Chapter Five

A new companion

Sam’s Point of View

21^st of Echotrance, 1:00 pm>

I groaned. Brendan Birch followed behind me, Nick and Katrina, complaining about every little thing.

Since we had returned his Treecko, Torchic and Mudkip, aptly named Woody, Blaze and Storm, Brendan had decided to journey with us to “Make sure we stop doing dangerous things that require others to rescue us”. When he said that, he said it in a tone that was almost saying “I rescued your pokemon, so respect me’, when he didn’t.

Three days ago, Katrina, Nick and I had managed to free Brendan and eight others trainers from the clutches of Team Fauna, with the help of a Psychic Girl. But now Brendan was acting like he had done the rescuing.

Brendan also kept hinting that, like his father, he was a genius. He had still yet to prove it though.

He kept saying things about pokemon that even a newborn would know and then say “Bet you didn’t know that, did you?”

“Why is this road so long? They could have cut a simple path through that forest between here and Arw City and we would have been there two days ago. I mean, it’s so stupid. Hey, did you know that in the past, Magikarp were stronger than they were now? Bet you didn’t know that, did you?” Brendan said, looking triumphant. “Anyway, this road is really long, so long that you think they’d have a train going through here. I mean, this road is-!”

Katrina was the first to snap. She whirled around. WHACK!

“Come back here so I can do it again!” She yelled after him. He was running further along the road. He finally stopped next to me, wearing a pained expression on his face.

“That girl is crazy! She slapped me for no reason! Did you know, according to the law, men can abuse females, but females can’t physically abuse men! How unfair is that? I mean-.” He was off and rambling.

I sighed; I recognized this in one of my friends. Get her started and she’d never stop talking.

It took me twenty minutes, but finally I got sick of his constant talking. He hardly ever stopped to breath. He could last up to 4 minutes and 17 seconds before needing a breath. I was timing him on my Poke-Nav. I gritted my teeth. I pointed at his jaw, and then willed it shut. With an audible snap, it shut. I could hear him mumbling as he tried to open his jaw.

He moved his jaw from side to side, but couldn’t open it. Finally he gave up and glared at me.

“Thank you! He’s got more wind in him than Nick does!” Katrina said, grinning. She looked relieved. “My eardrums hurt now because of you.” She told Brendan. In reply, he mumbled and buzzed at her.

“Are you sure? I’ve got lots of wind in me, if you wanna check.” Nick said grinning. He thought everything was funny. So did the Pichu called Sparx that rested on Nick’s shoulder.

“Nick, at least he expels air through his mouth. You just take things waaay too far. He’s got the wind, you’ve got the smell.” Said Katrina. She looked thoroughly disgusted.

I secretly agreed with her. If Nick kept this up, the only pokemon he’d get would be poison types.

“Come on; let’s find a place to have lunch. I’m starting to get hungry.” Sam said. He turned to Brendan. “I’ll let your mouth go, if you stop talking. Deal?”

Brendan nodded. Sam flicked his fingers.

Brendan opened his jaw with a gasp. “Why’d you do that? I wasn’t talking much! I mean, that was so,so. Erm, sorry.” He trailed off as he got a glare from each of the other three.

We walked for a while. While his complaining was annoying, Brendan was right. This was an irritating trail. It went straight for a while, but went into a lake called the Lake of Tears, made apparently when an Emperor of Dictioy died on this route. This lake was apparently made by the tears shed by the pokemon and humans for their Emperor.

The lake was a problem, because you could only surf by getting the Union Badge from Romanc City.

The only other way around it was a path that made the route look like a square angle. It was an easy path, with hardly any wild pokemon. That was why the path was so irritating.

But we were back on the main route now. Just above the Lake of Tears.

“How about over there?” Asked Brendan, pointing. I looked, so did Katrina and Nick. Brendan walked over and sat upon a big patch of plant. “It’s perfect! Shade in a willow tree, water just nearby for drinking and comfortable plants to sit on!”

“The willow is half rotting and about to fall apart.”

“That water is salt water, hence the name Lake of Tears.”

“And that comfortable plant you’re sitting on is poison ivy.” Nick, Katrina and I shot down his ideas as he said them. But they were true!

“What?” Brendan looked down. Now he recognized the plant. He moved faster than a Rapidash on steroids. He went up the path in search of a better place to sit. And a place to scratch himself.

I wondered if he knew that a simple Full Heal would cure it. Probably not, guys like him knew all sorts of useless knowledge, nothing practical.

“Come on, there’s a tree there with big branches. We might see a Pidgeot if we’re lucky!” I said, pointing to a large oak tree. Katrina nodded while Nick look vaguely in the direction I had pointed.

We walked to the bottom of the tree, and Nick froze.

“Climb a tree? Oh no, I’ve had bad experiences with trees. Branches snapping, getting hit in the face with branches, spider pokemon, all sorts of things like that!” Nick said, growing pale.

Katrina and I exchanged amused looks. I had hoisted myself on to a likely looking branch while Kat had settled for a branch below me.

“Come on, be a brave boy and get up before Brendan gets back. If we’re lucky, there might be acorns in here to throw at him!” Kat coaxed her voice soothing. I took a quick look around the branches which were, unfortunately, free of acorns. Oh well, I’d get Artemis to shoot him into the lake if he came back.

That reminded me. “Come on out Artemis! You too Zeus!” I called throwing their pokeballs into the air. They came out, and went different ways. Zeus strayed upwards, his idea of food being absorbing evaporated water and electricity from the air.

Artemis went straight for the lake, diving in so he could eat the numerous plants on the bottom.

With those two taken care of, I settled back into a groove of the tree, thinking and gnawing on an apple I had pulled from my backpack.

Silently, I listened to Kat’s efforts to get Nick up the tree, and then drifted off. The egg in my bag was due to hatch any day now. The temperature meant it would be a healthy Polienix, or a very unhealthy Magnetix. I wanted a Polienix, but a Magnetix would be cool too. Magnetix were more of a power-pokemon while Polienix were more defense-based.

The egg wobbled every so often. It pressed against my back when I walked, so it was easy to tell.

My thoughts started to drift to Katrina, Nick, Brendan and me. Four people in one team did seem a bit much, but at least it was a good number. When we each have got a full team, we’d have twenty-four pokemon, a formidable number. And if one of us were immobilized somehow, we’d still have eighteen.

I wasn’t entirely sure that Kat had serious intentions of becoming a trainer. I think she was aiming at being on of the seventeen pokemon type masters. Her uncle, Lance, was the Dragon Master; Misty Ketchum in Pallet Town was Water Master. It was a big list really, each person excelled in each of the types named after them.

Misty Ketchum, who was better known as Misty Waterflower, married Ash Ketchum nearly a decade ago. Ash Ketchum had proposed to her after he had won the title of ‘International Champion” for the first time. The outcome was shown on TV for years afterwards, mainly in comedy shows. She had slapped him, and then stormed off from the stadium. After he had kept the title for a year, and then won the right to keep it for another year, he proposed again. This time she accepted. Since, they had two children, twins, who both promised to be as accomplished as their father.

Anyway, Nick was probably dead set on becoming a Champion. Maybe of Johto, or Kanto.

Now Brendan, a researcher, or maybe he wanted to be a Type Master as well. I bet his father gave him each of the three main elements so that he could test them out.

As for me, I didn’t know what to do. If I chose one thing, I wanted to be the very best in that area.

Breeding took waaaay too long, I wasn’t patient.

Researching was interesting, but it took a lot of money and resources. Not to mention all those pokemon that would be shipped to me.

Maybe become one of the Type Masters? But that would get boring, and not very smart, imagine having only water types and meeting a lightning trainer!

A Pokemon Trader, traveling the world, trading with pokemon and hoping I was going to wind up with a strong one? Nah, too risky.

Aim to be a Gym Leader? That required mastery of one type of pokemon. And you had to be vouched for by people, and then set up a gym, and so on.

An Elite Four member? Stuck to one league until I was eased off of it? Knowing I’ve got a stronger Elite than me staying in the same place too?

A Champion? Being pretty much in charge of one country would bore me. I liked to move. And I wouldn’t battle many people.

The International Champion? Almost running the whole world, everyone obeying your every word for fear of being torched by your almost godly pokemon? Sounds good.

But to be an International Champion, you need every badge from the twelve regions, every badge from the five smaller leagues, like the Orange Islands, the Elite badges from every region, and then you need twelve Trainer Cards from each of the twelve regions, saying you’d fully defeated that region. And the fastest anyone had done that was in fifteen years. Well, I’m gonna aim to beat that record, I’m gonna be the next International Champion!

“Exactly! International League Champion, here I come!’ I said, sitting up fast. Too fast, I slipped off the tree branch to land on my back. I heard a sniffing in my ear, so I looked, and got a faceful of tongue. I sat up again and wiped saliva from my eyes. A Growlithe sat there, wagging his, or her, tail. It barked at me, and then pranced in a circle around the tree.

I shook my head and rubbed my neck. I must’ve fallen harder than I thought. Growlithe were rare everywhere, but in Dictioy they were practically unheard of. Unless Growlithe were immigrating to Dictioy, which I doubt since when it gets cold, it gets very cold here. Only the really fluffy pokemon that could trap heat onto their bodies somehow mainly lived here. Ice pokemon loved it here though.

I didn’t I hate being really hot or really cold. Either way, they really irritated me.

“Um, guys, why is there a Growlithe here?” I asked stupidly, somehow thinking at the same time, ‘They wouldn’t know’.

Katrina peered down from her branch. She had finally persuaded Nick up the tree. He now sat petrified on the thickest branch there was, which had been her old one, so she had migrated up.

“Don’t you know? There’s a caravan that comes through here every few years or so. They travel around Kanto, Johto, Dictioy, Janera and some of the other regions selling moves and Pokemon not native to that region. I’m guessing that Growlithe ran away from the group. You can see their caravan from here.” She told me, pointing towards the place Brendan had deemed ‘perfect’.

I looked too and was surprised to see an old caravan that looked like something from a Gypsy movie. I was also surprised to see the caravan was being pulled by things that looked like Ponytas, but instead of red flames, they had a deep green colour. And every step they took, a flower or plant shot up in the place they had stood. Nearby greenery also leaned towards them, making them seem like green snakes instead of vines.

I blinked. What were they? I pulled out my pokedex and pointed it at the horses.

“Botanasprint, the Floral Horse Pokemon!” My pokedex said, in a boring monotone that seemed the trademark for every pokedex.

I looked at the horses again, and then grabbed the collar of the Growlithe that was still scampering around, waiting for me to play with it. I bent over, leading it towards the main group of caravans where a happy looking man was driving the Botanasprints. He made them stop slowly as they came towards us.

“Ah! You found the little scamp did you? He continues to run from us, and he continues to come back.” The man said in a loud voice. He had black hair and a large nose. His eyes were a hazel brown and his frame was of a medium size man, not too big, nor small. His voice was slightly husky, as if he kept raising it all the time.

“Yeah. He found me, actually. I fell of a tree and he licked my face. And then he wanted me to play with him! Anyway, here you go!” I said, releasing the Growlithe’s collar from my grip. He bound forward and leapt up to sit beside the man. It gave me a dog-like grin, proud that it was at a higher elevation than me.

“You fell out of a tree? Why’d you do that? Wait; don’t tell me, you were looking for bug pokemon? A Weedle, a Ledyba, a Wurmple, a Cocurm? Whatever bug type it is, we’ve got it here. Or we should.” Said the man, waving his hand to include all the other caravans. “My name is Aiden, by the way.”

“Er, hi. I’m Sam Sapphire.” I said, blinking. I wondered silently if he had any Mareep or Squirtle. I loved Ampharos and Blastoise. I looked curiously at some of the cabins. None of the looked big enough to hold more than seven medium sized pokemon. None of them were big enough for Blastoise or Snorlax.

“Oh cool! I’ve wanted to see this for years!” Brendan’s voice came from behind me. Slowly, I shut my eyes and shook my head. I felt a headache coming on. “Where are the fire pokemon? Do you have any?”

Aiden looked thoroughly taken aback by this teenager having such an interest with fire-types.

“Well, we have almost any fire types you can want. Apart from legendaries. We have seen some of them though, but we left them alone. Here, I’ll lead you to the Fire pokemon. Follow me, please.” Brendan half ran, half jogged towards Aiden, enthusiasm shining in his face. I trailed after them. This might be interesting.

The Fire types were actually all on a shelf in the back of the biggest caravan. Aiden marched up to a shelf in the far right corner of the caravan and activated a switch, which made some glass slide back, revealing hundreds of pokeballs. My eyes widened, while Brendan’s practically popped out of his head. “Wow, got any Cyndaquils? Or Slugmas?” Brendan asked, hopping up and down.

If he becomes a Type Trainer, he’ll be a fire trainer, definitely. I thought, watching Brendan with amusement. Kat might act the same if there was a Dragon shelf.

“Um, do you have a database on these pokemon? To show which ones you have?” I asked. Silently, Aiden pointed to a small PC. I walked over to it and moved the mouse. The screen popped up with a list of pokemon, all in numerical order. I flicked down the list. They had 6 Squirtles and 8 Mareep. I looked further down the list, stopping occasionally. I stopped at Mudkip, which there was only two of. I continued down. I stopped in surprise at the name, Latias. I quickly asked Aiden about that.

“Well, Latios and Latias can breed. So, we caught one. We were traveling on the sea and it was going in the opposite direction. It’s our most expensive catch. We won’t part with it for at least 100 million.” Aiden explained, looking grim. “Anyway, did you see any pokemon you like?”

“Plenty.” I said. “But I don’t think I can afford them.”

No joke. A Squirtle alone was 10 thousand. Mareep were cheaper, at only 7 hundred. Caterpie were only 100 dollars! I could only afford something in the 500’s range.

“No problem! We’ve got a special program! If you swipe your Trainer Card in the slot here, it attaches a small machine to your Card and every time you win a battle, it pays off some of what you owe. Of course, you don’t get your pokemon ‘till you pay it off. Once you’ve paid it off, the PC senses it and transfers the pokemon to your account. And once you’ve gotten your Pokemon out, the machine falls off!” Aiden explained enthusiasm high in his voice.

By now Nick and Kat had come to explore. Katrina had found the Dragon shelf and kept jumping to see the seventh shelf. As there were ten shelves dedicated to dragon types, I wouldn’t mind seeing how she saw the top three.

Nick was poking about in the water shelf. After that, he moved to the flying shelf.

“Um, yeah, that sounds good. I might try that. I said to Aiden, hoping it wouldn’t take too much at once. I did need money to buy food once we got to Arw. We had plenty of food, but I didn’t want to go low on the food. Hunger and me didn’t mix, and when we did, I usually won.

“Excellent! What pokemon would you like?” Aiden said, sweeping his hand once more, this time to include all the pokeballs. There were so many different types, so little time. I gazed thoughtfully down the list, until I came upon a pokemon that would take too long to pay off and wouldn’t take too much out of my money right now. Altogether I had $1500 to spend, but that wasn’t much. If I spent $400, I’d be left with $1100, enough for food.

“I’d like a Mareep. If that’s ok.” I added quickly. He might need the Mareep for shearing, to sell to make more money. Some people were like that, used pokemon, saying they would sell them, but ended up not because their wool or berries or whatever got them a lot of money.

“Yeah, should be. Just scan your card through. How much d’you wanna pay now?” Aiden asked, taking over the computer. He opened up a different program. He waited while I filled in the amount, and then turned on the machine with the slot. “Ok kid, swipe it through here.”

I did so, and looked as the little machine came out with the card. It was almost as flat as the card, and it stuck out a bit from it at the bottom and sides. It stayed, motionless and noiseless.

“Ok then, it’ll stay on until you get a Pokecentre or Pokemart to remove it. So, how much do you want to go to payment every time you win a battle?” Aiden asked, pointing to another place on the PC.

“Erm, fifty dollars.” I said, saying any random amount that came into my head. My head was spinning; I’d be getting a Mareep soon. Maybe it’s just me, but I do seem to be getting a lot of pokemon. The next time I see a rare pokemon, I’d be pointing it out to one of the other three.

“Ok, you’re done. Anything else?” Aiden asked, a grin pinned on his face. One of those grins that insurance salesmen have on their face when their knocking on doors and you answer it. Those smiles would hurt after a while.

“Do you have any translators? I had one, but it was stolen from me. And I’m getting sick of my Mudkip snickering at me every so often.” I said. It was true, when Kat, Nick and I had been captured by the infamous Team Fauna, they had taken my translator from my ear. All I had now was a purple stud that Katrina had lent me to keep the ear-ring hole open. I had a choice between purple and pink, so I chose the purple. I kept it hidden with my hair anyway.

“Yes, we do. At a thousand per one, they’re a bargain! And I was wondering why you were wearing a purple stud, but, it wasn’t my place to ask.” Aiden said, slinging a hand around my back and leading me to a new caravan. Potions, pokeballs and other stuff were piled up. But the translators were kept under the counter. Along with other, more costly stuff.

“Here we go!” Announced Aiden, bringing out ear translators. There were fire red, sky blue, leaf green, lavender purple, sunny yellow, dragon orange, black and white. Not much range, compared to the Pokemart at Comed.

I pointed to the sky-blue one and got out my Trainer Card. I swiped it through the cash register, and then jumped as it banged open.

“Sorry, it does that sometimes.” Aiden shot me an apologetic grin. “That’s it, anything else?”

I shook my head and waited for him as he locked the Pokemart there. Together, we walked back to the Pokeball caravan. Katrina waited outside it, all the backpacks beside her. She had obviously dragged them here.

“Where’ve you been? I’ve been waiting for ages! Nick’s still looking through the wares.” Katrina said to me, jerking her thumb towards the door. “I’ve already gotten my prize pokemon.”

I looked at her warily. I hoped she hadn’t found a Totodile or something equally gentle.

“So, what did you get?” I asked her as Aiden bustled past me so that he could serve Nick and Brendan. In response, she unhooked an orange pokeball from her belt and enlarged it. Silently, she threw it, a goofy smile coated her face.

I stood back, ready to run if it WAS a Totodile. The red light blinded, so I covered my eyes.

But my ears told me what it was.

“Karp? Magik-karp karp,magi, magi-mag, MAGIKARP!” I covered my eyes again. I suddenly wanted to be mauled by that Totodile I had feared. And then I wondered why my translator wasn’t working. Then I remembered, it was in my pocket. I grabbed it and handed Katrina her purple one.

“Thanks for that, but I’ve got another translator.” I said, putting it on. Instantly it began working, I could tell because Magikarp began talking.

“Food? Food-food? Foodfoodfoodfood! FOOD!” Magikarp said, I grimaced.

“You know, you could have asked Nick to call his mother and ask for a replacement. So, what is Magikarp saying?” Katrina asked, looking at me.

A fat lot of good that does me now, doesn’t it? I asked myself. If she had told me that before, I’d have been able to save myself a thousand dollars!

“Um, let me see. He’s saying: ‘Food, food, food again, and, hmm, food!’ I think he’s hungry.” I said, stating the obvious to her. She frowned at me, and then turned to frown at the Magikarp.

She dug in her pocket for some Poke-pellets that she stowed there. She gave them to Magikarp, who continued to flop on the ground.

“Ok, I think I’ll call him, Rage. There! It’ll suit him when he evolves.” Katrina muttered, chewing on one of her fingers as she thought. I rolled my eyes, a Magikarp named Rage? That’s almost like finding a timid Mewtwo.

She saw the eye-roll. “Shut up you. It’s good. I’d be hard to beat with a Gyarados, won’t I? And I’ll be able to train him up at Arw Gym.”

“How? By Splashing at them?” I asked, a smug look on my face. “Is Nick buying the whole store in there?”

Kat turned to the door, looking puzzled.

“Well, he’s got enough money for it. He must be getting a really good pokemon or something.” She said, frowning. I had to agree with her there, Nick had plenty of money, courtesy of his mother.

Suddenly Brendan appeared, looking pleased with himself.

“I just got the best deal! A two for one deal. Buy two pokemon, get one free!” Brendan said, looking triumphant. He threw three pokeballs towards us; he must have moved his team around, using the computer. With flashes of light, a Slugma, a Vulpix and a Numel appeared.

“Meet Flare, Vixen and Burn!”

I raised an eyebrow and glanced at Katrina, she looked at me with a look of disbelief on her face.

Suddenly, I shrugged. “Oh well, it’s better than a Magikarp.” I said pointedly.

Katrina glared daggers at me, and returned Rage quickly.

“Oh yeah? What did you get then, Mister International Champion?” She asked, irritation radiating from her face. She drew herself up to her full height, and tried glaring down her nose, up at me, if that makes sense. Her full height wasn’t much.

I raised my eyebrow again. “That will work much better when you get more height and more nose.” I told her, flicking her small, button of a nose.

She deflated and covered her nose.

“Shut up.” She muttered from beneath her palm. She shuffled off, her hand still covering her face.

Brendan looked at her with a quizzical look on his face. He opened his mouth to talk, but shut up as he saw the way I narrowed my eyes at him. He shuffled off, much the same way as Kat did.

About time, I thought nothing could stop him talking! I thought, congratulating myself. I started walking towards our campsite, when a hand clamped down on my shoulder.

“Why don’t you stay for dinner? My family loves to hear stories of Pokemon Trainers.” Aiden’s voice boomed into my ears, a sound that I tried hard not to block. Instead, I winced.

“Ok, that’d be good.” I said, resisting the urge to cover my ears. It was a hard thing to do, when you had something making enough noise to wake a Jirachi. Or a particularly deaf Snorlax.

“Great! I’m assuming you four are some of the trainers that won the Pokemon competition in the paper?” Aiden asked, lifting his hand from my shoulder. He wandered towards yet another caravan and sat down on a seat that someone had unloaded.

I followed him, getting slightly irritated. “No, only three of us. The guy that bought the three fire-types is Brendan Birch.” I pointed towards him, his silver hair sticking out clearly in this environment.

“Really? What do you know? Say, do you want to battle my son? He wants to be a Trainer, but his mother won’t let him. He battles whenever he can though.” Aiden said. I was caught off-guard. I hadn’t really expected to battle. Nick had challenged an trainers we had met, so I had only battle Hope so far.

“Ok! Now you’re talking!’ I said, punching the air with my fist. I had been itching to fight since yesterday. I quickly sent out a mind link to the lake, searching for Artemis. There were a lot of Goldeen, Seaking and Magikarp, but I quickly found Artemis, eating the weeds at the bottom of the lake.

Artemis, get ready to battle! I declared, sending a feeling of excitement down the link with the message.

Why? Is Nick getting irritated with you again? He asked, sounding curious. When Nick’s optimistic nature had totally enraged me, I had made a few sarcastic comments directed at him and his Chicken. I would still have a black eye, except it turned out that Nick had a Healtia on his team. According to him, his mother wouldn’t let him go unless he had some form of quick healing.

NO! I’ve been challenged. You going to battle or not? Otherwise it will be a one-on-one battle. I’ve only got Zeus right now! I said, knowing that, while powerful, I didn’t really want to take my chances completely on Zeus. I trusted him, but still.

Artemis sighed. Fine, but I’d better get a Rare Candy afterwards. I had been training Zeus and Artemis ever since we had escaped from Team Fauna’s hideout. Every time they mastered a new move or successfully completed a hard one, or improved on their old ones, I awarded them with a Rare Candy from the bottle I had bought at Comed. Artemis in particular had taken a liking for them.

I sighed inwardly. Fine, just hurry up and get here. I’m about to start! I was, Aiden suddenly came from around a corner of a caravan, leading a boy who looked like he was fifteen.

“Here we go, I’ll referee.” Aiden announced. I walked away a little from Aiden’s son, far enough for our pokemon to have enough room to fight.

I met Aiden’s son’s eyes, a silent challenge passed between us. He raised an eyebrow, I raised one as well. He suddenly snatched a pokeball from his belt and threw it up in the air, as it came down he slapped it towards me. With a flash of light, a Dredo appeared. A sweat came to my face, Dredo were dark types that had the ability to make you relive your worst memories, literally! They somehow warped the fabric of time and sent you to the past, a few seconds or minutes before your memory started. Because of this, Dredo were also a Time type.

“Um.” I muttered, before I snatched Zeus’s Pokeball from its magnetic hold on my belt. I threw his pokeball in the air, caught it, spun once and threw it. “Ok Zeus, let’s use some of those moves we made, ok?”

While most Trainers couldn’t be bothered with the effort of making new moves, I liked to do it. It gave you the element of surprise in battle. Not to mention, you might even have it made into an official move!

“Ok, it’s a Nymbis versus a Dredo in this battle.” Aiden announced, telling the information to a few women and children who had come to watch. “And it’s a newcomer, Sam against my son, Issac!”

He pointed to both of us as he said our names. I felt myself go slightly red, but focused my attention on Zeus.

“Ok Zeus, use Thunderbolt!” I called to him. A large grin spread onto Zeus’s face. He started sparking, his normally white body turning a sinister black. A few, white hot began falling from his body to die on the ground. Suddenly, a large, white thunderbolt appeared in the air between Zeus and Dredo. A gigantic booming noise filled the air, making everyone drop what they were holding to cover their ears.

Once I had unblocked my ears, I spared a glance at Dredo. It looked badly shaken, but apart from that, unharmed. I frowned. Issac started laughing. I glared at him. “What’s so funny?”

“Oh, nothing. Apart from the fact that Dredo’s ability, Element Block, stops everything apart from physical attacks hitting him.” Issac announced, smirking at me. “And since a Nymbis is nothing but a cloud, it will be hard to strike a physical attack, won’t it?”

I scowled at him. It was true; Zeus would just go through Dredo unless he was touching him. Which meant….

“Zeus! Use Lightning Absorber!” I called. Issac looked at me, a confused look on his face.

Zeus understood though. He flew high out of Dredo’s reach, into a cloud. Dark clouds, heavy with lightning bolts appeared from nowhere. They hovered, just above Zeus. Then they began sending down lightning strikes, each one hitting Zeus directly. Issac was looking more and more confused. Dredo had the same expression as its master. The attack abruptly came to an end, when the thunderheads disappeared without a trace.

“What was the use of that? You just weakened your Pokemon! And if it has some special effect, it won’t harm Dredo!” Issac yelled at me from across the field. I gave him a superior grin, one that was guaranteed to irritate the hell out of my opponent.

“Zeus, swoop down and hover ON Dredo!” I yelled. Zeus gave me a look that plainly said “What drugs are you on?” But he did it anyway.

Issac, on the other hand, was beginning to suspect something.

“What are you doing? You CAN’T hurt Dredo! How many times do I have to tell you?” He shouted. “Dredo, use Borrowed Time!”

I gasped, Borrowed Time! It had been the downfall of many people. It was a time based move, in it; the user stole time from the opponent. It stopped the opponent in their tracks for a while. But it was usually long enough.

“Ok Dredo! Use Dark Scythes!” Issac yelled. I shook my head. I was about to make my downfall, my advantage! Dredo jumped away from Zeus, and then jumped back, darkness forming into long swords at its sides. It passed through Zeus and landed on its feet. It turned, a sneer on its face, but jumped in shock. Nothing had happened! Issac had been right; Zeus was a cloud type, which meant he couldn’t be hit by physical moves. Dredo and Nymbis were basically opposites!

“Ok Zeus, envelope Dredo again!” I yelled, Zeus was moving again, with a small lightning flash, he completely covered Dredo, obscuring our view of him. “Now, THUNDERBOLT!!!”

The snapping boom filled the air again. When we look up, Dredo was on the ground, unconscious.

“What? How?! YOU CHEATED! YOU CAN’T HURT DREDO UNLES YOU WERE USING A PHYSICAL ATTACK!” Issac yelled with rage. He started stomping over my way. I tensed, ready to use the half remembered hold Katrina had taught me after we escaped Team Fauna’s hideout.

“Issac, he won that round fair and square.” Aiden’s voice stopped Issac in his tracks. He spun to face his father.

“But he didn’t use a Physical Attack! So how did he win? He must have chea-“

Aiden look down at his son. “Physical moves require one thing, don’t they? Physical contact, and his Nymbis did just that. It established total contact on Dredo. Now, move back to your place before I disqualify you.” Aiden commanded, pointing to where Issac had stood previously.

Issac moved back sulkily, glaring daggers at Zeus. “Fine, you’ll wish you hadn’t made me do this!” He announced, a malicious smile spreading over his face. He threw a pure white Pokeball- a Premier Ball, towards Zeus. With a flash of white light, a large, white and black Pokemon burst from it. I blinked; this wasn’t a Pokemon I could recognize. I brought out my blue Pokedex, hardly used, and pointed it at the Pokemon.

“Absol, the Disaster Pokemon. A pokemon nearly hunted to extinction because people used to think it brought on natural disasters; it has been found out that it appears just BEFORE natural disasters to warn humans. Its main attacks are Bite and Razor Wind.” My Pokedex, named Tetra for some reason, told me. Its voice was female.

“Oh, ok then.” I muttered and put Tetra away. I thought quickly, sizing up the Absol against Zeus.

But Issac moved too quickly for me to think much.

“Absol, use Quad-Horn!”

“Zeus, move out of the way!” The words were out my mouth before I even thought of them. I stopped, surprised for a moment, and then yelled out again. “Use Thunderbolt!”

Zeus tried; a few bolts flickered over his cloudy skin, a wiry thin bolt jumped from Zeus towards the Absol. When it hit the Absol, it vanished. All that remained of the lightning was a slightly shimmering of it in the Absol’s fur.

I stared, and then turned my head as I saw a flash of blue coming from the direction of the Lake of Tears. I held out Zeus’s sapphire Pokeball.

“Zeus, great job! Return!”

Issac looked stunned, but replaced that look with a smirk. “Out of Pokemon, huh? Well, I win!”

He took out a Trainer Card and watched it expectantly.

“I don’t think so. Artemis, Water Gun!” I called out grinning as Issac’s smirk reversed to his stunned look. A torrent of water came from the Absol’s left, knocking it into a nearby tree. It got up, fury in its eyes as it glared at Artemis, who had jumped in front of me.

“It’s a Mudkip, Artemis versus an Absol. Let the battle commence!” Aiden announced. By this time, a lot of people had clustered up at Issac’s end, while Brendan, Kat, Nick and a couple of others were at mine.

“Ok, Artemis, using Flood Roll!” Artemis tucked himself up into a ball, the orange frill at the top of his head sticking out. Water came out from the small circle where his body could touch, somehow flooding upwards until he was covered in water. Artemis then started rolling around Absol, trying to make it dizzy. When he had gotten it slightly dizzy, Artemis stopped, so quickly that the water, and the other lot of stuff he had picked up when he was rolling, flew off, right at the Absol, who was swaying slightly, before jumping out of the way. I winced, Flood Roll was good at confusing the enemy and making it dizzy, but its success depended on how dizzy the opponent was. And the bad thing was, it made the user dizzy.

“Absol, Razor Wind. Quickly, while his Mudkip is stunned!” Issac yelled. Absol stopped; it had been heading for Artemis. It stopped and a sudden, cold, biting wind sprang up. It concentrated towards Absol, and soon a visible whirlwind could be seen around it.

“Artemis, Water Gun before it uses that attack!” I shouted at Artemis, who was staggering around. He tried focusing on Absol and shot another Water Gun and Absol. It missed Absol, but managed to hit Issac. I burst out laughing as he got up, dripping considerably. He gritted his teeth and marched towards Artemis. I strode forward, covering the distance between us considerably. I stopped in front of Artemis and crossed my arms. “Touch him and you’ll find yourself in the Lake of Tears.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“Wanna try me?’

“Bring it on, nerd!”

“I’m warning you for the second time now! Once more-“

“And you’ll what? Bounce sunlight into my eyes with your glasses?”

“THAT’S IT!”

Now he had me angry. I picked him up mentally, and directed him towards the Lake. A hand on my shoulder broke my concentration. Issac dropped on a luckily placed gorse bush.

“You know I can’t let you do that to my son.” Aiden said, a strain of humor in his voice. “But in this case, I think that he does deserve to land in that bush.”

I looked up at him “You’re not a normal guy, are you?” I instantly reddened. ‘Not that I meant you were weird or anything!”

Aiden smiled, YET again. “Don’t worry, I know what you mean. I’m considered unusual by even the unusual. Now, shall we commence the battle or shall I proclaim it a draw?” He asked.

I thought for a moment as Issac came back to us. If looks could kill, I’d be deader than that Dredo of his. “Yeah, I don’t want a draw this early on my journey. Especially on my first journey.”

“Ok, let’s continue the match then!” Aiden announced, scuttling out of the way.

Artemis wasn’t dizzy anymore, which meant that he could use Flood Roll, but I’d prefer he didn’t unless he was in trouble.

“Ok, Artemis, try Mud Slap!” I called. Artemis glanced over his shoulder, plainly confused. He had probably thought that I would have ordered Flood Roll again, but I went with a good, old, standard Mud Slap.

Artemis shrugged, his confusion gone. Since there was no mud around, he had to create it himself. He shot water at the ground, which soon turned to a small mud pit. Artemis turned his back to the Absol and scooped some mud up with his flat, spade-like tail. It stayed there comfortably. Since Mudkip produced their own water inside, the mud would stay mud.

“Absol, Double Team!”

I winced. “Artemis, go for the one in front of Issac!”

“Who?” Artemis asked, looking around in confusion. He looked at Aiden, standing at the side of the ‘arena’ and then at Issac. By now the Absol had made a circle that bordered the arena, a total of twenty Absols were on the field.

“The one in front of the other trainer!” I said, pointing at Issac. Artemis stared at Issac, and a sly grin appeared on his face. He deftly flicked the mud at the Absol, and snorted as it went through it. Issac, finding himself on the receiving end of one of Artemis’s attacks for a second time, was less amused.

“If he does that one more time, I’ll-“He cut off. His father had caught his eye and something passed between the two. A steel-eyed glare from his father and Issac looked down.

Suddenly Issac looked up.

“Absol, Razor Wind!” He commanded. Instantly, all of the Absol started a whirlwind around itself. But if only one was real, then the doubles wouldn’t be able to replicate the attacks, just the likeness. I shut my eyes and listened. A small whispering of wind came from my right and I opened my eye. There! An Absol that moved slightly faster than the others!

“Artemis! Mud Slap on this Absol!” I pointed at Absol. Absol itself looked startled and tried fleeing, but got a faceful of mud as it dove left. It pawed at its face as it tumbled, landing on its side. It got to its feet and scratched at its eyes, trying to remove the mud.

“Ok Artemis, Water Stream!” A jet of water came from Artemis’s mouth. It was slightly stronger than a normal Water Gun, but less powerful than a Hydro Pump.

The water hit Absol face on, cleaning the mud from its eyes. It got to its feet again, blinking water from its eyes. It shook itself, dislodging water and spraying the crowd with it.

It gave an angry bark. “That’s it, little fishy. When I’m done, your going to be frying over a fire.”

“Oooh, I’m so afraid.” Artemis said. “You just keep telling yourself that. I don’t want to ruin your self-esteem. Well, it’ll get ruined when I beat you , so, keep going then!”

Absol growled, its upper lip peeling back over its front teeth. “Fine, I’ll keep saying it then. It will make it more damaging when you lose!”

“Me? Lose? I am Artemis, god of the wilderness! I could never lose!” Artemis said, standing slightly on his hind legs.

“You? A god? Of what? The toilet?” Absol said, letting out an eerie cry that would have to be its laugh.

“Tough words coming from someone who drinks from one.” Artemis retorted. I shook my head, and then jumped back. While they had been insulting each other, no-one had seemed to notice the small whirlwind that had been growing around Absol. It was standing on a patch of dry dirt with no leaves nearby.

The whirlwind itself had hit Artemis, moving too quickly for him to dodge it. With a blink of an eye, Absol rushed at Artemis, slamming him with its long horn, glowing white. A sudden boom filled the air as lightning flashed from the sky, followed by hail, and then water, and lastly, fire. When I could finally see after Absol had finished its Quad-Horn attack, Artemis was on the ground, knocked out.

I blinked, and then dashed forward. Before Issac could even move, Artemis was in my arms and I was searching my backpack for a Revive that I had found a few days ago. When I had the small container in my hands, I opened Artemis’s mouth and tipped the liquid that the Revive contained down his throat. A spicy smell drifted up from the Revive, making me sneeze. No wonder it revived pokemon! If they added chili and wasabi, it would be enough to wake the dead. Thankfully for Artemis, they didn’t.

Artemis kicked as the liquid went down to his stomach. He jumped out of my arms and shot a stream of water in the air, trying to cool his burning mouth.

I smiled slightly, and then glanced at my Trainer Card just as the $100 turned into a fifty. I winced again; this was not a good day!

Issac wandered over, having recalled his Absol. “Well, looks like I won.” He said, a triumphant note in his voice and a look of gloating on his face. I raised an eyebrow; my face was totally blank now. I seriously considered trying to dump him in the lake again, but, against my better judgment, I held out my hand.

“Good match, Issac.” I said, plastering a grin on my face. Now, I’ll plot revenge on you and I’ll get you back next time. I thought to myself. Whether I meant it on not, I couldn’t tell. I don’t think I meant it.

“Oh course, the better man won.” Issac said, raising his head so that he was taller than me. He already had been, so it didn’t make much of a difference.

“You’d have to be Elite Four standards to beat me!”

“Um, YOU didn’t actually battle. Unless you happen to be a particularly skilled Ditto.” I said, the blank look on my face again. “And if you can only be beaten by people who are tough enough to be Elite Four, then the Elite Four around the world must be less tough than people thought.”

“Hey, my Dad is an Elite Four member, so leave them alone! He could beat you from Forenzis to Metone five times over before you realized what’s happening.” Nick called out, pointing a finger at Issac.

“Did that actually make sense?” I asked him. “And Lance is Kat’s Uncle.” I reminded him. Kat nodded in agreement, and then turned to Issac.

“There is such thing as a graceful winner.”

“I am being graceful. I mean, I didn’t let Absol pound his Mudkip into the ground, did I? It was a perfect win too.” Issac drawled, smirking at me.

Now, Law 2867 states that, unless there are extreme circumstances, one must never control someone’s mind, so, I obeyed that law.

“Issac, if it was such a perfect win, how come Zeus beat your Dredo?” Nick said, sticking up for me. I made a mental note to thank Kat and Nick later. I noticed that Nick was also flexing his hand.

“A mere fluke, nothing else.” Issac said. “Anyway, he cheated.”

“Did not.”

“Did too.”

“Did not.”

“Did too.”

“Don’t make me dunk you in the lake! Or I could permanently attach that gorse bush to your face!”

“Let’s see you try!”

“Will you two stop it? You’re worse than Ash and Gary! And trust me, they’re exactly like that in real life too!” Kat said, her hands on her hips as she glared at Issac and me.

I glared at Issac, and then turned away. At this rate, Issac would definitely be my rival. Hope wasn’t, she’s just a plain old Miltank.

“Fine, I’ll stop. But I’m gonna beat you next time!” I said, walking away, towards the Lake of Tears. I needed to check on Artemis. He had run that way after he had finished squirting the air.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Artemis? I called out, honing in on the brain pattern that felt most like his. I found him, hiding in a hole in the bank, upset.

Go away! Just leave me alone. Artemis shot back. He abruptly cut the link. I sighed, and then opened it again.

Artemis, come on. He beat you, let’s leave it at that. In my opinion, the loss will do us both good. It’ll show that we aren’t invincible. At least, that you aren’t. I sent a grinning face down the link, my face. He cut the link off again, I shut my eyes. Patience was definitely NOT a strong point of mine.

Ok, I’ll teleport you out if you don’t come out. I told him, opening the link for a third time. Five, four, three, two-.

Fine!. I’m coming out. Artemis said. A few seconds later, he crawled up on the lake bank, looking as miserable as a Mudkip could be. He was hanging his head and his shoulders were hunched. “Happy?”

“Much. Now, let’s talk. Artemis, what do YOU want to be?” I asked.

Artemis looked surprised at this sudden question.

“Me? I thought that the trainer made the decisions, not the pokemon.” He said, frowning, or making his head frill crumple up.

“But I’m asking the pokemon. Tell me, I want to know. Do you want to be a Contest Winner? Or maybe a Top Battler? Or a Display Battler? Or maybe a Trade Pokemon? It’s your choice, I won’t stop you if you even want to leave.” I said, lying down and looking Artemis straight in the eyes.

“I, don’t know. A battler is probably best. I want to help you win badges, and defeat leagues, not showing off in Contests. Anyway, you need me around to protect you.” Artemis said, a small smile started creeping from his lips.

“You protect me? More like use me for a shield.” I said, joking to try and get him to relax. Artemis gave me a half effort scowl, but broke into a grin seconds later.

“The only way I’d use you for a shield is if a Solarbeam was heading my way.” I winced; grass-types were probably a Water / Ground type’s worst nightmare.

I also winced because Solarbeams had the effect to paralyze humans. It doesn’t do that for Pokemon, but it does it to humans because of some quirk in our D.N.A. Like Tail Whip. It lowered other Pokemon’s defense, but hurt us a lot.

“Yeah, thanks.” I said sarcastically. “Come on Artemis; let’s get back to the others.”