Okay, I know you all want to kill me for taking so long with this thing. I hope you enjoy this one (and maybe review it too). *Insert disclaimer here*

Early the next morning I tiptoed out of the Pokémon Centre and headed in the direction of the sea. At this point I had only two water pokémon to use, and the semi-final match later on required the use of three. There was no way I could fight against three enemy pokémon by using only two of my own, so I had to capture something new and train it by… this afternoon.

As I left the populated area of the island behind, I saw a stretch of sand ahead, perfect for pokémon hunting. Especially since nobody else was around yet to disturb them – the sun had only just risen.

I ran up onto the sand and felt my feet sink softly downwards as I searched for any signs of life. Nothing seemed to be around… maybe I had scared them off. Then I managed to spot a cluster of rock pools, and started off towards them.

Nestled inside a pebble-filled hole lay a sleeping Shellder. All you could see of it was the hard purple shell, but I knew the pokémon was inside there somewhere. While racking my brain for any information I knew which might help me defeat if for capture, I whipped out my pokédex. Just after pointing the sensor at the Shellder I remembered how loud the pokédex voice was.

‘Shellder – the shell pokémon. Shellder can only be attacked when its shell is open. Otherwise it is impermeable to damage.’

I didn’t have to worry about trying to open its shell now – all that noise had woken it up. The small shell opened and a large red tongue appeared as the pokémon yawned. I threw out Marina’s pokéball before it had a chance to get away.

‘Marina,’ I instructed the Lapras once she had finished forming, ‘Give that Shellder a taste of your confuse ray.’

Marina obeyed and locked eyes with her opponent. Within seconds the Shellder was bemused and unable to retaliate.

‘Yay!’ I cried, readying myself for a new capture. ‘Now use water gun!’

Lapras fired a strong stream of water straight from her mouth. It hit Shellder with incredible accuracy right inside the shell – which not only snapped it out of confusion, but the momentum threw Shellder a few feet into the air. It fell downwards into the ocean, and sank away.

I stood bewildered for a second or two, then realised that the chance had escaped.

‘Well, you started off great,’ said a familiar voice, ‘but you really need to learn when certain attacks are inappropriate.’

I turned to see Gary leaning against a nearby tree.

‘How long have you been watching me?’ I said somewhat angrily.

‘…Long enough,’ was his reply. ‘If you really want to have a chance at catching a water type… follow me.’

He wandered off. I hastily recalled Marina and followed him, even though I still felt a little mad that he’d been "supervising". I may have made a mistake trying to get Shellder, but I felt like he didn’t give me enough credit sometimes.

Gary led me back through a small, wooded area I had come through, and towards another part of the beach. I couldn’t help but notice how fresh everything seemed this early in the day – as if the whole world had just woken up and was waiting for its face to fall into place.

When we reached the sand, Gary stopped suddenly and looked around. Then he seemed to come to a decision and kept walking in the direction of a small rock formation, next to a cliff.

When we got there I opened my mouth to ask what we were looking for, but Gary made some hand gestures which told me clearly that I should keep quiet. He peered around the side of the cliff face, and motioned for me to follow him closer to the boulders in the water.

Paddling around the weather-beaten rocks was a small blue pokémon – a Horsea. Generally thought of as being cute, it was shaped a bit like a seahorse with a long funnel as a mouth for spouting ink.

Gary nodded at me and I realised this as where I had to fight.

‘Come on out, Flo,’ I said, whipping out my Chinchou’s ball. I stepped onto the beach pebbles facing the Horsea in the water, and Flo decided to appear half-submerged next to her foe. The Horsea stopped swimming and looked at us, apparently a little bewildered.

‘Start off with thunder wave!’ I suggested, hoping that it would prevent my potential capture from escaping. Flo obeyed, charging up her antennae bulbs for a moment, then letting jagged bolts of blue lightening loose on her opponent. Horsea panicked at seeing the oncoming attack, but was helpless when the lightning surrounded it and electric pulses paralysed its muscles.

‘Now try a spark attack,’ I said. I felt nervous, partly because I really needed to make a capture, and partly because I didn’t want to know what Gary would say to me if I failed.

Flo charged up for a second, then threw more lightning in Horsea’s direction, yellow this time. It struck the little seahorse dead on and it cried out as the effective attack caused serious damage.

‘All right…’ I prepared myself, removing a spare pokéball from my pocket. ‘You’re mine, Horsea!’

I launched the ball with all the accuracy I could out at the water. The poor bruised Horsea didn’t move out of the way, and the ball struck the small pokémon. With a flash of red it was drawn inside.

I walked over to the water’s edge and watched the ball quiver and bob in the water. A small red light was flashing on the front of the capsule, indicating that the pokémon was still struggling for freedom. I waited patiently for the pokéball to fully close, when without warning, the ball burst back open and the sudden light blinded me. I staggered back from the water with my eyes shielded, and when I opened them, Horsea was swimming in the water again, persistent as ever. It zipped around in the water, firing bubble attacks and water guns at Flo.

‘Woah…’ I mumbled. ‘That thing’s determined…’

I quickly slipped off my backpack, opened it, and searched around.

‘What are you doing?’ Gary inquired while raising an eyebrow.

‘Looking… for… this!’ I pulled my old lure ball out of my bag. It looked a lot like a usual red and white pokéball, but there was a green pattern on the red part.

‘Horsea!’ I called, drawing the attention of the pokémon so it stopped firing ranged attacks at Flo. I hurled the lure ball at Horsea with as much aim as I could, and again, Horsea couldn’t move out of the way. Like before, Horsea was sucked into the ball, which shook while floating in the water. Flo and I watched it intently.

The lure ball stopped moving and confirmed the capture with a small ping.

‘Hurrah!’ I cheered, while Flo swam behind the ball and pushed it over to my feet, where I picked it up. ‘I got a Horsea!’

‘Come on then,’ Gary didn’t sounds nearly as ecstatic as I did. ‘Let’s get back to the stadium. You’ve got about three hours to get it to listen to you.’

* * *

Inside the stadium, I stood alone in our rented room. Having checked Horsea’s level and getting him to perform attacks, I was trying to decide how best to use my team’s newest member. It was already the afternoon and the second round matches had begun up in the coliseum, but I decided it would be more use getting my pokémon ready than watching the battles up there. Besides, every room had a small television in the corner so I could check up on how the battles were progressing.

I knelt down next to a bath half-full with water, in which Horsea was happily swimming about.

‘Now remember, you’re really quite small, so we need to make that work to your advantage…’

Horsea was staring into space and absent-mindedly blowing bubbles.

‘Hydra! Are you listening to me?’ I demanded. Horsea looked at me and made a noise which I’m sure would pass for the Horsea equivalent of a giggle.

I looked out of the bathroom door at the television in the main room. I’d seen Ash battle already today, against whom I didn’t know, but he’d managed to pull off another win. Gary’s battle had also been up, but I’d missed most of that as well, unfortunately. Right now there didn’t appear to be anyone battling, which was odd.

‘Holly!’ I heard Gary open the door and come in. He found me in the bathroom with Hydra. ‘Quit bathing your pokémon, your match is up! They’re waiting for you!’

‘Ack!’ I got up quickly and tried to organise myself. ‘Bathing? I’d like to see you try training a Horsea indoors any other way…’ I pulled Hydra back into his ball, pulled the plug on the bath, ran out of the room and raced down the hall.

This is when I discovered that being late for an important pokémon match isn’t a very nice feeling, especially when you’re racing down a hallway and don’t seem to be getting anywhere.

Finally I zipped into the prep room and made my way out onto the familiar arena platform next to the large expanse of water.

‘Things are getting underway at last, folks!’ cried the announcer. ‘The battle between Holly from New Bark Town and Misty from Cerulean City is about to commence!’

My mind short-circuited – didn’t I know that name? Across the arena of water on the opposite platform stood a girl I’d seen a couple of times before. She was dressed in blue shorts and suspenders, but her most noticeable feature was her red hair.

‘Aren’t you that girl who travels with Ash?’

‘Aren’t you that girl who travels with Gary?’

We had spoken at the same time.

I gave her a bemused nod in response and she did the same.

The referee announced the match rules, three-on-three, no time limit, and so on. As luck would have it, Misty had to call out her pokémon first. Being able to choose a pokémon after your opponent was always an advantage, but in this case it was only a little one, since only water types could be used.

Misty took out a lure ball, and threw it out onto the field. It opened and the light that spilled out of it soon formed into a Corsola. I decided to retaliate with a lure ball of my own.

‘Come on out, Hydra!’

Horsea appeared in the water, looking determined as ever.

The referee declared the start of the match, and Misty moved first.

‘Corsola, give that Horsea a spike cannon attack!’

Using the coral spikes on the top of its body, Corsola fired a volley of spikes at Hydra. Fortunately the Horsea’s small size made it easier to dodge them by swimming to and fro, but after a few seconds some spikes started hitting their mark.

‘Hydra, fight back with smokescreen!’

Jets of black smoke poured from Hydra’s funnel and blackened the air. Corsola couldn’t see Horsea, but neither could I.

‘Try a bubble attack!’ I called into the cloud. As the smoke was dispersed by the wind I could see that Hydra had been able to hit his target. Water bubbles were hitting Corsola and chipping away at her health.

‘Corsola!’ Misty seemed concerned. ‘Use recover!’

A faint light surrounded the coral pokémon and she started to look less worn out.

‘Hydra, quick! Hit Corsola with your water guns!’ I said, knowing that a pokémon with recovery techniques needed to be taken out with heavier offence. The Horsea did a magnificent job, swimming in a zigzag pattern around Corsola and firing water guns from his mouth at regular intervals.

‘Come on Corsola, fight back with mirror coat!’ Misty commanded.

‘On no! Hydra, stop!’

Too late. Hydra’s water guns were stopped when Corsola started glowing with an unmistakable blue sheen. Then the same attack was returned on Hydra, but with double the power. The Horsea was hit by his own valiant efforts to succeed, and fainted. His limp form floated on the water.

‘Drrrrgh,’ I moaned and slapped my face with my hand while returning Hydra to his lure ball. The immense crowd cheered loudly at Misty’s win.

‘Okay… let’s see how you like this!’ I picked out Chinchou’s pokéball and called her out of it. She swan forward nearer the middle of the arena to face her opponent, and the next part of the battle began.

‘Corsola, use spike cannon again!’

Misty seemed to like starting off with attacks, and then reflecting my own back when I tried to retaliate. I was about to panic about the incoming spikes, but Flo dodged it herself by diving underwater.

‘Okay Flo,’ I said once Chinchou had surfaced, ‘Let’s try a water gun.’

Flo tried her best to damage Corsola with a blast of water from her mouth, but again, Corsola simply glowed and sent the attack back, with even more power. The returned water gun didn’t damage Flo that much, but we hadn’t made any progress.

‘Come on, Flo… try using confuse ray!’

Flo had to catch Corsola’s eye, and then formed a link of dark energy between them. Corsola ended up confused.

‘Now quickly, before it can use mirror coat again!’ I yelled hopefully, ‘Use a spark attack!’

Strong electric charges soared through the air from Chinchou to Corsola, zapping her and partially electrifying the water in the whole stadium. When the light from the attack had died down, Corsola was floating in the water, unable to continue.

‘All right… come back, Corsola,’ Misty muttered, calling her pokémon back into its ball. ‘Let’s see if you can deal with this one!’

Misty threw out another ball, revealing her next chosen pokémon to be Poliwhirl. The blue-ish pokémon with a giant swirl on its belly jumped into the water and swam nearer the middle of the arena.

‘Flo, let’s start this one with spark!’ I said, once the next round had begun. She charged some electricity into her antennae and released it across the field at Poliwhirl, and managed to shock him. I was about to cheer for the hit, but it seemed that Poliwhirl hadn’t taken much damage from the attack.

‘Go, Poliwhirl,’ Misty smirked, ‘Give that Chinchou a doubleslap attack!’

Before I could say anything Poliwhirl swam over and caught Flo with a barrage of slapping attacks with his large hands. As soon as she had come out of shock, Flo blasted Poliwhirl off with a close-range water gun.

‘Hit it with a body slam!’ Poliwhirl advanced on Flo again, but this time propelled himself out of the water and collided with Chinchou on the way down. She was starting to look beaten.

‘Use confuse ray!’ I tried, but as soon as Chinchou began her attack, Poliwhirl avoided it by diving underwater. She then used a quick spark to electrify him while Poliwhirl was submerged. When Poliwhirl surfaced he looked in worse shape, but appeared to be on the winning side.

‘Use your water gun, Poliwhirl!’ was Misty’s command, and her pokémon shot a powerful blast of water from the centre of its belly. Chinchou was hit, and the momentum carried her backwards until she slammed into the wall of the coliseum.

‘Finish this off with your doubleslap!’ Misty was sure she was about to win this. Poliwhirl advanced on my nearly beaten pokémon, but I suddenly had an idea.

‘Flail!’

At the last moment, before Poliwhirl could attack, Flo mustered her last remaining strength and slammed her body into her opponent’s with one focused burst. Poliwhirl flew into the air from the sheer force, and fell back down into the water with a *smack*. When its body floated to the surface again, Poliwhirl was out cold.

Misty frowned and recalled Poliwhirl. I looked at my Chinchou – she was thoroughly beaten, and she wouldn’t last any time in the next round before she lost consciousness. Misty called out her final pokémon, a Staryu, and I brought Flo back into her ball.

‘And it looks like we’re down to a sudden death one-on-one!’ exclaimed the announcer. ‘What enormous tension!’

I was constantly amazed by the commentator’s complete inability to be of any help.

I took my last remaining eligible pokémon’s ball from my belt, and hoped to be lucky. Then I threw out Marina’s ball and summoned her to the arena. She was the largest pokémon yet in out battle, and splashed as she entered the water. I heard a few awed gasps from the audience, and I had to agree, my Lapras’ shining blue and curved body did look beautiful.

The last part of the battle started. The brown, star-shaped pokémon Staryu took the first move with a bubblebeam attack. It was very different from Hydra’s bubbles earlier – this bubblebeam was denser, larger, faster and more focused. Marina reacted quickly and dove underwater.

‘You can do this, Marina,’ I said, hoping she would hear me, ‘try using body slam!’

Marina propelled her body through the water and surfaced below where Staryu was floating, giving him a whack from her head on the way up. Staryu span in the air, but slowed itself down and fired a swift attack. Golden stars came out of Staryu’s jewel and hit Marina quite a few times before she was able to dive again.

She surfaced gracefully a few metres away. I instructed her to try using confuse ray, and the aura of shadowy energy was actually able to catch Staryu and confuse it. Feeling hopeful, I told Marina to use an ice beam. She formed the frigid energy in her mouth and fired a beam at Staryu, who couldn’t dodge due to confusion. The star pokémon became frozen solid in a block of ice, which plummeted down and crashed into the water.

‘All right! Let’s finish this, Marina!’ I cried triumphantly. I could see the determination in my Lapras’ eyes as she prepared for a final attack. Lapras were known for being docile and disliking combat, but I could tell she wanted to win this.

Marina pulled herself through the water and gathered all the speed she could. As she neared Staryu, she reared up and crashed her body down on her foe in a devastating body slam. Just like we had done while fighting Chinchou, the attack force and shattered ice brought Staryu to the brink of defeat. It floated lifelessly in the water, while the centre gem flashed a warning signal.

‘Oh no! Staryu!’ Misty was surprised. However, it seemed she wasn’t quite ready to give up. ‘Use recover!’

My face fell as Staryu’s body regenerated health. Marina could only look on as her hopes were dashed.

‘Okay Staryu,’ Misty called with renewed energy, ‘Use hydro pump!’

Staryu span in the air and shot an enormous twister of water at Marina – the strongest water attack a pokémon could know. Marina reacted too late and was struck, and she squealed in pain. She was thrown backwards and knocked the side of the stadium with a loud shuddering thud.

After a few seconds it became clear the Marina would no longer be able to battle.

‘And the win goes to Misty!’ shouted the announcer, and the crown went wild.

I sighed, recalled my pokémon, and walked back through the stadium arena doors.

I couldn’t think of anything else to do but sit on a couch in the lobby for a while. I stayed alone with my thoughts until I noticed another person approaching.

It was Misty.

‘Hey there,’ she said quietly, ‘I just wanted to say good job in our match.’

‘’Oh, thanks… and congratulations on the win,’ I replied with a small smile.

‘Don’t feel too bad,’ she said sympathetically. ‘I’ve been with my pokémon for longer than you have – I’m trying to be the worlds greatest water trainer.’

I looked up. ‘You are?’

‘Yup,’ she grinned, ‘I used to be the gym leader at Cerulean City, too.’

‘Really?!’ I said incredulously, ‘You were a Kanto gym leader?!’ she smiled and giggled. ‘Wow… I’m surprised I lasted that long against you!’

‘Well, you should be proud,’ she said, ‘you and your pokémon tried your best.’

‘Mmm…’ I mumbled, ‘But… I feel almost like I let them down… I could tell that they really wanted to win, and maybe it was my fault that they didn’t do as well as they could have…’

‘Hey,’ Misty replied comfortingly, ‘don’t be so hard on yourself! Pokémon rely on their trainers for guidance, and from what I saw, you did a splendid job today.’

I looked at her gratefully, then stood up from my chair. ‘Thanks, Misty,’ I smiled more warmly this time.

Just then Misty’s team-mates, Ash and Brock, came running towards us.

‘Hey Misty, we were looking for you,’ Ash started, then noticed me. ‘Hey… you’re Holly, right?’

‘Yeah,’ I replied, ‘nice to see you again, Ash. Oh, I saw a bit of your battle today. You did a good job.’

‘Aww,’ Ash rubbed his head modestly, ‘you weren’t so bad yourself!’

Just then I noticed Gary coming up behind me. I turned around.

‘C’mon Holly,’ he said quickly, ‘we should get up to our room.’ He sounded as if we wanted to avoid any conversation.

Ash looked at Gary and folded his arms. ‘Gary,’ he greeted icily.

‘Ash,’ Gary replied in a similarly toneless greeting.

‘Hey,’ Misty started, trying to relieve the tension, ‘Ash and I just found out that we’ll be battling each other tomorrow in the semi-finals. Maybe we’ll see you there?’

‘Sorry, can’t,’ Gary said indifferently. ‘We’re leaving at the earliest opportunity. You don’t get to be a pokémon master by just watching people battle.’ He seemed to direct his comment in Ash’s direction, as if he were giving patronising advice. Then Gary took my arm and started leading me away towards the residential wing.

‘Bye!’ I turned and waved back, ‘Hope to see you again sometime.’

Ash’s gang waved, then walked away.

‘So, we’re leaving tomorrow?’ I asked as we climbed the stairway up to our room.

‘Yeah. It’s best if we leave early for Cianwood. We don’t want to be wasting time.’

‘And you really don’t want to see Ash and Misty’s match? Even if it gives you the chance to get a look at Ash’s pokémon?’

‘If I ever have another battle with Ash,’ Gary didn’t look at me, he kept his eyes focused on the stairs, ‘I want to rely on skill. I don’t want anybody thinking I have any kind of innate advantage.’

‘Oh,’ I said simply, then lapsed into silence.

The only sounds were our feet on the stairway.

‘Do you not like them, or something?’ I asked finally.

Gary gave a little sigh. ‘It’s just Ash. We grew up together, and since we live so close together, and know the same people, we’re rivals. I’ve gotta be better than him.’

I paused for a moment and then asked, ‘…Why?’

‘Because…’ Gary replied exasperatedly as if the answer should be obvious, ‘We’re the only current trainers who’ve come from Pallet. Everyone there is going to be watching our every move. There can’t be two pokémon masters. Everyone has to know that I’m the better one.’

Another pause, more footsteps.

‘So…’ I asked tentatively, ‘you’ve never liked Ash?’

‘No… I grew up with him. We used to be good friends. But when we got into pokémon, and became competitive, that changed…’ He trailed off and I didn’t say anything. Then, in a rare moment, Gary offered more information than he was obligated to give. ‘I used to be… meaner… to him… I can’t just let all that history slide, or I’d look like a fool… it’s like I’ve gotta keep up a charade…’

There was more silence, and then Gary mumbled to himself, ‘Why am I telling you this…’ and smiled and shook his head in disbelief.

Once we’d finally climbed the stairs and crossed a hallway, we entered our temporary room. I walked over to our bunk bed, where Gary’s bag was lying open, with some of the contents spilling out. Sitting on the bed and gleaming in the afternoon light was the small bottom half of a pokéball.