

Ch. 4 - Trial and Error

Carrie awoke the next morning to find a slight, odd weight on her stomach. She sat up slightly. Either by accident or otherwise, Sam's hand had found it's way over her body.

"Ugh," she grunted, throwing Sam's hand back over himself. She hastily grabbed her backpack and belt, and struggled over Sam to his end of the tent, where she attempted to unzip it and failed; the zipper seemed to be caught on itself somehow.

"Ow!" Sam cried from behind her. She looked back; she had forgotten he was there as she tried taking her anger out on the zipper, and her feet were now digging into his back.

"Serves you right," she said furiously, turning back to the zipper.

Sam retreated to the other side of the tent, though that hardly spared him; the tent was so small that it just gave Carrie more room to stretch her legs, so Sam moved again, squeezing into the far corner.

"What does that mean?" he asked, curiosity rather than anger in his voice.

"You know full well what I mean," Carrie shouted back, now turning away from the zipper completely. "I knew it was a stupid idea to let you talk me into sleeping in here with you."

"But I didn't talk-"

"Just save it," said Carrie angrily, turning now to her bag.

"What did I even do?" Sam asked, still with a tone of genuine curiosity. Carrie turned once again to face him.

"I woke up this morning to find your arm wrapped around me. I should have known you'd take advantage of me while I slept. And don't you even try to deny it."

"But I… I really didn't do it on purpose. I toss and turn in my sleep a lot. And there isn't much room in here… I think I fell asleep before you, actually."

"Whatever," she responded, having no other counter argument. She turned around yet again, picking Cyndaquil's pokéball off her belt. She dropped it rather hard on the ground, and the little fire mouse emerged curled up, still sleeping.

"What are you doing?" Sam asked.

"Getting out of this tent. Cyndaquil, wake up, damn it."

"You can't just burn it open! You'll kill us both! Let me do it."

"You have ten seconds," Carrie said.

Sam hurriedly crawled to the tent's exit as Carrie moved aside. He apparently was used to dealing with the tent's stuck zipper, and had no trouble opening it. He smiled at Carrie as she pushed passed him with her bag and belt.

She was already walking away down the road when Sam crawled out of the tent and called to her.

"You forgot something!"

Carrie rolled her eyes and looked back. Cyndaquil had just come out of the tent behind Sam, yawning. Carrie sighed and walked back.

"What do you say to a battle?" Sam suggested randomly. "Nothing better to help you wake up."

Carrie thought for a second and decided she'd have to do it sooner or later, and it would be better to take on someone she might stand a chance against in her first-ever battle. "You're on," she replied. "Cyndaquil, you're up."

This seemed to catch the Pokémon's attention. He waddled over to stand in front of Carrie, though he yawned again. Sam eyed him for a moment before picking his own pokéball.

"Go, Abra!" he shouted as he threw it. The Pokémon emerged in white light, though it too still appeared to be asleep. "Use confusion!" Sam ordered.

"Uh… try an Ember," Carrie countered.

Abra was faster. The yellow Pokémon took on a faint blue glow before raising its arms. The blue glow then surrounded Cyndaquil also, who was then lifted off his feet and sent flying into a tree.

"That's totally unfair," Carrie complained. "It's a bloody psychic, how can I fight that? It's attacking me in its sleep!"

"It's likely that you'll find other psychics, you'll just have to… find a way," Sam replied sheepishly.

"Ugh, damn it. Cyndaquil, do that Ember."

"Abra, Teleport behind it and use Hidden Power," Sam responded.

Cyndaquil waddled back to his earlier position, looking mostly unharmed. The fire on his back ignited as he shot a barrage of little fireballs from his mouth. The Abra, however, vanished on the spot. Cyndaquil's fireballs sped on, only to ignite Sam's tent.

"Hey!" he yelled. "No! My stuff!"

Abra had reappeared behind Cyndaquil, but simply floated there as he, Cyndaquil, and Carrie all watched Sam bravely dive into the flaming tent and begin flinging things out of it. Sam's backpack caught a stray flame as it was flung through the opening, and ignited as it fell to the dirt. Abra floated forward, grabbing the blanket that Sam and Carrie slept in last night, which was now also on fire since Sam had tossed it outside, and tried to beat it over the backpack, putting out the fire before it damaged the contents.

It worked. The fire on the backpack was out, but the blanket was starting to burn harder. Abra tossed it away as the flames licked his hands. Carrie began to scoop up dirt from the ground and toss it onto the blanket, with Cyndaquil and Abra joining in as Sam dove back out of the tent, choking and coughing from the smoke.

"I… I'm sorry about your tent," Carrie said as they walked. Sam had managed to save his Pokémon and his backpack, but the blankets, Sam's alternate clothing, and the tent itself were burned to ashes. They had set off again after making sure the fire was completely out.

"That's okay," Sam replied. "It was old anyway. We won't be able to leave town now, though, unless we're sure we can make it to the next one before nightfall. I can't afford another tent."

"What do you mean, 'we'? I don't know what you're goals are, but I am not waiting for you. I'm getting my badge in Violet City and leaving. How much farther, anyway?"

"It could be another day or two, depending on how fast we move."

"What?"

"Well… you didn't think you'd have made it there from Cherrygrove in just a few hours, did you?"

Carrie ignored him. "Where the hell are we going to spend the night, then? I am not sleeping out in the wild to get attacked by poisonous bugs again, no thank you." Sam had no answer.

The silence lingered as they walked on, speeding up the pace. Carrie couldn't help but feel slightly guilty about burning Sam's tent, but she didn't see traveling with him as an appropriate payment of her debt. With her limited money, it wasn't likely that she could afford a new one, either. She decided to buy him lunch when they arrived in town, hoping that would be satisfactory, but then remembered that trainers were provided meals. Unable to think of a proper compensation, she pushed the thought out of her mind to deal with later; since Cyndaquil had battled for her twice now, she considered the problem solved.

Her thoughts again turned to her mother, as they often did recently when she had spare time. The shock of seeing Machamp roaming outside Cherrygrove had apparently pushed away her common sense; while she had feared her mother's fate, she hadn't even considered simply calling her before. Even as she realized this, though, she remembered that it would be pointless. Machamp had ripped their only phone from the wall and tossed it at her a few weeks ago and they had never bothered to try to repair it, and certainly couldn't afford a new one.

No matter what she thought, her mother's fate boiled down to the only clue she really had; Machamp. Why in the world was he out of the house? He hadn't even looked injured, so he couldn't have possibly lost to Blissey and Pachirisu… not that that was a surprise, but still. Unless Blissey had healed him? Either way, he was the only clue she had, so she had to find him.

"I have to go back," she said suddenly, stopping in her tracks. Sam looked around, realized that Carrie stopped walking, and walked back to her.

"Go back?" he asked.

"To Cherrygrove. There's… something I have to find."

"Why? Find what?"

"Look, it's none of your business, okay?" Carrie snapped. "I'm going back."

"Maybe I can help," Sam pleaded. "Abra can teleport us back there, and then I can help you find whatever it is you lost."

"I didn't lose anything," Carrie said. She thought for a minute… it could save time to have Sam help find Machamp, she didn't need to tell him why. On the other hand, who knows what Machamp would do to them? Would it really be right to ask him to risk his life? Then again, why should she care? It couldn't hurt to ask, he didn't have to accept.

"Alright," she decided. "I need to find a Machamp. It's my dad's, and I… I need to talk to him."

"A Machamp?" Sam asked. "If it belongs to your dad, why would it be back in Cherrygrove? Do you live there?"

"I don't know," Carrie replied, ignoring his question about her home. "But I saw him headed there just before I got there. I don't even know if he's still there, or why he would be, or even where he would be, but I need to talk to him. And he's… dangerous. Bit of a temper problem."

"Guess that's where you get it from," Sam teased. Carrie confirmed his accusation by almost punching him, but he backed away with his hands in the air. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry! Anyway… he's not in Cherrygrove."

"What? What do you mean? How do you know?"

"I saw him," Sam said. "About an hour before I found you last night. I had set up my tent, and I heard this stomping in the distance. I didn't want to be in the way, so I just hid in a bush, and… well, he came stomping passed me, punching trees as he walked. And then a little while later, when I heard your scream, I thought maybe he had attacked you or something. I mean, I know it was an hour later by then, but…"

Carrie stopped listening. So Machamp had already passed this way… Was he heading to Violet City? What in the world would he want there? There was only one explanation that Carrie could come up with: he really was looking for her.

Suddenly Carrie felt herself being shaken rather forcefully. "Hey, are you even listening? Stop spacing out!"

"Fine," Carrie said, and Sam stopped shaking her. "You can come with me. On two conditions. First, you help me find Machamp so I can talk to him, and help me fight him if we have to."

The enthusiasm in Sam's bright eyes faded, being replaced with unmistakable fear, but he nodded anyway.

"Second," Carrie continued as she turned away and started walking down the road again, "you don't slow me down."

It took the pair another day to reach Violet City. They camped out in a small cave they found shortly after switching to route thirty-one. Cyndaquil slept outside his pokéball that night, fire lit. They were awakened by Sam early in the morning, shouting. Apparently, he had caught one of the cave's resident Zubat.

The pair resumed their walk after a quick breakfast, compliments of Sam, and a quick chat about how unusual it was that they didn't spot any other trainers so far. It had still taken about five hours from their camping spot alone, but they arrived at Violet City's limits early in the afternoon, plenty of time to go sightseeing.

Carrie and Sam headed first to the Pokémon Center, where Carrie booked them each a room to spend the night. They also left Spinarak and Abra in the nurse's care before they headed out to search for Machamp. Carrie kept Cyndaquil with her, not wanting to be unarmed if they did eventually find him. Sam assured her that Zubat could protect him, despite her clearly doubtful criticism of the new Pokémon. Regardless, they split up to search the city.

Instead of searching for Machamp, Carrie checked her new map for the gym. According to Sam, gyms were the best place to test a trainer's skills. Not that Carrie was confident in her own battling ability, but she nevertheless wanted to get some experience. More importantly, she wanted to ask the gym leader for his help; she still didn't believe that Sam and his two Pokémon stood a chance against Machamp, should they meet.

It didn't take long to reach the gym. The building was one of the tallest in the city (though not the tallest; that honor belonged to a wooden tower far north of the Pokémon center), and had the word 'GYM' in flashing neon lights above the entrance. Carrie felt terribly embarrassed that she had not spotted it sooner and was thankful that no one seemed to be near enough to notice her beet-red face. The girl walked up to the door of the large building and attempted to pull the doors open, but they didn't budge. Feeling silly, she shoved against it instead, however the door remained tightly sealed. She stepped away, her face flushing again. If the doors were locked, then the gym was clearly closed. But why?

She wandered around to the side of the building where she spotted some trashcans. She attempted to climb onto one, intending to use it to peek into one of the high windows of the building, but the can couldn't support her weight and tipped over. Luckily for Carrie, the can she tried to get on top of turned out to be empty, so she wasn't covered in any trash when she was dumped to the dirt.

"And just what do you think you're doing?" said a voice. Carrie looked around from her spot on the dirt to see a boy watching her. His voice indicated that he was no older than her, though his dark hair and piercing blue eyes seemed to suggest otherwise. He seemed to be wearing some sort of blue full-body suit; Carrie might have thought the boy had just been scuba diving if it weren't for the rather angry looking Spearow on his shoulder.

"I was trying to look inside the gym," Carrie replied as she stood up. No doubt she looked foolish and rather suspicious on the ground leaning on a fallen trashcan. "The doors are locked. I wanted to see the leader."

"Oh, new challenger, huh?" the boy replied. "See, Violet City doesn't really get many trainers this late in the season. Just last year, they gym leader thought it would be a good idea to set up a special festival to draw in a crowd. The gym is closed while the leader helps set things up. He's in charge of the whole thing too, since he doesn't get many challengers around this time."

"Great…" Carrie said, disappointed. She'd have to wait until after this festival to try to get her first badge, then. More unsettling, though, was that she would be on her own if she found Machamp. She wondered where he might be now, if maybe he had come through here before the gym closed and moved on already or if he, like her, found the gym empty. Knowing Machamp, the doors would have been broken down if he had shown up to find them locked. Carrie couldn't imagine what he might want at the gym, though she also couldn't imagine why he traveled out here in the first place.

Well, either way, she thought, I'll have to stick around town for a few days if I want that badge. "So, what's this festival about, anyway?" she asked the boy, who had been staring at her while she stared at the gym, thinking to herself.

"They hold it at the Sprout Tower," he explained, pointing to the tallest building in the city. "I guess you don't know the legend, but the tower is supposed to have originally been a really tall Bellsprout. The tower itself was built in honor of it. The festival, too, is in honor of the Bellsprout. The main event is this huge tournament, they say even the elder participates. I mean, he did last year, anyway."

"Tournament?" Carrie questioned. "Like, battles?"

"Yeah. Last year, there were so many people, they had to pair them up."

"So then, anyone can enter?"

"As long as you have two Pokémon, yeah. It's open to the public. It would be stupid to hold a festival to draw people in and then not let them participate, right?"

"Yeah, I guess it would," Carrie said. "So, where do I sign up?"

"At the entrance to the tower," the boy replied. "You can't do it now, though. The festival is in two days, but they're not accepting registrations until tomorrow morning."

Carrie sighed. "So I can't get my badge, I can't apply for the tournament, and I guess I can't go check out the tower either while they're setting up, so what am I supposed to do for two whole days?"

"How about a battle?" the boy suggested. Having yet to have a complete trainer battle since nearly burning Sam alive, Carrie decided the practice was too valuable to pass up.

"All right," she said, "but I only have one Pokémon with me. I left the other one at the Pokémon Center."

"Fair enough," the boy replied, picking a pokéball from his belt. Carrie had been sure he was about to send in his Spearow, who had remained quite silent on the boy's shoulder this whole time. Instead, his ball opened to reveal a small blue Zubat. The eyeless flier screeched angrily, trying to both cover its nonexistent eyes and stay airborne at the same time, and failing.

"Show time, Cyndaquil," Carrie called as she released her starter. The fire type looked wearily at the Zubat, who had given up trying to shield himself from the bright afternoon sun and was now hovering near his trainer's head.

"Let's start this off with, uh…" Carrie had to stop and think. Zubat wouldn't be easy to tackle while in the air. That left Ember as her only offensive option. What else could Cyndaquil do? "Use Ember!"

"Counter with a Gust attack!" the boy shouted. Cyndaquil lit the fire on his back before launching a barrage of tiny fireballs at the flying bat, while the furious beating of the Zubat's wings generated a blast of wind. The swirling miniature tornado easily dispersed the tiny flames, as well as pushing Cyndaquil backwards.

"Hold on," Carrie said irritably, taking out her pokédex and pointing it at Zubat. The pokédex didn't seem to respond, but when Carrie looked at the screen, a blob of text had appeared and she remembered that she had turned the audio off. Passing over Zubat's data, she checked their list of moves instead to get an idea of this Zubat's level. She noted, however, that Gust was not on Zubat's list of natural abilities. Further down the list, she found that Zubat could learn a variety of attacks in addition to their natural ones, including Gust, with a bit of focused training. Curious, she pointed her pokédex at Cyndaquil next, who had turned his head to see why his trainer stopped calling orders.

"Zubat, use Supersonic!" the boy shouted, tapping his foot impatiently. His Pokémon responded obediently, opening his mouth and letting out an odd sound wave.

"Hey!" Carrie whined as Cyndaquil crouched to the ground in pain from a sound that was too high for Carrie's ears to hear.

"You can't just pause a battle," the boy responded. Carrie hissed in annoyance and quickly scanned Cyndaquil's current abilities as the boy continued. "Do a Leech Life attack!"

"Smokescreen!" Carrie ordered, after seeing the move on Cyndaquil's list. Her Pokémon, still covering his nonexistent ears, began letting off a large cloud of smoke from his back, much like he had done back in Elm's lab. The Zubat, who had flown in for his close-range attack, quickly pulled up, avoiding the cloud that had hidden his opponent.

"Now, Tackle it!" Before the boy could reply, Cyndaquil had leapt from the smoke and rammed his body into the bat, throwing him back, but he regaining his flight easily. "Now get back in the smoke," Carrie ordered, and her Pokémon obeyed.

"Have it your way," the boy responded. "We could just blow that away, but why don't we show off a bit? Zubat, find Cyndaquil and aim an Air Cutter at it. And keep your distance!"

Carrie flipped back to Zubat's list. Air Cutter was another move that Zubat couldn't learn without proper training; the boy was better than his appearance let on.

"Um, try another Ember," Carrie suggested, unable to think of anything else to do. Cyndaquil agreed, and another small barrage of fireballs erupted from the smoke. Unable to aim, Cyndaquil's attack didn't even come close to the Zubat, who meanwhile was using his natural ability to see with ultrasonic waves to find the fire Pokémon. As the Zubat received confirmation of Cyndaquil's location, he flapped his little wings in specific patterns, causing tiny blades of air to shoot into the smoke. Cyndaquil screamed from somewhere inside the cloud even as the wind blew it away. When it had all but dissolved, Cyndaquil was laying on the ground, unmoving.

"I guess I win," the boy said. Carrie returned her fallen Pokémon to his pokéball wordlessly before reaching into her bag, pulling out half of her money and handing it over to the winner. "I hope you don't take this the wrong way but you were really predictable," the boy continued. "You should never rely on Smokescreen against a flying type, they can blow it away easily. Oh, and unless your Pokémon has some special vision, it'll have just as much trouble seeing its opponent as they will have seeing it."

"I'll remember that," Carrie answered resentfully. "Why didn't you tell me you were so much more experienced?"

"Experienced? Oh, you mean the special moves? I'm a junior trainer at the gym. I guess I forgot to mention that."

"No kidding."

"Oh, come on, don't be a sore loser, now," the boy said, frowning.

"I need to go heal my Pokémon," Carrie said bitterly. She walked passed him without waiting for a reply, waiting until she was out of his vision before pulling out her pokégear map and heading towards the Pokémon Center.

Carrie didn't like the thought of wandering around town alone, so after leaving Cyndaquil with the nurse, she headed upstairs to her room. The card attached to her key stated that she was to be in room number twelve. It wasn't hard to find, and Carrie entered it eagerly. The room was very simple, with nothing more than a comfy looking bed, a nightstand with a lamp underneath a window that allowed a clear view of the Sprout Tower to the north, and a tiny square carpet that covered most of the floor. Carrie was pleased with the room despite the simplicity; after all, it was still more luxurious than a tree or a cave, or even her bug-infested room back home. She hastily tossed her old blue backpack onto the bed from the doorway, backed out of the room, and locked her door, then turned and knocked on the one behind her, Sam's room. No one answered, however. Carrie shrugged and put her key behind her pokédex on her belt, having no pockets in her skirt, and decided to go for dinner alone.

She wasn't sure what had made her think to invite Sam, she realized as she made her way into the cafeteria. If she were completely honest with herself, she found him to be rather annoying. He really did seem to want nothing more than to help, though… She pushed the thought to the back of her mind to deal with later, next to what she was going to do about his tent, focusing instead on what to eat.

With both of her Pokémon currently being treated, Carrie had no one to talk to so she took to looking around the room as she ate. There was not a lot of activity in the small room, besides other trainers getting their meals. Carrie found herself mentally mocking quite a few of the other trainers' unusual looks. While there were several other normal-looking people about, there certainly was no lack of… creativity. Quite a few of them looked like circus people, and Carrie wondered why in the world anyone would want their hair a bright, shiny blue.

One girl in particular caught her eye. She was sitting alone in the farthest corner of the room, eating something which Carrie couldn't see because the girl's back was facing her. The girl had very long hair of an unusual dark green color. Her outfit was at least a little more normal, a navy button-up shirt and a short black skirt. She seemed to be talking into her black pokégear as she ate, or at least that's what Carrie assumed upon seeing the device held up to the girl's ear.

The sight sparked something in her mind. She had never called Professor Elm to inform him of her new number. As she took another bite of the pizza slice she'd picked up, she reached for her own pokégear, only to remember that she had left it in her bag, which she had left in her room. She sighed and hoped she'd remember to call him later.

As she approached the trash bins on the far side of the room, she could hear the green-haired girl whispering, probably into her pokégear's phone. She seemed to stop talking completely as Carrie tossed her garbage, but as soon as she started away, the whispering started again. Carrie hesitated, listening to the girl's half of the conversation.

"Sorry, another person. As I was saying, the tournament is two days away, what do you mean that isn't enough time? … Oh come on, we've pulled bigger jobs with less time. … Well, no, but… No… I didn't say that. … Okay, you know what, fine, you win. Whatever. … What? … Of course I wouldn't try it alone, do you think I'm an idiot? … No sir. Sorry sir. … No, but then since I have nothing better to do until you give me a real assignment, I'm still going to enter the tournament myself. … I just said I wasn't going to do anything! … Yes sir. I'll report in again in a few days, after the tournament."

The girl slammed her pokégear angrily on the table and began to stand up. Carrie took that as her signal to leave, moving as quietly as she could towards the exit, all the while trying to make sense of what she heard. It wasn't hard to figure out that the girl had some dirty trick up her sleeve. But whoever she was talking to didn't seem to want her to go through with it…

Her thoughts were interrupted as she bumped into someone who had been walking in the opposite direction.

"Watch where you're- oh, it's you." Carrie looked down at the stranger, who turned out to be Sam.

"Hey," he said. "I thought you'd be out. I've been searching the ruins down south all day. And guess what, I caught a Mareep! But it was getting late so I thought I should get back here before it got too dark. We never set a time to meet up anyway, but I'm glad I found you, you have my room key."

"Congratulations," Carrie said. "Now why were you out catching Pokémon all the way- wait, what are you talking about? I don't have your key."

"Yeah, you do. You booked the rooms, remember?"

"I left your key on the counter for you to take, you idiot!"

"Oh… well I didn't know! Now what will I do?"

"You didn't know? What, did you think my key unlocked both doors and the second one was given to me by mistake? Go to the nurse downstairs and tell them you lost it," Carrie said angrily. "Now if you don't mind, I need to use the bathroom."

Sam just watched as she walked away down the hall, turned the corner, and disappeared from view.