Chapter 2~

A/N: Sooooo! Chapter 2! Since I'm writing this before getting any reviews (i.e. straight after writing the first chap) I will take all criticisms/ideas to heart :D Enjoy!

I tapped my foot on the ground in my anxiety.

Taptaptaptap.

Two minutes. Two minutes until Mimi and I were up. Until we battled. I had chosen Charizard and Espeon. I didn't know what Mimi chose. What if she chose a Blastoise and an Umbreon? Uh oh. I would definitely loose.

"No!" I hissed to myself. "Don't think about things like that. Breathe."

Taptaptaptaptap.

"Congratulations, Barry! It looks like Barry will be moving onto the next round. Now, it's Mimi versus Luna. Wish em' luck, folks!"

Tap.

My heart skipped a beat. That's me.

Clutching my Pokeballs in my hand, I bit my tongue and stood up.

Charizard and Espeon are powerful. As long as I believe we can win, we can. We can win. We can do this.

I walked out of the waiting room, and into the stadium arena. The crowd was going wild, whistling and clapping and stomping. Looking to my left, I saw Mimi waking towards the battlefield.

I took my place. Mimi took hers. The crowd's noise was drowning out. Everything was gone. Except Mimi, me, and our pokemon.

"Charizard, GO!"

"Spooky, you're up!" Mimi's Haunter flashed from the Pokeball.

I felt my over-competitive side start to emerge.

"Quick, Charizard, fly!" I commanded. The dragon-like pokemon was airborne as quick as lightning.

"Spooky, shadow force!"

I gasped, stepping back. Shadow force? I'd never heard of that. The Haunter vanished into thin air.

"Eh!" I stuttered. "Charizard, stop! Go for an arial ace with flame wheel! Wait for it to come back fir- Charizard, behind you!" I flustered, my heart pounding. Before Charizard could turn, the Haunter reappeared and hurled at Charizard, sending him flying.

"Chaaar!" It cried.

"You okay?" I asked frantically. Charizard nodded determinedly.

"Okay. Quick, Ariel ace with flame wheel! Hurry!"

"Spooky, poison jab, on the double! Give it all you got!"

The two pokemon flew at eachother, Haunter's paws glowing purple-silver and Charizard covered in flames. They collided. An explosion of smoke erupted from them both. Once it had fallen, the referee declared,

"Both pokemon are unable to battle!"

A tie.

"Charizard, return. You did great, buddy."

"Good job, Spooky."

"Espeon, your turn!"

"Go, Scizor!

Scizor. Evolves from Scyther. This would be tough.

"We can do this, Espeon!"

"Espi!"

"Scizor is unable to battle. This round goes to Espeon and Luna!"

"Yesss! Well done, Espeon!"

"Espi! Espeon!" The little cat pokemon ran over to me, and I gratefully stroked her.

"You did great!" She purred happily, despite the few cuts on her forearm and shoulders.

Next round. I waited eagerly in the battlefield. My opponent was late.

"I bet they're just scared, huh, Espeon?" I winked.

"Espi!"

I was only allowed one pokemon this round, and I chose Espeon.

"Gwaaaaaaaa! Sorry I'm late! Can I still go? OK! Empoleon, GOOOOOOOOOO!" Before anyone could object, a boy dashed to his place, releasing his Empoleon.

"Empoleon, hydro pump, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!"

"Leon." Again, before the referee declared the start of the battle, the pokemon released a deadly powerful gush of water from it's mouth.

"Espeon, dodge it!"

"Pi!" Unfortunately, I forgot to dodge. The water kept coming, straight past Espeon and right into me. I felt the water soak through my clothes immediately, the blast lifting me up and hurling me backwards against the back wall. The crowd gasped as I felt my body knock against the concrete wall, my head whacking into it. Black started to ebb into my vision as my mind blurred and head pulsed. All I could do was stare ahead of me. I wanted to stroke the Espeon who had dashed to the scene and give her reassuring words, but nothing seemed to work. I blinked a few times, trying to wipe the odd black splotches from my vision. At last, my ears decided to function. The words I heard were slurred and mostly incomprehensible, besides the odd "Espi!" or "Are you okay?"

After an some amount of time, in which I don't know exactly, I could start to move my neck and arms, and slowly, with the aid of a few doctors I think, I rose onto my feet, as someone put my arm around them, helping me walk to the Pokecentre.

"Are-are you okay?" I heard the figure helping me utter.

"Yeah..." Was all I could get out.

"How hurt are you? Did you break anything?" Before I could reply, they went on.

"Look, I'm real sorry about that. My Empoleon is, too-"

"It was you?"

"It was an accident! I swear! It wouldn't happened if you were in the right-"

"No, it wouldn't have happened if you weren't late, and if you- ehh." I couldn't finish my sentence since the black started to cloud up into my sight again. I leaned against my helper as we made it to the Pokecentre. I spaced out for a while, until I realized I was in a room. Before I could do anything, sleep took over my mind, and I fell against my pillow gratefully.

"Hn." I opened my eyes to bright light. Morning. God, I felt better. Perfect actually. I propped myself up and rubbed the spot on my head where I fell.

"Ah, good, you're awake." I glanced left. Nurse Joy was fixing the sheets on the bed next to mine.

"How long was I asleep?" I asked.

"About two days."

"Two days?" I nearly shouted. "That means... is the tournament over?"

"I'm afraid so. The boy was disqualified, too. I'm sorry."

"It couldn't be helped. Thanks, Nurse Joy." I said reluctantly, but secretly fuming.

"Call if you need anything. Oh, by the way, his name's Barry. Stayed here for the whole time you were asleep." With that, she left.

To my right was the idiot who knocked me over two days ago. The blonde haired guy. Barry. Resisting the urge to slap him, I reached for my Pokeballs at the end of the bed, releasing my pokemon.

"Espeon, the food's in the side pocket of my bag. Give it out, kay?" Espeon nodded after a quick purr to see I was okay.

"Hnnng." Yawned the boy, who was happily snoozing in the chair to my right.

"Good to see you're awake." I said sweetly. Barry blinked. "But, I rather liked it when you were asleep!" On my last word, I smacked him with all my might.

"OW! What's the big idea, huh? I carried you all the way here and all I get is pain! What's with that?" He yelled.

"You made me miss the competition! And got yourself disqualified! So I guess we're even then." I smirked.

"How's that for gratitude? You were heavy, too!" He folded his arms angrily. I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Oh? And what's that supposed to mean?" I shot.

"Noooothin'." He grinned.

"Espi?" Espeon jumped up onto my bed. "Pi. Espi."

I grinned back devilishly. Only a pokemon's trainer can understand their pokemon.

Barry sweatdropped. "What did it s-say?"

I waved a hand in dismissal. "Oh, nothing." I winked.

"Hmph." With a somewhat scared look at Espeon, he sat back down. "Where you from?"

"Johto. I'm just here for research on my Pokedex."

"Where are you staying?"

"So far, Pokecenter rooms." I sighed, plopping onto the bed. "I'm headed to Snowpoint. What about you?"

"Snowpoint? Me too! Though of course, I'll get there first. And then, after that, I'll go to the Pokemon League! And win, of course! And become the Champion!" His golden eyes sparkled with determination.

"Why don't we go together?" I don't know why I said it. I just did. Why?

"No way! You'd just slow me down!"

"I would not! I'm probably just as fast as you, maybe faster. And you have tent do you? I asked, proud of my loophole that stumped the over-excited boy.

"Well... No, but... I thought I'd get from Eterna to Snowpoint in one day..." He admitted.

"So you want to come with me?"

"Excuse me, but it's you coming with me."

"Whatever. Let's leave in the morning."

"But... are you feeling better? And hoooold up, I don't even know anything about you!"

"We can lean about eachother on the way."

"What's your name, at least."

"Luna."

"I'm Barry."

"I know that, you lanky idiot."

Barry flushed.

"Lanky? What's the big idea? I am not lanky! What does that even mean?" His face reddened.

"It means long-legged or tall and uncoordinated."

"I am NOT uncoordinate-" Before he could flail his arms any more, he crashed to the ground.

"I can see that." I laughed. He shot back up like a rocket.

"Char." Charizard nudged at me, holding the empty Pokefood packet.

"You guys ate a whole packet?"

"Lux. Luxio!" Luxio grumbled.

"Vee! Eevee!"

"Charizard ate it all, did he?"

"Vee."

"I'm gonna need to go shopping."

"Barry." I knocked hardly on the door. "Barry!" I knocked harder, the shopping bags slipping from my arms. "Barry!" No answer.

"BA- oh, about time." Barry swung open the door, and I pushed past him and dropped the shopping onto my bed. I turned around again, stretching. Barry stood facing the mirror on the back of the door, fixing the tie on his suit.

"Looking sharp." I complimented. He turned around again to face me. "Really," I went on. "...you look good."

The boy blushed a little, looking rather worried. "Uh, thanks." He mumbled, fiddling with his tie more. It looked more like a rope tied under his collar than a tie.

"Ugh, let me help you." I walked over and untied the tie, wrapping it back around his neck properly and making it look neater. I smiled at my work and looked up, realizing how close our faces were. Thankful he wasn't looking at me, I stepped back quickly and ruffled his blonde hair.

"Hey! That took me ages!" He growled.

"You got a date?" I asked, ignoring him.

"Well, not exactly..." He blushed.

"Ooh. Were you off to then?"

"Meeting Paul." He replied, turning back to the mirror.

"Ooooh. I always knew you were a little weird, but I never woulda' suspected that you were-"

"It's not like that!" He flushed, whipping around, his face red.

"That's what they all say..." I mocked.

"It's not! Paul's my idol. I'm gonna be like him one day, maybe even stronger!" His eyes started to glisten again, as he stared off into nothing.

"Okay, okay. Where are you going?"

"Uh, I don't know. He just nodded when I said we should meet in a few days, so I'm going to go look for him!" He said excitedly.

I sighed. "Barry... Paul could be anywhere. Maybe even at home." I didn't want to burst his bubble, but he couldn't just go out in a suit and look for someone he probably wouldn't find. "Come on, just get changed and we can do something here. We'll go downstairs, get some food and come back up to play a card game or something."

"No." He pulled away. "I have to see Paul!"

"You're scared." You have to battle fire with fire. "You're scared you'll lose in a game to me."

"Me? Lose? You wish! I would never lose to a loser like you! I will always win! Challenge accepted!" With that, he dashed to the bathroom to get changed.

"I win! I win! I win I win I win!"

After 10 games of Go fish, 8 games of S.P.I.T and 3 games of Poker, Barry finally won something.

Briiiing. Briiiing. Briiiing.

Leaving Barry to celebrate, I went to answer my Poketch, lying on my bed.

"Hello?"

Briiiing. Briiiing. Briiiing.

"Oh. Barry, it's your's."

"I won, I won, I- oh, okay. Hello? Yeah. Huh? When? I'm in Hearthome with Luna- Huh? A girl. Huh? No! No- it's not like that! Shut up! ...When? Okay. Bring...? Oh... okay. I'll ask her. Okay. See you there. Bye, Ash!"

"Ash?"

"My friend. He's having a party in a few days, want to come?"

"Sure." I shrugged. I guess it'd be fun. What's the worse that could happen?

A/N: Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooh! ;) Reviews! I take ALL criticisms and plot ideas/ character ideas to heart :D

NEXT CHAPTER: THE PARTY - How will the party go? Did someone say TRUTH OR DAAAAARE?