Authors note: Yes, those pictures are back. I can't describe anything to save my life, so I'm using pictures again to help the readers visualise.

‘Well, thank goodness that’s over,’ sighed Gary as we walked out from under the tree. A few drops of water dropped from a leaf and landed on is head.

‘Yeah, that’s the fifth shower this week,’ I agreed, cautiously leaving our quick shelter. ‘And none of them have lasted more than 10 minutes.’

Now the day was bright and very sunny, and nobody ever would have guessed that we were nearly drenched with rain a few minutes before. It was a couple of days since we had left Ecruteak, and we were currently on our way to Olivine City, which we decided to go to since it was by the sea, and sea means beaches. We were right in the middle of the ‘April showers’ period right now, but by the time we got to the beaches it would be hopefully be summer.

Still, the frequent drizzles were nice. They kept the forest around us constantly refreshed and buzzing with activity. All we had to do was run for cover every time.

‘Are we nearly there yet? Maybe we could be inside for the next one,’ I asked Gary, who was brandishing a map, as usual.

‘Surprisingly, yes. The town’s around this way, just over that hill.’

‘Oh, yes!’ I said, running ahead. ‘Food, glorious food! And beds, and everything!’

When we got to the town everything was much busier than I would have thought. People were running about in every direction, most of them clutching pokéballs.

‘How come everybody’s rushing everywhere?’ Meowth asked. ‘What’s the big hurry?’

A young man nearby stopped running and came over, possibly because it seemed strange to him that Meowth had talked, but he answered the question anyway.

‘You must be tourists. Today is the date of the annual pokémon tournament! In our town everybody really loves fire pokémon a whole lot, so each year we all get our best fire types and battle it out in the stadium!’

‘So why are they all running?’ I ventured. The man looked sheepish.

‘Because we’re also terrible procrastinators, and they’re all rushing to the stadium to sign up for it before all the places are filled up. Well, I gotta go, bye!’

I grabbed Gary’s sleeve. ‘What luck! A tournament! Come on, we need to get there before it closes!’

‘Do we have to? We’ve only just arrived, and we have to get some food first before we-aaargh!’ He lost his balance and couldn’t finish his sentence as I dragged him to the huge stadium.

The queue in front of the sign-up booth was enormous. However, the line moved quickly and soon I was writing my name on documents and entering my pokémon. Gary left for a while to get some different pokémon from his grandfather, and we told the officials our names, every fire type we could use to battle and signed some forms binding us to the rules. I was entering with my two eligible pokémon, Quilava and Growlithe.

It turned out that I was going to battle before Gary, so when I took my place at the arena, Gary and Meowth were sitting behind me in the booth for ‘special acquaintances of the competitor’. I didn’t really trust them not to argue, but we decided whoever wasn’t battling had to keep an eye on Meowth at all times in case someone tried something like last time we were in a competition.

Rules were announced over a loudspeaker that these were one-on-one battles only, and then my opponent chose his pokémon. It was a small Magby.

‘Go, Spike!’ I called, throwing my Quilava’s pokéball into the ring. The two faced each other with snarls before the referee flung the green flag, and the fight began.

Both pokémon started off by using an ember attack. When that missed Spike launched himself in a quick attack, but when he was in close range Magby countered by using fire punch. His flaming fist scorched Quilava’s back.

‘Spike, do a smokescreen!’

‘Make a smog, Magby!’

Clouds of gas filled up the arena, making it much too difficult for either of them to see. I heard some scuffling and grunting, and when it was clear we could see that attacks were flying everywhere.

Another fire punch from Magby missed by an inch, but Spike had gone into an awkward position to dodge it and couldn’t attack back right away. Instead he flared up the fire from his back to burn Magby. They continued, and Magby’s trainer started relying more on his fire attacks while I was getting Quilava to dodge them and attack with physical moves. His quick attack was able to zip out of the way of punches and soon its use won the battle.

I walked back to join Gary and we walked back to the preparation area.

‘Well, I’m going up pretty soon,’ he said as I had a drink from a water fountain. ‘If you don’t mind, I’d rather if you didn’t come to watch me. I tend to get distracted. You should stay here and prepare for the next one.’

‘Yeah, sure,’ I grabbed Spike’s pokéball as Gary went silently to another arena.

‘Hey, Spike,’ I greeted as he appeared. ‘You were great? How are you feeling?’

‘I’m fine. I got a little tired though, can I rest for a while?’

‘Of course you can. Let’s see…’ I reached for Charlie’s pokéball and opened it. A flurry of sparkles accompanied him out of the ball.

‘Charlie, I know I haven’t actually battled with you yet, but do you want to have a go in the tournament? You’re the only other fire type I have, and Spike’s getting tired. I can’t keep using him.’

The Growlithe wagged his tail. ‘Great! I’d love to help.’

We arranged to rotate around to give them both a break. My next battle was against a girl with a Vulpix. Charlie was a bit shaky at first, but soon we settled to a rhythm and started fighting together more fluidly. After that were fights opposite a Slugma, a Ponyta, Houndour, and a tough one verses a Numel, a pokémon I’d never seen before. After a few hours and lots of close shaves, I was in the semi-final.

I got a surprise as I stepped into the painted box on the ground, ready to battle again. The other semi-finalist was the young man who had told us about the competition back when we first entered them town.

‘I see you decided to enter then!’ he grinned from across the field. ‘Let’s go!’

‘Ready when you are!’ I called back, readying Spike’s pokéball.

My opponent threw his ball, and it released a huge amount of energy. It formed into a towering mass which cast a shadow over me: a Charizard. Quite shaken, I feebly tossed my ball in.

As soon as Quilava formed I warned him about our situation. My plan was to use Spike’s speed against Charizard’s large body, which I was hoping was going to be slow.

To start off Charizard’s tail came swooping down. Spike charged in a quick attack between his legs, and as the tail crashed down leaving a dent in the ground Spike sprang from behind and successfully assaulted his back. My spirits were lifted; it seemed that if we could keep this up we might be able to snatch victory. But things only got worse. Spike never got another chance to attack and had to use all his energy to stay out of range. He tried flaring up his fire again, but gave up that idea before he was stepped on. It didn’t look good, Quilava was tired and panting. Charizard launched a flamethrower and Spike leaped out of the way, but his back was hit and scorched. The pain affected him and threw his jump off, and he crashed to the ground.

‘Spike!’ I cried, as Charizard crashed closer, ready to end the fight with a new flamethrower. Quilava lay on the ground, wincing and unable to move. I was about to give up, I knew I was beaten and I didn’t want Spike to be hurt any more, but something happened.

A drop of water splashed on my nose. All over the audience umbrellas went up, and within seconds the stadium was drenched with rain. Charizard’s finishing attack came out as a puff of steam.

Everyone looked, confused. Charizard coughed and wrapped his arms and wings around himself, then he started shivering. Steam spouted from the flame on his tail, which was getting smaller by the second. Before it went out altogether, he became red energy and warped back into his ball. Spike was curled into a ball, trying to protect himself, but still there.

I didn’t know what to do. I felt terrible. Then I saw the boy’s face, crestfallen and wrinkled in despair, and I felt much worse. The referee announced me as the winner, and I recalled Spike before starting to walk over to the young man, but he was gone.

I met up with Gary again in the stadium’s hall. He immediately saw that something was wrong.

‘What’s the matter? I heard you won the match.’

‘She’s upset ‘cause she only won when it started raining,’ Meowth answered for me. ‘The other guy’s Charizard got weak and had to go back in its ball.’

Gary looked like he was about to say something, but turned and watched the screen up on the wall instead. ‘Hey, look, they’re about to announce the finalists.’

Flashing titles zoomed around the screen as it boomed: ‘Congratulations to the two finalists in this year’s competition, Gary Oak from Pallet Town and Holly Evergreen from New Bark Town! Please report to Field B to begin the final match.’

I looked at Gary out of the corner of my eye as it settled in. Then he turned to look at me.

‘Well… that’s a surprise.’

I don’t know why I never thought this could happen before. We had never fully battled, but we used to have friendly sparring matches until it became evident that his pokémon were still too strong for mine. Before I knew it I was facing him in the arena, with various strategies running through my mind, all of which I quickly dismissed.

I had only one choice of pokémon for this match, Spike was still worn out and I wouldn’t have him battle again until we got to a pokémon centre. So, still lost in my thoughts, I threw in Charlie’s ball. I saw Gary pause, he let go of the pokéball he was touching on his belt and selected another. Moments later his grand, majestic Arcanine stood in front of me.

‘Well, isn’t this a turn up for the books!’ Called the announcer. ‘A Growlithe is up to battle its own evolved form! In what you’d have to call a no-brainer, I’m backing the Arcanine!’

‘Thanks a lot!’ I yelled back at the speakers, who shut up for a bit.

The two pokémon regarded each other for a while. I knew that Growlithes were supposed to be brave and not back down from pokémon bigger than them, but whether he’d get hurt or not I couldn’t tell.

The green flag was down, and for a moment, nothing happened. Then in unison they sprang, passed each other in the air, landed and turned around. Then I knew that both of them was going to battle as hard as they could, whether their trainers or themselves were friends or not.

Arcanine roared to try and scare Charlie off, but he wasn’t phased and stood his ground. I wasn’t going to get him to try using any embers, so I had Charlie try using take down. Against a pokémon as big as Arcanine it didn’t do any damage, just hurt my pokémon. Now the two were in close range, and Growlithe decided to start dodging underneath Arcanine’s legs. For a while this worked. Arcanine was super fast, but not when his enemy was under his legs. Unable to see his adversary, Arcanine swung around and chomped the air. Again he tried biting where he thought Charlie was and one time it worked. I saw his big teeth snap around Charlie’s foot, and he whined. He bolted out and ran away to the other side of the field, and when he slowed down I could see a large cut was on his foot, and he limped badly.

‘Flame wheel, Arcanine!’ The huge dog became wreathed in flames and charged at the weakened pokémon. Charlie tried to run, but as soon as his weight was on his bad foot he collapsed. Arcanine’s fiery charge hit him and the Growlithe tumbled across the arena, finally coming to a stop and lying still.

‘Growlithe is unable to battle! Gary is the winner!’ proclaimed the referee, and the moment the flag was down both Arcanine and I moved simultaneously towards Growlithe. Arcanine galloped over and reached him first. Not even hearing the crowd cheering, I watched in amazement as Arcanine bent his head down and licked Charlie’s cut paw while he looked up feebly. How could such a relationship exist? One moment they battled as if they were lifelong enemies, the next they healed the wounds they inflicted on each other.

Gary had been standing next to me, and was now wearing a comical crown and a sash. ‘It must be because they’re the same species,’ he said, pretty much reading my mind. ‘They don’t mind losing to each other because they’re so similar. And no pokémon could feel bad about losing to their evolved form.’

I looked at him quizzically. ‘Pokémon really are mysterious, aren’t they? Things like this I can’t understand.’

‘Yeah. They’re so annoyingly complicated and full of secrets it makes your head hurt,’ he replied, saying it in the most loving way possible.

‘Someday. Maybe someday people will be able to understand.’

‘Understand pokémon? I’d like to be around when that happens,’ he said, smiling. Somebody was approaching him from behind.

‘Excuse me, young man?’ said the gentleman. ‘I am the town mayor, and I always love seeing these contests. You really do have some spectacular pokémon with you. Now, if you would please accept it, your prize: a bag of Fire Stones!’ Gary took the bag from him, and as we went back to our pokémon I made a mental note to force him to let me look at them later.

‘Here you are, miss,’ he said, addressing me. ‘Your 2^nd prize is a Fire Stone too.’

I took it from him, a bright and shiny gem the colour of flames and lava. It was roughly cut, and it had something more concentrated in the centre which looked like real fire. I looked up to thank him but he had gone, and at the other side of the stadium I saw the boy with the Charizard, leaving.

I ran after him as fast as ever, hoping that I could catch him before he disappeared. I scooted down the corridors of the building towards him, and eventually caught him leaving the stadium.

‘Hey! Heeeeey!’ he noticed and turned around.

‘Oh, hi. What do you want?’

‘Look, I’m really sorry about what happened. I can’t believe it rained then, but it was completely unfair. You should have won our battle, so I want you to have this,’ I extended my hand, holding the Fire Stone.

Well… all right. But luck also plays a part in pokémon battles. Today you had good luck, tomorrow you might have bad. You can’t always ignore the luck you get, because it’s important.’

I shook my head. ‘But you were the rightful winner. I wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t give you your reward.’

He took the stone and looked through it, holding it up to the light. ‘Well, I made a mistake in our battle. My Charizard only just evolved, and he wasn’t used to it yet. But next year I’ll enter again, and then I’ll be ready. Besides, I never would have beaten that Arcanine.’

I smiled and sprinted back down the hall.

I met up with Gary and Meowth again when I found the pokémon centre. We already had beds booked for the night.

‘Hey Gary, let me see those Fire Stones.’

He handed me the brown bag. All the stones inside were beautiful and sparkly, and shimmered with a fiery inner glow.

‘Wow! I can’t believe we one these!’

Gary put a hand on his hip and cocked an eyebrow. ‘We?’

‘Oh. Okay, you won them.’

‘I’m kidding! If you need one you can use it. What happened to yours?’

‘I gave it to the semi-finalist boy. He should have won it, not me.’

Gary shook his head mournfully. ‘I may have taught you some things about battling, but obviously we have lots more to work on. For a start, never ever give people things for free!’

We laughed while Meowth rummaged in the bag and brought out a stone. He looked at it for a while.

‘Meowth? What’re you looking at?’

‘It feels like… there’s something inside it. There’s energy in there. But I can’t get it out.’

Nurse Joy came in and handed me Spike’s pokéball. I stared at the stones and wondered. ‘Well, we’ve got lots of time to figure these mysteries out.’