"This is no way to begin a day." He grumbled as he dragged himself out of bed and sleepily slammed the alarm off. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he glanced at the time: 6:00 AM.

"Always the early riser? I’m never the early riser. If I were an early riser," he complained, stumbling out of bed and into the shower, "I wouldn’t be getting up this bloody early to go to some half—" His words were drowned out by the water running in the shower.

Merely minutes later, a soft curse was heard, accompanied by a, "Stupid soap! The day I can actually hold the things without ‘em slipping…"

After a ten minute shower, mostly due to the water—with another curse—having run cold, the tall, thin boy walked out of the bathroom with only a towel wrapped around his waist, his chest and abs shown off, rubbing a hand through his long, spiky black hair, hanging freely.

Still asleep, he shrugged on a red shirt, a black vest and baggy jeans, and some hiking boots. Smoothing his hair down quickly with hand, he shoved on green and black cap, then narrowly missed falling back into bed as he grabbed an old version of the Pokébelt and strapped it on, only then adding the four Pokéballs that held his Pokémon.

Waking up, he grabbed a complimentary bagel, shrugged on his pack, and stepped outside into the hall.

The hallway was already buzzing with trainers, hotel employees, and proud parents. The boy paid them no mind as he walked slowly, munching on his bagel. He wasn’t particularly excited about the competitions today. They were just having qualifications, and while he almost always made it, he had never won the Nationals.

Not once in the five years he had attended had he won, so he wasn’t really going to be surprised if he lost again this year. He didn’t mind, as every year, he ranked a little closer to the top. Who knew, a couple more years of training and he might beat the pants off the champs.

But that was all farther in the future. Right now, the boy had to focus on qualifying for the competition. He was pretty sure he would make it, but he couldn’t reflect that cockiness he always displayed outward towards the world.

He was just walking slowly up to the registration desk when he heard a voice shout, hard to hear above the din all the other excited trainers made.

"Jarad! Yo, wait up!"

As he turned, Jarad was surprised to see a boy a little younger than him come running through the crowd and stop with a skid in front of him. As the boy stood taller panting, Jarad got a good look at his dyed light blue hair, oval glasses, and shockingly green eyes. The boy wore a gray and black vest over his dark green shirt, black jeans, and hiking boots. Vests and boots were common wear on experienced trainers, who had traveled a lot.

"Joseph?" Jarad asked, surprised to see his old friend.

"Shoot, are you still calling me that? The least you can do is call me Joe." The boy retorted with a grin. "Well, I can think of less, but…"

Jarad shook his head in amazement. "What are you doing here?"

"What do you think I’m doing here? I just thought I’d come all the way from good old Samuriki Town to sample the food." When Jarad raised an eyebrow, he laughed. "Man, lighten up. I competed too, y’know. Just so happens Kadabra beat the crap out of everyone. And, well, I figured, if Jarad is gonna go from Catikani City—I got your letter—I might as well go too. I mean, what harm could it do?"

"You talk too much. C’mon, if we don’t hurry we’ll get knocked out."

Thus, the two friends reunited stepped over to the counter, where an already tired cashier took their passes and handed them VIP cards.

Putting his cap straighter, with Joe laughing at his side, Jarad stepped through the stadium doors…and into sheer pandemonium.

<><><>

After finding their way through the shouting crowd to the trainer’s locker room, Jarad and Joe checked in with the battle coordinator, signing up for battle; as it happened, Jarad was to have three battles, the first against Joe, the second against someone by the name of Jennifer, and the third against a girl by the name of Samantha.

"Ah, Jarad," the coordinator said. "I see you’ve got good ratings for the last year. Welcome back, and good luck!"

Joe also had to fight Samantha, as well as a Nicholas.

Jarad and Joe’s battle came up first. As they walked out to the center of the field, Jarad and Joe wished each other good luck, shook, and walked off, both going into their "battle mode," not letting their friendship come in the way of—or be harmed by—the battle.

"Ladies and gentleman!" the announcer yelled over the loudspeakers. "The first qualifying match of the day is between our green trainer, Joe Nakisantu, and our red trainer, Jarad Hikanis. Three Pokémon each, switch type-battle, no time limit!" As the announcer went into a brief bio on each of the combatants, the referee yelled to them the rules again.

"And now, let the battle begin!" the announcer screamed.

"Kadabra, I choose you!" Joe shouted, barely heard against the cheering crowd as he threw a Pokéball into the center of the field.

"Oh, the green trainer seems to be a Psychic trainer! He just called a Kadabra!"

"Alright, Butterfree, this is an easy one!" Jarad called, throwing one of his Pokéballs.

And the overlarge butterfly emerged, the announcer cried out again, "Oh! The five-time contestant Jarad has decided to use Butterfree! This will be a match!"

"You go first." Jarad motioned, signaling Joe to start the battle.

"Alright!" Joe mouthed as he grinned. "Kadabra, Psywave!"

"Butterfree! Evade and Ghostly Psybeam!" Jarad called.

As waves of energy rippled through the air towards Butterfree, the flying Pokémon dodged out of the way and glowed, sending a lightning fast beam of energy rocketing towards Kadabra. With another flash of light, the Kadabra teleported away from the light, only to be caught off guard by the actual Psybeam slammed into it, the light from the decoy seeming to melt into mist.

"Kadabra, return!" Joe shouted, mouth open in a grin at Jarad’s attack. Pulling another Pokéball, he threw it, crying, "Exeggutor, go!" With a flash of light, a walking cocconut tree with three heads appeared, crouched as best it could with no arms for balance, and glared as Jarad.

"Butterfree, return!" Jarad shouted, a thin red beam shooting from his outstretched Pokéball, recalling Jarad’s favorite Pokémon. Putting it away and pulling another, Jarad threw his new Pokéball into the ring, crying, "Ponyta, Go!"

"I hate you!" Joe mouthed playfully. "Check this out! Exeggutor, triple agility now!"

Jarad cursed as his friend’s Pokémon became lightning fast. "Ponyta! Fire Spin!"

Despite Ponyta’s speed and its
tornado of flame, Exeggutor slammed into it, KOing it in one hit.

Jarad cursed again. "Ponyta return!" he yelled.

"This looks to be a close one folks!" the announcer yelled. "Both trainers have agreed beforehand to only use each Pokémon once! This looks like this’ll be it!" the announcer yelled.

Joe and Jarad turned to the ref at the same time, both drawing a hand across their throats and looking pointedly at the announcer’s stand.

"And folks! It looks like the two trainers have a mutual desire for me to stop reporting every obvious event!"

"Alright, Pepper, I choose you!" Jarad shouted, throwing another Pokéball. From it emerged a scarlet Butterfree, sapphire eyes glinting kindly in the summer light.

"Ha! My last one is…Staryu!" Joe responded, his own Pokéball opening and revealing a starfish-like Pokémon in a flash of red light.

"Flash!" Jarad called. A huge, blinding white light caused everyone in the stadium to raise their hands to protect their eyes.

"Staryu! Hydro Pump!" Joe retorted.

"Whoa!" Jarad cried as he dived aside to avoid the mis-aimed blast of water. "Confusion!"

With that, Pepper’s image seemed to shift and wiggle, as did Staryu’s. When it was over, Staryu was doing a strange little jig.

"Ah…tackle Staryu!" Joe ordered, obviously missing his Pokédex’s beeping pattern, alerting him that Staryu was confused.

Staryu shook itself, as it didn’t have a head, and leapt towards…the wall. When it hit, the battle was over.

The crowd cheered as the announcer asked timidly, "Can I talk now?"

Jarad and Joe shook hands, after recalling their Pokémon, and left for the locker room to heal their Pokémon.

<><><>

"What?" Jarad asked.

"Everyone for himself. There are more contestants this year, and if we don’t start multi-trainer battles we’ll never finish the qualifiers." The instructor explained again. "Don’t worry! Once the actual tournament begins, we’ll have regular battles. Besides, this is a special year!" He added with an over-enthusiastic wink. "You’ll be happy yet!"

Jarad and Joe still grumbled about their upcoming match. It wasn’t even a typical two-verse-two. It was Jarad, Joe, Nicholas, Samantha, Jennifer, and someone who had their name withheld all in a "every man for himself," type battle. This was going to be interesting yet.

They couldn’t argue anymore, as they had to leave to prepare for their upcoming match.

<><><>

The crowd was excited at the new battle form that lay before them. Arranged around a circular shaped field were six chalk rectangles, one with each trainer in it. This was a new type of battle, and the arena was over three times the size of a typical battle field.

The ref stood to the side, explaining. "You may use only one Pokémon at a time," he shouted. "Your Pokémon may fight alongside another’s such as, Green and Blue trainers’ Pokémon against Red and Yellow’s. But you may not use two on one techniques!"

As he stated this important rule, Jarad caught Joe’s glance, both of them nodding slightly. Jarad noticed that the girls did the same, while both the other boys simply watched the ref.

"Listen up!" the ref shouted, causing Jarad to jerk his glance over at the ref, who was glaring at one of the girls. "This is no typical trainer battle! You may use items, even Rare Candies—if you know what those are—during the battle. Due to time restraints, you may use two Pokémon each, but only once." Making eye contact with all of them, he added, "Good luck." And he stepped to the side of the ring.

"Very well ladies and gentleman!" the announcer said tentatively, eyeing Jarad and Joe. "This is no ordinary battle, as I’m sure you know. If you look at your pamphlets handed to you, you may find the rules for this battle. So, to get to the point," he said, reading perfectly the warning glances all of the trainers threw him, "Will the Red, Green, and Orange trainers please select their Pokémon?"

With that, Jarad, the Red trainer again, and both the other boys that he didn’t know readied themselves. Jarad picked his favorite Pokéball, throwing it, and called, "Butterfree, let’s go!"

The boy to Jarad’s left wore all black, from his baseball cap, shirt, jeans, and boots, to his backpack. The only change in the darkness was the mahogany Caterpie on his shoulder, leaping into the arena without a word, his brown tinted shades, and a strange white and black watch on his wrist.

The boy on the left of the first one wasn’t a boy at all. He seemed to Jarad to be an older man trying to be disguised as a young trainer. He pulled a Pokéball silently, and threw it, revealing a Charizard.

Jarad and the others gasped. On the whole, giant island of Dedrumont, no one had any proof of Charizard having ever been on the island, or its outlying sea caves.

"Wow! That’s one heck of a—" a look from Jarad brought him back to task. "Ah, excuse me. Would the Yellow, Blue, and Purple trainers please select their Pokémon?"

With that, from left to right, Joe selected Amarrie, his Butterfree. A girl with loose, green-black hair, a dark green vest over a tight white shirt, and faded short-shorts pulled a Pokéball off of her loose Pokébelt, a newer model, and threw it, crying, "Go, Vileplume!"

The final girl, on Jarad’s right, wore hiking boots, long dark blue jeans, and a blue T-shirt. From a tight Pokébelt, she produced a dark blue and white Pokéball, threw it wordlessly, and revealed a Squirtle.

"Let the battle…ah, I mean, battles…begin!" the announcer shouted, and immediately the huge, circular arena was in chaos.

"Butterfree!" Jarad yelled, "Try teleporting and Psybeaming!"

"Charizard! Flameth—"

"Spectrum! Stop the Charizard!"

With a flash that stilled the battle only for an instant, the mahogany Caterpie—obviously Spectrum—was over to the Charizard, knocking it out with a single tackle.

"That’s one heck of a Caterpie!" the girl in short-shorts—Jarad couldn’t help but notice the shapely legs—shouted. "Vileplume! Petal Dance!"

"Butterfree! Amarrie! Suspended Teleport!" With a flash of light the two Butterfree were gone, and apparently had left the battle field.

Meanwhile, thousands of petals had leapt from the vibrantly colored Vileplume,. Spreading in all directions and knocking out the Squirtle. Spectrum was so small and quick that it was able to dodge all of the Petals, tackling and knocking out the Vileplume.

"Oh no! Vileplume, return!" she shouted, recalling her Pokémon at the same time the two Butterfree appeared with a flash of light.

The Vileplume girl started to call another Pokémon, the remembered that she had to wait for round one to end.

"Psybeam!" Joe shouted, and Amarrie glowed, sending a powerful beam of energy at Spectrum. Unfortunately, the Butterfree didn’t see its lower evolution dodge and tackle it, sending it to dream land.

"Butterfree! Teleport and Ghostly Psybeam!"

Spectrum sent a huge wad of String Shot at Butterfree to stop it, but Butterfree was gone, reappearing and striking from behind. When Spectrum dodged the decoy, Butterfree shot the real one into it, head on.

But the Caterpie glowed mahogany, and the beam dissipated, the Caterpie slamming a win into Butterfree.

"Agh! Butterfree! Return!"

<><><>

"I want that one. Take him out, and let the others finish the battle. I will decide who else to take."

"Yes, sir."