Lenny tried to look confident but it wasn't a look he was used to carrying and so it was nearly impossible to pull off. He attempted to steady his hands. They were shaking so badly he could barely hold on to the Pokéball. This was a big moment for Lenny. This would decide whether or not he would stay on at New Moon Academy. This battle would decide Lenny's fate and the problem was, he had no idea how to win. It was impossible.

"Go Scizor!" his Dad cried out in his powerful booming voice. The Pokémon that hit the field was the one that had carried his father to victory in the Pokémon World Tournament. It had gone undefeated, striking fear into the hearts of its enemies and now Lenny somehow had to find a way past the big red bug.

"Aegislash!" This was it then. For a moment, the opposing Pokémon just stared each other down. Scizor snapped its great red pincers menacingly and Aegislash simply blinked its purple eye, not rising to the bait. That was to be expected in shield form. Currently, Lenny's Pokémon was hiding behind a round, golden shield but whenever it was time to strike, a quick whip of its purple, cloth like arms and all of a sudden, it'd be a serrated gold and silver sword, capable of dishing out incredible amounts of damage.

"Well are you just going to stand there all day or are you actually going to call an attack?" his Dad taunted.

"Alright fine, use Shadow Claw!"

"Bug Bite!" Lenny had already made his first mistake. A wild swing of the sword was all too easy to capitalise on for a veteran and before Lenny knew it, he was in real trouble. Scizor clamped its claws down onto the exposed blade before flapping its delicate wings and spinning, releasing Aegislash and sending it flying across the arena.

"Aegislash no!" Lenny cried as his Pokémon barely managed to get up. He shouldn't have been reeled in so easily by his father's taunting. If he was going to win this, he'd need to keep a cool head. Unfortunately, distractions were turning up. Apparently they'd been making a fair amount of noise as a few curious people had started to show up and then when they realised what was going on, more and more people had begun to stream in and now the stands were almost half full.

"C'mon Son, is that all you've got?" his Dad laughed and the crowd cheered. They thought they were about to get another demonstration from a world champion and as none of them knew the stakes that were on the line, they were all backing him.

"No, we're only getting started," Lenny replied as calmly as he could. "Now make your move Dad, your fans are waiting."

"Alright then, Night Slash!"

"King's Shield!" This time, it was Lenny's taunt that paid off and it was Scizor's vicious slash that left it exposed when with a flash of gold, Aegislash blocked the attack with ease and the harsh clanging of metal on metal. "Now Sacred Sword!" Yet another flash of gold as with immense speed, Aegislash brought up its serrated blade, slicing at its foes jaw and knocking it backwards.

"Well, well, well perhaps this won't be quite as easy as I thought," his Dad grinned as Scizor shook off the attack and got to its feet. "Maybe there is a chance that you'll stay in New Moon Academy after all." The crowd's roars and cheers turned into confused whispering as they began to realise what was at stake.

"I've learned a lot here Dad. I'm not the same person as I was two years ago."

"One good turn in battle doesn't prove that Son. You're still just as inexperienced as I thought. Now let's get back to this fight - Scizor use Night Slash!"

"Block it again with King's Shield!"

"Ha! All too easy!" his Dad laughed before the sequence even took place. This time Scizor missed its attack on purpose, soaring high over the shielding Pokémon before it somersaulted and during the motion it clamped its unbelievably strong pincers down onto Aegislash's shield. Its momentum was enough to rip the shield from Aegislash's grip sending it into the stands. Now completely defenceless, Lenny was powerless to stop a relentless onslaught of attacks from his father, dispatching his poor Pokémon like it had barely even been a challenge. They had only just started and already, Lenny was down a very powerful Pokémon. This battle had just gotten a lot harder.

*

Alex's eyes snapped open upon regaining consciousness. He was lying face down on the dry grass and he felt awful. His sides ached and he could tell that almost every part of his body was badly bruised. He pushed himself up on to his knees slowly, groaning at the terrible pain it brought to his ribs and stomach. Eventually, Alex managed to get into a sitting position and through his loud moans, he slumped against the wall of the school.

Finally in a more comfortable position and somewhat free of pain, Alex could at least think straight. That had been a very close call with Thomas. He had been so, so unbelievably close to ordering a lethal attack, to end his stupid, arrogant life and to finally be rid of the man he so desperately hated. Why of all the people in the school to fall for did Megan have to fall for that psychopath? He sighed so much that it physically hurt his practically broken body. He'd never been beaten up before. He didn't know how to handle it.

Alex looked around him and began to feel desperate. He was alone. Completely and utterly alone with not a single life form in sight. None of his friends had come looking for him. Nobody was wondering where he was. He was just sat here, lost and broken with no shoulder to cry on and nobody to give him a pick me up when he needed it most.

His brain was so confused. His head was a jumbled mess of a concoction of thoughts, all flying around too quickly to properly understand. Thomas and Megan constantly flashed in his mind, mixed in with thoughts of his loneliness, his depression and of course the voice. The voice was a terror that he just couldn't seem to escape. It fed on his fears and grew stronger, it grew louder and Alex felt like he was growing more powerless to try and stop its predictions coming true.

What was he turning into? A few moments ago, he'd looked Thomas in the eye and felt nothing but genuine rage and anger. He'd wanted him dead. He'd actually wished death upon another human. Was the voice controlling him? Was it affecting his mind? Or was he really capable of murder?

"Am I... am I the bad guy?" he mumbled to himself. "Am I going bad?" The thought brought a tear to his eye. This whole time he thought he'd been fighting against some evil force but what if the evil force was him? What if somehow, subconsciously, he'd been the one who had attacked Tobias? Was it possible?

"Free!" Alex looked up for a moment and saw his old friend Butter had jumped out of its ball and was fluttering just in front of him.

"Butter?"

"Free!"

"Marowak!"

"Chandy!"

"Slow!"

"Growth!"

"Gar!"

"All of you?" he asked, looking at all of his Pokémon. He hadn't even touched their Pokéballs, they had just spontaneously jumped out themselves. It was a truly moving scene as all of his Pokémon smiled at him, even the rugged and fearsome Garchomp looked friendly.

"Free!" Butterfree nodded.

"I'm not alone. I've got all of you. My friends." For the next few seconds, he couldn't breathe. He was too busy being crushed by the most enormous hug. It didn't matter that Chandelure's flames were burning him or that Marowak's bone was digging into his ribs or that Garchomp's claws had ripped his skin. What mattered the most and what caused him to cry was the teary eyed Butterfree that had latched itself to his face and all of the love that he could feel from his Pokémon. They were his family and as long as he had them, he'd never be alone.

"Thanks you guys," Alex smiled to his Pokémon when they eventually broke the hug. Whatever the voice was and whatever it wanted, as long as he had his Pokémon by his side, he knew he could fight it. Just as he reached for his Pokéballs to return his Pokémon, he felt a vibration in his pocket. It was his phone. Apparently he'd had a string of text messages from Bella. His eyes widened when he read the story.

"Oh shit. Oh shit!" he exclaimed, jumping to his feet despite the immense agony it caused him. "Right you lot, back in your Pokéballs, I've got a Lenny to save."

*

"Gogoat, Bulldoze!"

"Bullet Punch, Bug Bite combo!" The situation had turned from bad to worse. As cautious as Lenny had been with his second Pokémon, he just couldn't evade Scizor's numerous attacks and any offensive manoeuvres that he attempted were merely brushed aside. Gogoat's latest attack proved the least effective of all as Scizor simply gave a flap of its wings to avoid the tremor before rushing Gogoat at breakneck speed, knocking it off balance with a metallic punch before finishing off the job by clamping down on its foe with its pincers. Lenny was down to his last Pokémon.

"You tried your best Gogoat," Lenny sighed, somewhat defeated as he returned his fallen Pokémon.

"Perhaps your Pokémon did try its best but it didn't look like it from here Son," his Dad chided, "And neither are you from the looks of things. This battle's barely even started and you've already given up! This is exactly why you're not fit for battle!"

"I always try my best!" Lenny retorted. "But you always expect too much from me. You're a world champion, how the hell am I supposed to win?"

"With that attitude, you can never win."

"Yeah, that's how it always is with you. I can never win." Lenny sighed. This was the moment when he half expected Alex to rush into the arena and give him a pep talk that could fire him to victory. He waited for a few moments before realising that it wasn't going to happen. He was on his own and he'd need to win on his own. He had to prove himself.

"Well, are you going to stand there all day? Send out your last Pokémon and let's finish this!"

"Chinchou!" Lenny's final Pokémon was the one that his father had helped him to capture as a reward for gaining entry into New Moon Academy and it would hopefully be the Pokémon that could keep him here as well.

"So you've not even evolved your Chinchou?" his Dad mocked. "You can't even raise a Pokémon - let alone battle with it!"

"Did you ever consider that I didn't want to evolve my Chinchou?" Lenny asked. His Dad's usual confident face suddenly turned to utter confusion.

"But, why?"

"Did you ever consider that I like Chinchou the way it is? Did you ever consider that I've gotten comfortable and used to using Chinchou in battle and that evolving it into Lanturn would change all of that? Did you ever consider that there's more to battle than just strength?"

"I-"

"No, you didn't!" Lenny yelled, surprised at his own defiance. "You never think about anyone other than yourself you selfish bastard!"

"Ryan..."

"Well I've got some news for you. I'm not you! I'm me and you'll never understand what that's like! Now unless you've got other plans, I've got a battle to win! Chinchou, use Volt Switch!"

"Bullet Punch!" his Dad cried but Lenny's outburst had lead to a moment's hesitation and it cost him dearly as Scizor was too slow to get off the mark and merely jumped into the jolt of electricity that Chinchou had shot from its glowing antennae. What made matters worse for Scizor was that Chinchou had suddenly appeared behind it and it was wide open for another attack.

"Bubblebeam!" Chinchou opened its mouth and let loose a barrage of bubbles striking its foe with an immense popping noise.

"Scizor, fend them off with Night Slash!"

"Volt Switch!" A huge lunge and a few wild swipes from Scizor had destroyed all of the bubbles that had been slowing it down but it left it completely unbalanced and open for another shower of sparks. By now the crowd were getting dizzy as Chinchou had once again appeared on the opposite side of the arena.

"Be ready with Bug Bite Scizor!"

"Thunderbolt and the Volt Switch!" The entire field was suddenly illuminated by an incredible flash of light as Scizor was struck by an immensely powerful blast of electricity that sent shock waves all through its body. However, when Chinchou spun and fired off another Volt Switch, Scizor was ready. It somehow recovered from the attack instantly and jumped over the spark before lashing out with its pincers and latching on to the antennae of Chinchou who was hurtling across the room.

"Bullet Punch, knock it off course!"

"Use Thunderbolt to shake it off!" Lenny desperately cried. Several incredible flashes followed, cries of Pokémon in pain and then an almighty thud as the two Pokémon slammed into the back wall. It had happened so quickly, nobody had caught a glimpse of exactly what happened, all they knew is that both Pokémon were unable to battle.

"Lenny!" he heard a familiar cry behind him as he dropped to his knees, defeated.

"No..." he breathed. All three of his Pokémon has been knocked out. He'd beaten the unbeatable Scizor but at the cost of the match. His time at New Moon Academy was over.

"Lenny, no!" Alex's loud footsteps had reached him. Lenny looked up to see his friend looking weary and out of breath and oddly enough, he was now sporting a black eye that hadn't been present at the beginning of the day. "Lenny, pick yourself up man, send out your next Pokémon! You can win this!"

"I can't Alex. It's over. I lost."

"No... Lenny..."

"That's right young man," his Dad said as he made his way over to the two teens. "If you came to give my son an inspirational pep talk you're too late. The battle's over and so is Lenny's time here at New Moon Academy."

"No, I won't let you go," Alex shook his head and wincing, he drew out a Pokéball. "I'll take you on. If I win, Lenny gets to stay."

"No Alex."

"C'mon Lenny, I can take him!"

"No Alex, this isn't your fight," Lenny shook his head. He slowly got to his face and looked his dumbfounded friend in the eye. "He's my Dad, it was my deal and I lost. It was my chance to prove myself and I failed. I have to take the punishment."

"But Lenny!"

"No buts Alex. No excuses. I lost fair and square." Lenny turned to his Dad who was watching the interaction with great interest.

"That's right, he lost the battle and a deal's a deal," his Dad nodded. He checked his watch. "Our ferry leaves in five hours. I suggest that you two make the most of the rest of your day."

"We will," Lenny nodded. He and Alex turned and walked out of the arena side by side for what would probably be the last time ever.