The moment the match begins I call out “Coraline move in and astonish.”

To Austin’s credit he pulls himself together quickly yelling “Don’t let it get close, use water gun!” Totodile inhales before opening his mouth releasing a jet of water towards the approaching Coraline.

“Under!” I shout. Before the water gun reaches Coraline drops into the ground turning into a shadow using shadow sneak. As the water gun fizzles out Coraline emerges in front of Totodile letting out an astonish. The sudden attack causes Totodile to flinch from surprise as the ghost type energy infused cry rattles through him.

“Quickly Totodile, use bite!” It takes a moment for Totodile to collect himself, but it’s enough for Coraline to once again descend into the ground. Totodile bites nothing but air causing Austin to let out a series of curses.

I smile at Austin’s outburst, but also Coraline’s proficient use of shadow sneak. It is the move I had her put the most training into due to its sheer versatility.

“Shadow claw.” I call out. Coraline circles around emerging behind Totodile. A claw made of pure darkness extends out from the bottom of Coraline’s costume radiating ghost energy, slashing horizontally the claw rasping across Totodile’s scaled back. The attack knocked totodile forward onto his stomach. Austin can be heard calling for Totodile to pull himself together. Totodile breathes heavily trying to pick himself off the ground before fainting.

The man reffing the match exclaims “Totodile has fainted. The winner is the young lady with the unknown pokemon.”

Coraline runs over to me, her stick tail wagging a mile a minute. I smile, “Wonderful job Coraline, I’m so proud of you.” I say picking up Coraline to hold her in my arms. As I do Opera gives a congratulating chirp to Coraline. Across the field Austin returns Totodile. His hands are clenched so hard his arms are shaking. I start to feel bad for him, I may have taken things too far. I begin to walk toward Austin to apologize but before I make it to him he lifts his head glaring at me and Coraline. Before I can even open my mouth to say anything Austin screams loud enough for everyone to hear “THIS IS BULLSHIT!” I’m taken aback, not sure how to respond as he starts stomping up to me. Austin shoots his hand out pointing at me “YOU MUST HAVE CHEATED!” he looks to be on the verge of tears. “I WILL MAKE YOU RUE THE DAY YOU MADE AN ENEMY OF AUSTIN JONES! NEXT TIME WE MEET I WILL BEAT YOU!” He then proceeds to run off.

This kid is crazy. I don't even know what to say. Behind me I hear someone say “Sorry about Austin, he has a bit of a fragile ego.” I turn around to see a boy about my age with glasses and dark forest green hair. “It’s mostly his mom's fault. His mom is a blatant kangaskhan parent who got him thinking he’s the next Lance.” The kid then extends his hand to me “Names Chai by the way.”

I put Coroline down and took his hand. “My name is Alice.” Looking in the direction Austin ran off “How do you know him anyway?”

Chai responds “A pleasure to meet you Alice. We’re both from New Bark town. His family is pretty famous there, mostly due to his mother’s antics.”

I take a second to process what was just said before coming to a shocking realization “Wait that’s where professor Elm’s lab is. That means professor Elm gave him his starter. Why would Elm give that kid a starter?”

Chai chuckles “I volunteer at Elm’s lab as an assistant. I want to be a pokemon professor specializing in the use of pokemon regarding botany, but that's besides the point. I was actually there when Austin’s mom practically kicked the door in and demanded a starter for her son. Now, if there is one thing everyone knows about professor Elm is that he’s not good with people. So eventually professor Elm agrees to give Austin a starter just so his mom stops shouting at him.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I was stupefied at the thought of such an occurrence “So you’re telling me a random woman barged into the lab of Johto’s most prestigious professor. Demanded a starter for her child and he agreed to give him one just to get rid of her” I say dumbfounded.

“Yep.” Chai says popping the ‘p’. “Anyway that’s not what not what I want to talk about. What was that super cool pokemon you have? I’ve never seen anything like it. Do you mind if I send a picture to Elm? He would be over the moon if I were to show him an unknown pokemon.” Chai says excitedly.

I take a second to collect myself after the series of recent bombshells. “This is Coraline my mimikyu. Elm already knows about her, we met him last night”

Chai takes a long look at my face before his eyes widen in realization “You’re the girl who's been all over the forum. That means the professors met with you because you have an unknown pokemon. That's so cool, what’s professor Oak like?” Chai proceeds to ask more question at a speed too fast for me to process let alone answer them”

Chai finally takes a breath. After a minute of nonstop questions I finally got a chance to speak “I’m going to be honest, I didn’t understand a single thing you said so lets put that on the backburner for now.” Coraline moves in front of me, her clawed hand comes out and extends for a handshake copying Chai and I a minute before letting out a “kukuku” in greeting. Chai takes hold of Coralin’s hand with both of his own shaking it “This is so cool. It feels like I’m holding air but it’s clearly physical.” Coraline is clearly enjoying the attention. Looking down at her I smile saying “Look at you making a new friend.” Her fake head looks up and nods at me.

Chai looks back at me “Hey Alice, do you mind if we battle?”

I smiled “Sure, but just so you know I promised Opera he could have the next battle.”

Chai responds “Shame. I would love to see more of what mimikyu is capable of, but I’m sure it will be an Interesting match anyway.” Chai begins to walk off “Stay right there I’ll get a kadabra and someone to ref.

As Chai walks toward a kadabra I look over to Opera on my shoulder. “Ready to go Opera?” The Swablu gives me an excited chirp in response, raring to go. A moment later a kadabra teleports to the side of the field. I can see Chai pull the same man who refereed my match against Austin over to the field.

When Chai gets to the other trainer box the kadabra puts up a barrier and the ref begins the usual spiel. When told to release our pokemon, Opera jumps off my shoulder landing in the arena. Taking a pokeball off his belt Chai shouts out “You should know, Austin isn’t the only one to get a starter from Elm.” before he throws his pokeball causing it to open to reveal a chikorita. Catching the pokeball on the return, Chai calls out “This is a tough opponent Basil, be on your guard.”

The moment the ref says begin I call on Opera to ascend and to use disarming voice. I want to test the waters and see how Chai is going to respond.

Chai calls out “Ingrain and Razor leaf Basil!” Roots appear out of Chikorita’s hooves connecting it to the ground just as the disarming voice reaches. Basil grits her teeth as she whips the leaf atop her head letting loose a series of razor leaves. As she does so the roots begin to glow slowly healing him from the damage of disarming voice.

“Destroy them with dragon’s breath and move in.” Opera inhales deeply before exhaling a deluge of blue draconic energy turning the leaves to ash. With the path clear, Opera dives toward Chikorita. “Take down Opera, Uproot him!”

Chai stays silent until the moment before impact “Now Basil, poison powder.” Basil shakes her whole body letting out a cloud of purple powder around her. With too much momentum to stop, Opera flies right into the cloud Smashing his body into Basil ripping the chikorita from the roots as both of them shoot out the other end of the cloud. Chai calls out “Basil Absorb, before he recovers.”

“Close quarters Opera. peck!” I shout out. Opera winces clearly poisoned, but Basil isn’t doing any better. Opera jumps in the air once again diving at Basil beak primed with flying energy. Basil lets loose the absorb from his leaf. The energy beam on course to hit Opera. A moment before the beam hits, Opera tucks his wings into a dive. The absorb just barely scraping his tail feathers as Opera dodges the beam from underneath. Chai yells for Basil to dodge but it’s too late. Opera’s peck hits Basil center mass for super effective damage.

Even with the crisp Autumn air a bead of sweat rolls down my face. The smile spreads across my face. Now this is a pokemon battle. It can still go either way and both me and Chai know it. The poison is hurting Opera more than I thought it would. Chai is trying to draw this battle out. I need to end it soon. I yell out “Opera Dragon’s Breath Point Blank!”

Chai’s eyes go wide “Basil Don’t Let Him, Absorb Again!” He screams. Both pokemon are barely a foot away as they both charge up their attacks releasing them at the same time. The attacks clash against each other for a moment, But the absorb’s grass energy soon yield to the ravaging dragon energy. Opera’s dragon’s breath collides with Basil as he cries out, knocking the chikorita to the ground and fainting. As the ref announces his victory Opera raises his wings in celebration letting out his mightiest chirp, his own dragon roar.