The battles were over in an instant.

  There were a few trainers worth writing about in my notepad. There was a dragon trainer that was winning his battles, some clever trainers levering well their strengths or covering deficiencies, showing that this really is a different beginners tournament.

  I wrote in my notepad some things that were interesting, mostly weaknesses, but also their tricks and strategies to better direct my pokemon around them, ensuring they’ll not fall to anything show here if we meet them in the elimination stage. Being defeated by something already known would be a failure on my part as the trainer, and it was just the worst type of defeat.

  Katy and I sometimes saw someone from our group fight, but that four battles were held at the same time made us pay only partial attention to their battles. They seemed to be doing well though.

  Soon enough, we’re both called by e-mail to the entrance of the stadium. The same employee from before came out and guided us through the internal hallways of the Battle Hall.

  Entering an expansive lounge room, we saw a table full of fresh food to the side, as well as some long tables and sofas around many monitors. There was a corridor on the other side of the room that appeared to lead to the battlefield, and beside it was a cordoned-off area near it. There was also a counter with the symbol of healthcare, probably where our pokemon would be treated after the matches.

  “Participants, welcome to the waiting room, my name is Kamila.” a female employee greeted us in the middle of the room. “Please sit down.”

  Everyone sat down, and Kamila continued. “This is the room where you’re going to wait for your battles. The names of the next trainers that are going to battle will appear in that monitor.”—she pointed to the biggest one hanging on a pillar—“You’ll then move to the waiting area where someone will bring you to the arena in a few minutes. Otherwise you guys are free to eat and to watch the matches on the other screens, as well as do whatever you want. That’s all on my end, do we have some questions before we begin the first round?”

  After some exchanges between the other trainers and the employee, everyone was satisfied and Kamila pointed to the previously mentioned screen. That screen now showed names, and one of those was mine.

  I got up from my seat. “See you later Katy.”

  “Good battle,” she said, already on her phone.

  As I passed through the thirty or something trainers I felt someone looking. Glancing around I see the prospective winner of the tournament, George Reed. His eyes followed me, even though he looked bored out of his mind.

  The eight trainers sat down at the waiting area and minutes later we’re ready. A male employee with a high end walkie-talkie enters through the battlefield exit and, after listening for something on it, he looks up and ushers us to the battlefield.

  I really thought I’d be relaxed.

  I knew I was going to feel at least a little something by being in this big of a stage, but that it would soon fade and I would be able to concentrate in the coming battle. However, the stage continued to get closer and I’m still tense.

  We exited the corridor and the entire stadium turned towards us. Looking and waiting for us to do something other than only going to our places and waiting, which is what we actually did.

  I stopped at the line delimited for trainers. The judge looked as bored as I did when I was there.

  I recognised the person on the other side of the battlefield from the lounge and the waiting area. He looked twelve, had brown hair, and was wearing grey clothes. The only distinctive thing about him were his big glasses. I briefly remembered that his first name was Thomas from where I’d seen it in the monitor.

  With a hand sign, the arbiter put a hand up, “Pokeballs up.”

  The hands of eight trainers rose into the air across the four battlefields, all of them with a pokeball.

  “Trainers, release your pokemon!”

  Thomas tossed his pokeball, while I clicked on the button and released Mountain. The Cryogonal appeared first, the giant disk’s eyes darted as they analysed its surroundings until they finally settled at his still forming opponent.

  The pokemon across from him ended up being a Doduo, a flightless bird pokemon with two heads. Distinguished for its speed and, at higher levels, for the ability of each head using different moves at the same time, similar to Hydreigon or Exeggutor.

  “Ready… fight!” the arbiter pulled his arm down.

  “Bind,” I said and ice energy formed actual ice as the Cryogonal’s hexagonal body shot two chains of ice that grew as they flew towards Doduo.

  Bind was considered a Cryogonal’s signature move. Mountain never got to learn it since he grew up in a climate where creating ice constructs isn’t efficient to hunt. However, after many hours of training in chilly nights, he finally was able to make chains that would be useful in combat and at a reasonable speed.

  “Agility and get close,” Thomas answered.

  The flightless bird glowed pink and dashed towards Mountain, simply using speed and precise footwork to dodge the chains as they came closer.

  “Quick Attack into Double Hit.”

  “Get ready, Mountain.”

  The pink mixed with grey and the Doduo grew faster, reaching a velocity comparable to Cape without Aerial Ace. The bird blurred towards Mountain’s side. Fortunately, we had contingencies against fast opponents, that is to say, Cape.

  As the pokemon came close Mountain rotated his body and grey light finely engulfed its borders. Another rotation and the Cryogonal threw himself at the faster pokemon, hoping to hit the flying type with a Take Down, which would give him time to Bind the Doduo.

  However, both sets of eyes narrowed and the pokemon deftly avoided the encounter at the last second by shifting to the side, missing Mountain’s body by a hair. Someone might even mistake the move for Brave Bird. That’s if Brave Bird could be used to dodge.

  The two pokemon adjusted their positions to watch one another, one by floating around and the other by turning with its long legs. They’re now close to each other but no one wanted to make the first move.

  “That was a good manoeuvre,” Thomas acknowledge while adjusting his glasses. “However, it’s not enough. Doduo, go!”

  The pokemon dashed forward again and this time we had to play it safe without the element of surprise.

  “Icy Wind at the front.”

  Ice, snow and wind left Cryogonal’s mouth and washed over the field in a cone shape attack, going directly at the Doduo.

  “Jump away,” Thomas said with a slightly panicked tone.

  The Doduo crouches down and propels itself to the side, landing away from the attack that would slow it down with a front flip. Mountain’s body turns to redirect but the bird’s already running away, one head looking to the front and another watching the Cryogonal.

  “You can stop Mountain,” I said to him. “We’re just wasting energy trying to catch up with this one. Let’s just play it slow and try to find an opening.”

  I could see that Thomas was also directing his pokemon.

  Sure enough, the Doduo came back and tried to find a way to surprise attack Mountain or force him to give an opening with no luck. Mountain also tried a lot of other moves, Slash, Night Slash, and Ice Shard. They weren’t able to reach the speedy bird. The only move that could reach the Doduo was Mist, and it was not an offensive move.

  At the same time, Doduo was not able to do anything to Mountain. The flying pokemon didn’t seem to have a good ranged option and every time it tried to get closer Mountain’s experience in close combat shined through, knowing exactly how to rebuke every attempt.

  The Cryogonal was strong in his ranged attack, but couldn’t hit the fast Doduo. Doduo was strong in close combat, but couldn’t break through Mountain’s defence. Neither wanted to commit to something extreme and lose.

  They just changed places and tried things that would not work. It was a boring battle for everyone, boring for me, Thomas, the pokemon, the crowd, and even the arbiter. After some more minutes of nothing happening, I talked to Thomas, who was on the other side of the battlefield, “Hey, Thomas.”

  “Huh?” he glanced up to look at me and even Doduo stopped running. “What do you want?”

  “You might’ve noticed that we’re in a standstill here, right?!”

  “It appears so, yes, but your pokemon will soon be tired and we’ll win.”

  “That’ll take a long time, and even if it works, the other pokemon will also be too tired to fight the next fight. I have an idea thought. How about we retire both pokemon. That way this can be an unofficial draw, seeing as it's already a draw.”

  “What’s in it for me?” Thomas said with a hand on his chin.

  “We can stop wasting each other times, and the time of our pokemon.” I shrugged.

  That seemed to get to him. Thomas stared at his Doduo who was looking back at him. I couldn’t see what it was, but it seemed as if they were communicating something. Then Thomas gave out a sigh of annoyance.

  “All right, we accept it,” he said as the Doduo jumped in place.

  The arbiter, who’d been watching the conversation, nodded and also seemed relieved that all this running around would be ending. I knew how he felt.

  “I’m going to allow it. This fight ends in a draw, trainers please recover your pokemon.”

  The two pokemon exchanged a glare as they turned into red light that flew to their respective pokeball.

  “Trainers, please release your next pokemon,” the arbiter asked, and we did.

  Valley appeared on my side of the battlefield. On the other side, a white furred form was crouched. The pokemon had a red fur ball on its forehead, and couldn’t stop fidgeting and pacing around as it stared at the Minccino.

  It was a Vigoroth, the Wild Monkey. Valley gave him an unimpressed look, which seemed to irritate her opponent. Valley had that talent, or maybe some pokemon didn’t like being dismissed by someone so small, which she did with almost every untested pokemon.

  “Ready… fight!”

  Valley has a defensive fighting style for now, so we usually waited for something to happen and then reacted, but Vigoroth didn’t attack even though he clearly wanted to. It was a surprise when Thomas spoke.

  “That’s a… Minccino, right?” he said in an excited tone.

  “Yeah.” I answered. Valley looked back at me with a questioning look.

  “I see, I see. It’s a good thing that you can recognise the superiority of the normal type pokemon. The best type of all, of course.”

  I raised an eyebrow, wondering where he’s going with this. Apparently, the arbiter thought the same.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “We’re on a tight schedule here, Trainer Thomas. Perhaps you could speak with your opponent after the match” He suggested diplomatically.

  “O-Of course, arbiter. I’m sorry,” he coughed. “Mud Shot and get close!”

  Vigoroth ran at Valley, glowing hands grabbing the ground and throwing projectiles of earth to distract Valley. She, already proficient in dodging and attacking simultaneously, danced around the flying rocks while gathering and unleashing five Swift stars.

  The Vigoroth dodged three stars, but his ungainly body worked against him, and he was hit by two stars. Though he barely noticed apart from a slight reduction in speed.

  “Dance around him, Valley.”

  The swing of an arm came at Valley and she slid forward and dodge the furred appendage. The monkey pokemon continue to attack Valley with reckless anger, swinging his arms and occasionally a leg to hit her.

  The grey glow on his arms and the ferocity on his face revealed that he’s using Fury Swipes, a move in which each subsequent hit's more powerful. It’s a good move. The problem for him however is that he’s not Twirl. Dendra’s pokemon used a martial art which made his strikes hard to dodge. In comparison, this pokemon was just swinging his limbs and hoping to hit something.

  So he’s going to hit something, but he’ll wish he didn’t.

  “Valley exchange one strike.”

  Thomas hesitated at the strange command, Valley didn’t. Her tail glowed grey with Pound as she rotated her body and struck Vigoroth arm. The pokemon’s arm and body was pushed back. A brief look of surprise flashed through Vigoroth’s face before Valley jumped and her pink glowing head smashed into his cheek with Play Rough.

  Normally, Valley wouldn’t be able to push a Vigoroth away with her strength, but Fury Swipes’ first attack was the weakest of the combo move and easily countered, even by a lowly Pound. Which is why it’s a move that should be used on an exhausted opponent or as a surprise attack.

  “Body Slam, Vigo!” Thomas tried to use the close proximity between the pokemon to come back. A great idea in many circumstances, but a mistake in this case.

  Vigoroth’s head was hurting, but it followed its trainer command. Its shoulder glowed and the pokemon threw himself at Valley with all his weight.

  “Baby-Doll Eyes into Play Rough.” I said, ignoring the startled noise from Thomas.

  Valley made small leaps back as the Vigoroth rammed forward, then her eyes glowed pink. The white furred shape began to stop and Valley grinned. She dashed forward with both arms glowing pink, a high expenditure of energy but we calculated that it was worth it.

  The last time Valley used Baby-Doll Eyes was in the battle against Twirl, the fighting type didn’t go down in one hit like most of Valley’s other opponents or even looked weakened by the subsequent strike. So Valley and I planned some tactics to go along with the distracting move.

  The small pokemon dashed to the monkey’s back and swiped Vigoroth’s legs from under him with her tail. Since it didn’t use any type energy, the pokemon only awoke from the trance when he hit the ground. But at this point, Valley was already on top of his chest and raining fists in the pokemon’s head.

  She also had a small lecture with Cape about hitting the temple of a head.

  Six pink punches later, three of which had been on the Vigoroth’s temples and one on the nose, the Wild Monkey Pokemon fainted.

  “This fight's won by Minccino. Please return to your side.”

  Valley jumped from the unconscious Vigoroth’s body and moved to the starting position with a smile, practically quivering with energy despite her tired state. Play Rough was a tiring move after all.

  “Good job, Vigo,” The normal type trainer said while returning the pokeball to his belt and grabbing another one, this one the first out of his four pokeballs.

  “Bibarel. Go!” Thomas said, throwing his pokeball.

  The brown beaver arrived, sitting on the ground and looking around with surprise. It looked at the stands full of people, at the ground around where the white lines were and finally, at Valley.

  “Bibarel, we’re down two to one” Thomas explained to the water and normal type. “It’s our last chance.”

  The pokemon nodded, put his hands on the floor and got up. He glared at the Minccino across the field. The arbiter took that as a cue to start.

  “Ready… Go!”

  “Water Gun.” The pokemon opened his mouth and one of the strongest Water Gun I’ve ever seen in person crossed the field in an instant, reminding me of some of the water type that Cape fought.

  Valley dodged and the Water Gun ripped the soil, leaving behind a big puddle of water.

  She didn’t have time to do anything as the Bibarel was suddenly near her, his tail and legs wet with the water from an Aqua Jet. A fist was raised and beginning to brighten with the brown gleam of fighting type energy.

  “Baby-Doll Eyes and dodge.”

  Pink eyes snapped up and the move that stunned the Vigoroth slowed the Bibarel for two seconds, just enough for Valley to escape the Rock Smash that cracked the ground where she just was.

  “Bullet Seed.”

  The seeds that Valley was cultivating in her mouth since the beginning of the fight with Vigoroth rammed into the Bibarel. The pokemon was hurt, but he only allowed a frown on his face, before dashing forward with a Quick Attack.

  A punch smashed into Valley’s stomach, and she slid across the ground until she was near the Kadabra barriers. She spit to the side and and with a last effort threw an Echoed Voice from the ground at the Bibarel’s approaching face. The normal type, looking down at her, blocked the cutting winds with his arms and then punched her face, fainting her.

  “Bibarel’s the winner of the fight,” the arbiter announced, suddenly more alert. He was probably excited with the perspective of an underdog’s come back. “Please return to your side.”

  The Bibarel turned as I was returning Valley to her pokeball and changed it for the pokeball of my second strongest pokemon. A click later and the Baltoy’s clay body was forming on my side.

  “We’re going to finish this, Mesa.” I said to him, and my pokemon made his signature spin.

  The arbiter was looking at me like I was an idiot by picking a pokemon with a type weakness, and I guess most of the crowd who was looking at this battle thought that too. Thomas however was looking between Mesa and his Bibarel, deep in thought.

  Really sharp for a twelve years old.

  The arbiter shook off his feelings about my choice, “Ready… Go.”

  The two pokemon didn’t move, and both Thomas and I didn’t give out any commands. Shame, I was hoping he would give us more water to play around.

  Whatever. We had enough.

  “Bring the mud, Mesa.”

  The soil beneath the puddles of water left behind by Water Gun and Aqua Jet came to Mesa in waves of muddy earth and began to move around him like a ground level cyclone. Ten pieces of the cyclone of mud flew higher.

  “Dodge with Rollout.” Thomas readily said, just before ten Mud Shots rained at Bibarel’s side of the field.

  The brown ball dashed back and forth between the basketball sized flying mud. Soil showered the pokemon’s fur as the shots exploded the ground around him. The dirt pokemon stood up as the last two Mud Shot were dodged and charged with Aqua Jet.

  “Headbutt.”

  Mesa tried to engulf the blue meteor coming for him with a giant mouth of mud with rock spikes as teeth, showing his artistic side. But the pokemon grabbed Aqua Jet’s velocity and used Quick Attack's flexibility to dash to the side, leaving the mouth to close empty. Mesa tried to grab him again, and he dashed away again, effectively ping-ponging across our field. He was way too fast to Mesa to catch, but Mesa didn’t need to catch him.

  “Make obstacles, Rock Tomb.” I said.

  The mud around Mesa spread rapidly across the ground, and pedestals of mud reached for the sky all over our side of the field. Bibarel smashed thought a few, but then mud became rock. The hardest rocks that Mesa could do, and then the Bibarel's round body was smashed around between two pillars.

  “Sand Tomb.”

  The pillars collapsed as Mesa showed his proficient with rock and ground energy by changing between them. The rocks became sand that grabbed at the Bibarel.

  “Water Gun, spread it out.”

  My face twisted in annoyance at the fact that he figured out the trick so fast. Mud is water and soil, and the more water it has, the less control Mesa has about it. The Bibarel’s Water Gun washed Mesa’s sand and control away.

  The tired pokemon swam above water and soil and across the field with another Aqua Jet, towards Mesa with a grey glowing head like a battering ram. If it hits, it would probably end the fight due to the Baltoy’s weak clay body.

  Losing control of rock and ground, even momentarily, would’ve been a problem for Mesa a while ago. Not anymore.

  The Bibarel’s head smashed into a floating pink screen that appeared in front of Mesa. Light Screen was Mesa’s newest move, a weaker version of the move the Kadabra was using to shield the trainers and arbiter from pokemon’s attacks and moves.

  The barrier held for three seconds before breaking, but it took all of Bibarel’s momentum. The damp pokemon looked up at the Baltoy and saw a pink spot shining bright just in front of the floating psychic type.

  Psybeam was unleashed point blank at the Bibarel’s face. The pokemon fainted before he even hit the puddles of water and mud behind him.

  Mesa danced, rotating in place.

  “The winner of this fight is Baltoy, and the winner of the match is Scott Wood.” the arbiter said, raising an arm in our direction.

  Mesa floated towards me and raised an arm, holding it out to me. I promptly slapped it with a smile.

  -

  “That was my best battle yet.” the boy said, adjusting his glasses and putting his three pokeballs into the Nurse’s bin. “Not even my two gym matches compared. Ridiculous.”

  “It was a good match,” I said, doing the same with Valley and Mountain. “And it was good for my team. We’ve fought against normal type pokemon but never a normal type team, even though I don’t think you tapped the full potential of the type.”

  Nurse Joy gestured to chairs where we could sit while we wait.

  Thomas was briefly surprised by my comment, “Yes, unfortunately we don’t have a large repertory of moves to use yet, but one day everyone will see the power of normal types, and I will be the first normal type trainer to become champion.”

  Normal type pokemon have basically one advantage over other types.

  Normal type moves are the thing that every pokemon has to pick up in order to complete their move set. They’re extremely easy to learn and master and are very versatile.

  A pokemon that fights in close combat can learn Hyper Beam, and a ranged pokemon can learn Giga Impact. Every single pokemon that fights in the Conferences knows Protect. And the greatest vantage that normal type pokemon have is that their normal type moves are much more powerful than when pokemon from other types use them.

  The Pokemon Professors talk about energy conversion or something like that. Either way, that's the result.

  “Well, I’m sure you can do it if you work hard.” Nothing wrong with encouraging someone. “So, when are you going to buy a Snorlax, champion?”

  “That’s too much, I’m not rich yet you know,” He laughed.

  He loosened up and then we started to talk about the pokemon that we wanted in the future and about our match until a voice interrupted us.

  “Good evening, Scott Wood.”

  Standing behind my chair was George Reed. His arms crossed as he looked at us.

  “Hello,” I said, not seeing the need to be antagonistic.

  “I saw you match,” he said. “It was a good battle. Congratulations on your victory.”

  “Thank you.”

  A smug smile grew on his face, “But if that’s the best you can do, you’ll have a big problem when you run into me.”

  He turned around and walked towards the waiting area.

  “How did you meet him?” Thomas asked with wide eyes.

  “I don’t exactly met him properly yet.” I answered and he fixed his glasses with an inquisitive look. “Our sponsors have, or used to have, a rivalry and he has decided that their antagonism has to go down to us.”

  “Ah… I see.”

  “Yeah, it’s a whole thing.”

  “Well, that’s my luck,” he said, slopping in his chair.

  “What?”

  “Of course I get put on the same group as George Reed’s rival,” he explained.

  “Oh, is he a big deal?” I asked him, curious about the ghost trainer. Of course, I could pretend that he didn’t exist, but I would have to fight him eventually, not only in this tournament but also in the Silver Conference, if what Katy told me about him is true.

  “For sure, famous commentators are speculating that he’s going to be the best first year in the Conference.”

  I hummed.

  The Nurse Joy came back with two bins of pokeballs and behind her, in a file, came six fairy pokemon of the Joy clan, each carrying a single bin. The eight trainers left the chairs and formed a line to collect their pokemon from her.

  -

  The group was sitting around a table again. This time, the furthest table from everyone else on the Pokemon Center lobby. Everyone had already reviewed the footage of their own matches.

  From our group of six trainer Katy, Dendra, Jess and I passed, winning all of our three battles while Ronald and Emilia were knocked out on their last battle.

  Ronald hit the brickwall that was that dragon trainer and Emilia, after winning her first two matches, ran into a flying trainer who specialises in speed, and who happens to also have won his first two matches. Her bug pokemon didn’t have a chance.

  That’s thankfully not a problem I have to deal with since I’m a generalist.

  They were out of the tournament and were so depressed that they went to bed early. First the loss to Morty and now getting knocked out of this tournament. That’s the kind of consecutive failures that makes most first years stop their journey.

  “Don’t worry, Scott,” Katy assured me when I made the comment in private. “I won’t let them quit.”

  Thomas’ battle was the hardest for my team, for my relief and for Cape’s disappointment since he didn’t get to fight. The other two trainers were just normal children who had the right typing combination to get two badges, they were okay but Mesa didn’t see another battle.

  The first match I needed only Mountain and Valley. The trainer didn’t have a pokemon that could reach the Cryogonal or a pokemon as strong and fast as Valley.

  At the second match Cryogonal won the first fight but then was knocked down by a Growlithe, Valley knocked the fire type but lost to the third pokemon, a Zubat. Finally, Jungle came out and put the pokemon out with his vines when it tried to get closer for an Absorb.

  “So that’s the brackets then,” Jess said looking at the laptop on the corner of the table.

  The four of us were seeing who would be our opponents. Sixteen names were seen there, organised in pairs for the matches, and then the successive blank spaces where only one name would advance until there was only one, the champion.

  “Dendra, Jess and I are on one side with the dragon trainer and you're on the other side… with George Reed.” Katy said.

  Ronald had already warned us that the dragon trainer from Hoenn that knocked him out was really strong. Dendra and Jess reviewed all of his matches after their round ended and also say that he’s way stronger than everyone else in the eight groups of the first half. But they didn’t know about George yet.

  “Who’s this George?” Dendra asked.

  “Agatha’s sponsored trainer, thinks he’s Scott’s rival because Agatha had a rivalry with Professor Oak.” Katy explained.

  “He thinks he’s Scott rival?” Jess asked.

  “We barely talked and never battled, but it’s what he thinks and considering that’s he strong it might be a good thing. Cape is relaxing a little too much without a strong opponent.”

  “That’s another thing Scott, I was able to get footage of his matches and send it to your e-mail. Can we see it now on your laptop?”

  “Of course, let me put just put it in.” I said and then put up the videos.

  For the next ten minutes we watched the footage of George Reed’s battles with very low audio to not disturb the lobby. We sat in silence, looking at the same pokemon fighting in each battle over and over again. As the arbiter announced George’s last victory, we leaned back from the laptop and looked at each other.

  “That's his fourth pokemon,” Katy said after we some seconds passed. The three of them looked at me.

  “This might be a problem,” I said.