Standing in the tunnel about to enter the battling arena, Alex almost felt nervous. Taking a deep breath, he grabbed his chosen Pokéball and stared at it. Everything that he'd been training for from the first moment he stepped onto this island had come to this. His chance to prove himself had finally come and if he messed it up, Williams would never let him forget it.

"Relax." Megan said as she squeezed his hand. "You know you'll be fine."

"Thanks." He replied, shooting her a smile. Megan was so supportive, so willing to help him out, it couldn't help but give Alex a little bit of confidence. She gave him a slight push out into the blinding lights of the arena. Alex took a moment to take in his surroundings. The large battlefield had been split into several smaller battlefields to allow for multiple battles at once due to time constraints. All around the arena were the stands, seating all of the first years, eagerly watching the heavily anticipated battles.

Alex made his way over to his designated field, where his opponent, Howard, was waiting. His tie was pale yellow, the colour of Uxie, and he wore some pretty slick glasses which he kept on having to adjust. Once the niceties were over and done with, the tournament finally got under way.

*

Back in the stands, Alex could reflect upon the short battle. It had been pretty easy for Butterfree to take down Howard's Solosis by putting it to sleep and then firing off multiple Gust attacks to knock it out with ease. Howard had attempted to use an interesting strategy by using a move called Trick Room but unfortunately for him, it was already too late and Solosis had been struck by Butterfree's Sleep Powder. Now, Alex was watching a round two match, between Edward and Lenny. This could be pretty awesome.

*

Lenny saw Alex sitting in the front row just behind him, giving him a smile which gave him a tiny bit of confidence. He turned back to face his opponent, Edward. As a second round match, this was pretty much as tough as they got. Edward was cool, cocky, confident and from what he'd heard, an excellent battler. All Lenny could really do was try his best.

"Go, Chinchou!" Lenny said as he threw his Pokéball to the centre of the field, showing his partner Pokémon. Edward's response was just a little bit terrifying.

"Not bad." Edward said, flicking his spiky hair out of his eyes. "But compared to this, it's not much." He threw his own Pokéball out, revealing a monstrous Pokémon. It was half blue and half black with the odd dash of purple. It had six shredded wings and three heads, two of which doubled as arms. It was floating, and swaying its tail slowly from side to side. It was scary. It was a Hydreigon.

"Uh, ok, that's... it's..." his voice tailed off as he felt the fear flush through his body. He'd never faced something so big or so powerful before and he didn't even know how to start. How was it possible to win this fight?

"No response, eh?" Edward grinned, staring right into Lenny's presumably panicked eyes. "I guess I'll start then. Hydreigon, use Dragon Pulse!" Hydreigon's three great mouths all opened, each charging up a separate beam of rich purple light before they all fired, combining together, tripling in strength and completely blasting Lenny's poor Chinchou back, ramming it into the back wall of the field. Chinchou hadn't even stood a chance at dodging the attack it had come so quickly. Lenny was at a complete loss.

"Still nothing?" Edward said as Hydreigon roared with triumph, watching as Chinchou just barely got back to its feet. "Alright then, I'll go again, Dark Pulse!" As Hydreigon prepared another attack, Lenny looked at his Chinchou and Chinchou looked back, a weary look of worry on its face. Lenny tried to get the words out of his mouth to order something but he couldn't do it. His nerves had once again gotten the better of him.

"Lenny, what're you doing?" came a cry from behind him. It was Alex. "Lenny, you're not thinking straight. Tell Chinchou to dodge, quick!" Even with Alex telling him what to do, it was too late as Chinchou was once again hit by a tremendously strong attack, this time it was a black beam, not really of light but more of dark energy that pounded Chinchou to the ground. Somehow, Chinchou wasn't out just yet.

"I... I can't do it." Lenny breathed. "He's too much."

"No he's not Lenny." Alex said firmly. "You just to need get a grip. Remember everything you've learned. Believe in yourself and your Pokémon."

"Hydreigon, finish this with another Dragon Pulse!" Edward ordered, not even paying attention to the pep talk that Alex was giving.

"You can win this Lenny. You just need confidence." Alex's look was firm. He truly believed that Lenny could win this impossible fight. Lenny shot his friend a smile and a thumbs up before turning back to the task at hand.

"Alright then Chinchou, let's do this." Lenny said as he faced the mammoth challenge of defeating the incredible Hydreigon. "Use Thunder Wave!"

"Chou!" Chinchou cried, sending waves of electricity from its antennae, paralyzing the Hydreigon, stopping it from charging its attack any further.

"Hm, so you are going to fight back?" Edward said. "Well I do appreciate having somewhat of a challenge. Hydreigon, use Dragon Pulse." Once again, Hydreigon powered up the same attack but this time, Lenny was ready.

"Chinchou, use Volt Switch!" he cried. Chinchou's antennae glowed bright yellow before it spun, sending bursts of electricity at Hydreigon, hitting it square in the chest. Whilst it didn't look like it did much damage, when Hydreigon fired its attack, Chinchou was on the other side of the field, able to easily avoid the attack due to its Volt Switch.

"Hydreigon, you're better than this." Edward said, looking annoyed that the battle was still going on. "Now break through this paralysis and use Dark Pulse!"

"Volt Switch again!" With Hydreigon slowed down due to the Thunder Wave, Chinchou's attack went off first, once again electrocuting the dragon and allowing an easy dodge for Chinchou. "Now Bubblebeam!" The paralysis had slowed Hydreigon down so much that it couldn't even turn around in time to see Chinchou open its little mouth and fire a barrage of bubbles at its foe, hitting Hydreigon all over its body.

"Enough! Blast the bubbles out of the way with Dragon Pulse!" From beneath the bubbles, three blasts of purple energy came soaring through, popping every single bubble that Chinchou had created. Fortunately enough for Lenny, the bubbles had obscured Hydreigon's vision for long enough for it to dart over to the other side of the field to avoid the three attacks.

"Go for another Volt Switch!" Lenny cried. He wasn't sure how he was doing it, but he'd somehow gained complete control of the match and the momentum was entirely in his favour.

"Hydreigon, wait for a moment." Edward said, taking a breath to calm himself. He was clearly feeling the pressure. This time, Hydreigon didn't even make a move as it was struck by another Volt Switch and the damage had really started to rack up. Hydreigon had began to breath very heavily through all of the pain it had endured. "Now turn and use Dragon Pulse!"

"Deflect it with Bubblebeam!" Lenny urged as Hydreigon spun and attacked quickly, having finally figured out where the Volt Switch would take Chinchou to. In a desperate attempt to block the attack, Chinchou fired off another set of bubbles, some of which flew by the Dragon Pulse and struck Hydreigon, some of which hit the Dragon Pulse and were deflected back at Chinchou. Both Pokémon ended up taking damage from the attack, but only one was left conscious.

"Chinchou is unable to battle, Edward is the winner!" The referee announced.

"You did your best Chinchou." Lenny sighed as he returned his Pokémon to its ball. He had given everything in that battle. If only he'd been on his game from the start, maybe he would've been able to win.

"That was a great effort man!" Alex called out from behind him. Lenny turned to smile at his enthusiastic friend.

"I guess it could've gone worse." He said.

"Don't sell yourself short dude." Alex said. "You were this close to winning." He signalled an extremely tiny gap with his fingers and winked. "Just start the next battle off brightly and you'll definitely win."

"Maybe. If there's another tournament sometime." Lenny sighed. "But hey, don't worry about me. Worry about yourself and your upcoming challenges."

"What challenges?" Alex scoffed. "There's only one person in the whole school who could give me a challenge."

"And who's that?"

*

Bella felt a wave of excitement run through her as she walked down the tunnel to the arena. The time had finally come for her to rematch Alex and finally figure him out. Alex had puzzled her from the moment she met him. She hadn't been there to witness his famous victory over Professor Williams but she'd heard stories and had presumed that he was some kind of prodigy. However, when she met him on the boat, he'd struck her as arrogant with completely the wrong attitude towards battling. Bella had known immediately that Alex would never succeed as a trainer. So then how had she lost to him?

She shook her head and sighed to herself as she walked out onto the battlefield to face Alex who was standing opposite her, looking as calm and confident as usual. Bella tried to shake the thoughts from her mind. She'd already thought them hundreds of times and hadn't gotten an answer yet. Thinking about it now wasn't going to help her at all. Deploying the strategy which she'd worked on tirelessly to defeat Alex; now that would help. Or at least make her feel good.

"Hey Bella!" Alex grinned at her.

"Hey Alex." She smiled back. Looking around, there'd been some changes to the battlefield since the last round. This was the quarter finals so the arena was no longer split up. Each battle was given the full attention it deserved. Also, by now, most of the school had finished with anything they were doing for the day and so the stands were very full, including even some third years. In front of this many people she had to prove herself.

"Ready?"

"Always."

"Then go, Marowak!"

"Mawile!" The chosen Pokémon hit the field. Alex's was once again, predictably, his bone wielding warrior. Bella had changed from what she usually used and was bringing her large jawed Mawile.

"You're not using your Lucario?" Alex questioned. His face wore an expression of pure shock. Oh, Alex did make her laugh.

"No Alex, I'm not." Bella smiled. Of course Alex would anticipate her to bring her signature Pokémon, her newly evolved Lucario. And of course, he would bring the Pokémon that brought him victory against her last time. To him, it made perfect sense. To her, it was predictable and somewhat foolish. "Care to start things off for us?"

"With pleasure." He said, his usual grin returning to his face. Soon, she'd wipe it clean off. "Marowak, use Bone Club!" Marowak raised its bone and charged but Alex was in for a surprise. As Marowak got close, Mawile opened its giant jaw and roared, stopping Marowak dead in its tracks.

"Use Iron Head!" Bella ordered. Mawile swiftly obeyed, moving towards its opponent and swinging its metallic jaw so that it collided with Marowak's face, knocking it to ground.

"Hey, what happened?" Alex cried as Marowak used its bone to help itself back to its feet.

"Oh, Alex, if only you paid some kind of attention in class, maybe you'd know." Bella said, relishing the moment as the crowd gave a loud 'Ooh'. "You see, Mawile has the ability intimidate which scares your Pokémon, lowering its attack. It caught you so off guard, your Marowak was rendered useless."

"Maybe for a moment, but now, we're back in business." Alex said, signalling a nod to who nodded back. "So let's try this again, Bone Club!"

"Use Play Rough!" Bella shouted. The two Pokémon ran at each other but Mawile was too strong, and once again, batted Marowak's bone away before grabbing Marowak in its huge jaw, shaking it around and throwing it on the ground.

"Marowak, come on, we can't lose this!" Alex urged as Marowak tried to shake off the attack.

"Oh and I'm guessing that you didn't know that Play Rough can also lower your attack." Bella said, almost as if she was lecturing him.

"So your whole strategy involves lowering my attack." Alex cleverly deduced. She could literally hear his mind think, trying to figure out her strategy.

"Well done Alex, you worked it out!" She smiled. "Unfortunately, it's a little too late to increase your attack so it doesn't matter if you know what's going on. And now for the big finish - use Ice Fang!"

"Marowak, dodge it!" Alex cried as Mawile's teeth turned light blue and its tremendous jaw snapped at its foe which dived to the left, not quite avoiding the attack completely as its hand was trapped between the fangs.

"Don't let it escape!" Bella told her Pokémon as Marowak attempted to wriggle out. Soon, ice was visibly running up Marowak's arm and if Mawile could hold on for a few moments longer, the match would well and truly be over.

"Hit it over the head!" Alex yelled. Marowak reacted quickly, using its free hand to swing its bone, clubbing Mawile's head, hard. The Pokémon was severely dazed, but not damaged too heavily.

"Mawile, this time, finish this with Ice Fang!" Bella felt the excitement flow through her blood as Mawile swooped in to take Marowak down. She was about to finally get her revenge over Alex. All of her planning had come together for a relatively straight forward victory.

"Marowak, use your bone to prop its mouth open!" Alex ordered. She saw his eyes light up. She saw that grin on his face as Marowak somehow got its bone lodged in Mawile's mouth, rendering the attack useless. Bella saw the moment in which Alex worked out how he would win. She saw the exact moment in which he knew he'd won, even though the battle was currently entirely in her favour. She hated that moment.

"Mawile, spit it out!" Bella cried.

"Headbutt!" Alex grinned. Marowak moved quickly, despite having a frozen arm, jabbing its head into Mawile's stomach, forcing it to ground. "Now grab the bone and use Bone Club!" Before Mawile had a chance to recover, Marowak dislodged its weapon and proceeded to continuously beat Mawile with it. With Bella's spirit broken, she didn't even give another order until Mawile was unconscious.

"Mawile is unable to battle, Alex is the winner!" The referee declared as Alex congratulated his victorious Pokémon.

"That was another awesome battle Bella, you had me on the ropes!" Alex grinned as he shook her hand.

"Thanks Alex, but you don't need to console me. I lost. That's that." Bella sighed. How had Alex turned the match on its head so quickly without planning anything beforehand?

"No seriously!" Alex reassured her. "The way you used a bunch of things to lower Marowak's attack and then pulling out that super effective Ice Fang? It was almost like you planned it!"

"Oh Alex." She laughed. "It really was almost like I planned it." Alex was an incredible person. So oblivious and so stupid but at the same time, so gifted at battling. Would she ever figure him out? Probably not, but then again, that was exactly what made Alex exciting.