"Drake left Tabby's house feeling lighthearted and excited for the next day. He couldn't wait to see who he was up against in his next battle. About half way to his street, Drake couldn't help having a weird feeling like he was being followed. He decided to figure out if he really was and acting completely cool and calm, he walked past his street. He took the next left which he knew would lead to a dead end. At the end of the street he whipped around, looking for whoever was there.

"I know you're there. You can come out of hiding, you're not very good at this stalking thing by the way.'' Drake called out into the dark, nothing moved at first. Drake turned back around and saw two silhouettes in the distance he couldn't make out who they were though, Totodile clinched up close to Drake.

"You ready buddy?" Drake said under his breathe while the two figures released their Pokemon. It was too dark to know which Pokemon his opponents sent out so Drake didn't order an attack just yet. Out of the darkness came a razor leaf attack.

"Toto block it with a water gun quick!" Drake shouted and Toto obeyed firing a water gun and deflecting the leaves away from them, suddenly the area filled with smoke. Drake and Toto could only see a few feet around them.

"Toto they cut our vision so we are going to have to go defensive got it? Stay alert." Drake commanded as his and his partner surveyed the area around them.

"TOTO...DILE!" The pokemon responded. Drake felt uneasy; he and Toto hadn't worked much on defensive tactics. A Pokemon jumped from the smoke and Toto side stepped the attacker, but quickly, behind it was another Pokemon. This was also avoided, though. Drake caught a glimpse of this one, it was a fire type from what he could tell. Great so a grass and fire type, got it. Drake thought to himself.

The smoke thickened, in the background somewhere Drake heard a female's voice calling a razor leaf attack.

"Toto back-right, another water gun!'', another razor leaf was easily deflected. A figure jumped out of the smoke, with a quick attack this time, slamming into Toto's back. Drake smiled, he recognized this tactic.

"Do you two want to continue this? Or shall I put both of you down again?" Drake called into the smoke.

"Come now Drake we got you this time." a male's voice answered back.

Drake kneeled down next to his Pokemon. "We prepared for this, remember?" Drake and Toto smiled at each other before they both jumped up with Toto on Drakes shoulders facing the opposite direction. It seemed like an eternity before the next Pokemon attacked. This time Toto jumped up and slammed a Chickorita into the ground and fired a water gun in the opposite direction, hitting a Cyndaquil in the chest. The smoke started to lighten up and Drake came face to face with two trainers. The male trainer was directly in front of Drake and had blonde hair cut in an army style. He was also wearing a similar jacket to Drake except for the sleeves weren't ripped off. Next to him was the female trainer, she had blonde curly hair that dropped down to her shoulders. She also wore the same white hoodie Drake had.

"Nox!" Drake smiled as he reached one hand out, shaking the male trainer's hand, pulling him in and bumping his shoulder into him. "Nikki!" Drake said as he hugged the female trainer tightly.

Nox went over and picked up his Cyndaquil. "Really Drake?" Nox chuckled.

"Come on, it was just a love tap." Drake walked over and patted Cyndaquil on the head. "Besides she's tough, she can take it." Cyndaquil seemed to enjoy this compliment.

"So, what happened to you two after trainer school?" Drake asked as all three trainers sat down at a nearby table.

"Well after me and Nox failed the written test for the tournament, we decided to go to Violet and train at Sprout tower." Drake noticed Nikki was dying to add onto her story, so Drake prompted. "Annnnd?"

Nikki smiled and Nox seemed to be getting annoyed. "And I beat the head sage master and became an honorary Sage at sprout tower!" Nikki proudly showed off a necklace indicating that was her reward. "And my little bubba here got steam rolled." Nikki teased Nox.

"Ok first off, you're only two minutes older! Secondly, I could have beat the old man but Cyndaquil was tired from all of our hardcore training!"

"Yea 'cus sleeping until noon every day and shooting a few ember attacks at rocks is hardcore training.'' Drake honestly didn't want to listen to the siblings bickering right now.

"Sage, huh? That gives you a lot of power over here, impressive."

"Yes sir, so when are you going to take Whitney gym?" Drake couldn't help but smile. The last few months Drake has been gaining a lot of momentum to become Goldenrod's gym leader and it was widely believed that the showdown between Whitney and Drake was just a few weeks away.

"Well, I'm thinking maybe after I win the tournament. Ya know, focus on one thing at a time."

Nox and Nicki exchanged looks.

"Drake, you're a fantastic trainer, but do you think you can honestly win?'' Nox questioned

"Yea, Drake, there are a lot stronger trainers than usual this year." Drake was annoyed with his friends' lack of support. How could they say this, he was leagues better than everyone else.

"Who's going to beat me? Ava?" Drake was more sarcastic on this response than anything.

"Well, what's your plan to stop her?

"I'll put it simple, her first Pokemon was part fire, easy for Toto. Next, was that Beldum, where we have the speed advantage."

"And her third Pokemon?" Nicki pointed out

"We'll, I'm sure it's a psychic so I'll just use Toto's bite attack."

"I highly doubt the daughter of Sabrina will be a light weight Drake. I mean, did you watch how easily she wrecked in her first match?"

"Whatever guys, think what you want."

Drake, Nicki, and Nox all continued to talk for a few hours; everything from the day they all went to Professor Elm's lab to get their Pokemon to attending school together, the adventures the twins went on, even the future of what it will be like when they are all famous gym leaders.

As the friends conversed, Drake noted there were three guys watching them off in the distance wearing all black. He convinced his friends to go home and approached the middle of the grassy field they were at.

"I don't know how many of you are out there, but you didn't bring enough." Two of the men approached him

"Powerful Totodile kid." one of the men grinned

'"Yea, it'd be perfect for our saviors' team."

Uhhh…no." was all Drake replied with.

"Shame, guess we will just liberate him from you."

"Zubat"

"Grimmer"

Two Pokemon appeared.

"Children, please,'' Drake laughed.

"Grimmer body slam," the purple blob jumped into the air and was just inches from hitting Toto.

"Zubat, leech life quick.''

"Toto, watch it, from above!" Toto rolled out of the way from both attacks. "Follow up with water gun, now!" A powerful blast of water fired from Totodile's mouth, hitting the Zubat and slamming him into a nearby tree. Grimmer hit Toto in the back with a sludge bomb.

"Get up Toto, I need you buddy." Toto struggled to get up. "Good job, now use your bite attack!"

Toto rushed the grimmer but was intercepted by Zubat's wing attack. Toto hit the ground again, quickly followed by another body slam from the Grimmer.

Toto was too tired after their first round, the Alakazam incident, and then the little sparring match between their friends. Maybe if there were only one we would have this, but it's just too much. Drake started looking for a way out while Toto kept doing his best to dodge the oncoming assault. Toto fired another powerful water gun hitting the grimmer and pushing it away.

"Quick, Toto, slash attack on the Zubat!" Toto jumped in the air and used his sharp claws to send the Zubat flying. Toto landed on his feet breathing heavy.

"Great job." Both attacking Pokemon charged Toto again, he was barely able to get out of the way.

No good, Drake thought. Toto stayed on the defensive for another five minutes, dodging attacks and using his water gun attack to keep distance, but Drake could tell Toto was exhausted. His attacks were becoming much less powerful and his movements slower. Totodile continued to fight on though. Drake was proud of the resilience shown by Totodile, just simply refusing to give up. As he fought on, Drake realized he was failing his partner. He had to think of something, find an opening somewhere.

"Zubat, confuse ray." a frustrated trainer called out

There it was. "Toto, dodge it. This is it!" Totodile jumped out of the way in time for the attack to hit a charging grimmer. Perfect. In the confusion, grimmer fired a sludge bomb, blasting the Zubat out of the air and leaving him unconscious.

"End this Totodile, put everything into this water gun." Drake ordered Toto, as he fired the strongest water gun Drake had ever seen from him, blasting Grimmer into his two trainers knocking them out as well.

Before Drake and Toto could celebrate, a man about as old as Drake walked out from behind a tree, giving Drake a sarcastic, slow clap.

"Very good, you managed to beat the weakest members of team rocket and it only took you half of eternity." The man said. Drake stared back at him. The man wore a brown leather jacket and had shaggy hair, much like Drake's, only pitch black with blue and green highlights running through it and his jeans seemed like if he ran to fast they would rip off of him.

"Yea, well, I figured I'd give them some hope before crushing them." Drake retorted. He didn't really want to get in another battle but it didn't appear he had a choice.

"Riolu." The man said as a red stream came from his belt revealing the blue and black Pokemon. Drake marveled at the extremely rare fighting Pokemon. Drake was confident in his and Toto's skill but there was just no way they could come out of this the winners.

"Riolu, bullet punch."

"Toto…" Drake couldn't give the command quick enough before Toto was hit repeatedly, knocking him back.

"Toto, water gun."

"Sky, uppercut." The two trainers gave the command simultaneously, but Riolu was much faster and its fist made contact with Toto's jaw, not only closing its mouth shut but also sending Toto way up into the air, them crashing onto his back.

"Really, I don't know why I thought you'd be worth my time, Drake." The mystery man seemed bored.

Drake ran over to his downed Pokemon.

"You okay, man…?" Drake asked with concern heavy in his voice. Toto forced himself back up and fired a water gun at the Riolu who had turned his back on Drake and Toto. It wasn't a powerful attack, just strong enough to get its opponent's attention.

The mystery man let out a sigh. "Really you're not worth it, but if you insist.'' Toto tightened his stance and so did Riolu. Drakes mind raced to find a way to get the upper hand, to find a way to combat the speed and power of Riolu.

"Toto, water gun quick, at his feet." Toto was fast but as Drake expected, Riolu jumped over it. "Totodile you got 'em, follow up with an ice punch!" as soon as Riolu landed, Toto didn't give time for him to recover and landed a huge ice fist into Riolu, causing him to slide across the ground making a small trench.

"See, you ain't so tough. I was just playing before."

"Well, let's pretend we are big boys now, Drake, give me everything."

"We can go all out now, Toto."

"TOTO...DIIIIIILE."

"FORCE PALM!" The mystery man shouted. Riolu charged and just barely missed, taking a huge ice shot to the gut from Toto. Riolu quickly recovered with a sky uppercut, sending Totodile into the air, but Totodile fired a water gun that hit Riolu directly in the face, burying him into the ground. Riolu came flying up and delivered a devastating kick to Toto. Both Pokemon landed, breathing heavily.

"Great, ain't it? Neither one of us has to give a command, our pokemon know exactly what to do." The mystery man was smiling. "The wildcard is who the better trainer is and we both know that would be me."

"You might win this battle, but you are by far not the better trainer." The response did not come from Drake, but from a trainer who was walking up, /Morgan approached the battle Athena on the right side and Annie on the left

"I watched everything. Kinda a loser for attacking someone after two battles."

Athena jumped up and took her place next to a worn out Toto, but something else happened a small Togepi waddled out in front of both Toto and Athena.

"GA…PIII!" Togepi put its hands together and a beam formed between them, Drake couldn't believe what he was seeing. This little, tiny Pokemon was fixing to use hyper beam. The massive beam fired from Togepi and hit Riolu directly in the chest, throwing him and his trainer into a nearby oak tree.

Drake and Morgan stood in silence for a while, neither one could believe what they just witnessed.

Drake gave Morgan a sideways look, but she was staring in awe at what Togepi just accomplished. Drake walked over to Toto, knelt next to him, and patted him on the head.

"Man, do we have a story to tell, buddy." Drake noticed Togepi collapsing and passing out. Morgan immediately ran to Togepi and picked her up in her arms.

"Togepi, what's wrong?" Morgan's voice was cracking.

Drake put a hand on her shoulder. "It's ok, Hyper beam is an extremely powerful move." Drake paused for a second, "Heck, even Lance's Dragonites get worn out after using a hyper beam." Morgan didn't seem convinced. Drake also noticed that Athena wasn't trying to kill him at the moment. Morgan also seemed to noticed this strange phenomenon.

Drake looked up and all of the trainers and Pokemon had disappeared.

"Come on." Drake said as he helped her up.

"Where are we going?" Morgan questioned as she cradled the tiny Pokemon in her arms.

"My house." Drake saw the look of shock on her face.

"Don't worry, I'm not trying to make a move on you, I have something for Togepi." Drake added as him and Morgan walked in silence a short way back to his house. They approached a massive three story house with a huge marble gate surrounding it. Drake had to grin as he saw Morgan's jaw drop.

As they made their way inside, Drake lead them into a kitchen and he reached into the fridge to pour out a liquid in a tiny cup and handed the glass to Morgan.

"Would you like anything?" Drake asked.

"No," Morgan still seemed worried, "What is it?" she continued.

"Magic," was all Drake said as he sat two small bowls of milk on the ground Annie ran straight to it not hesitating, Athena on the other hand refused to leave Morgan's personal bubble.

"No, really, tell me." Morgan seemed very untrusting of Drake.

"Really, it's magic." Drake replied simply.

"I'm not giving it to her until I know what it is."

"You don't trust me?" Drake smirked as he opened a can of soda.

"I don't know you, I just met you."

"You just met Togepi." Drake pointed towards the little Pokemon.

"How…it's mine..." was all Morgan replied. "Anyways, Pokemon are good, trust worthy creatures." She paused. "Unlike humans." She glared at Drake.

"You know, what exactly is stopping me from tossing this pokeball and capturing Togepi and forcing this magic potion down its throat."Morgan and Athena both tensed up.

"Exactly, so please help me help Togepi."

Morgan poured the liquid into Togepi's mouth who, after five short minutes, started waking up. After ten minutes though, Morgan and her small army left Drake's house.

"Time for bed Toto, we had a long day."