"Miss me?" Edward grinned as he burst into the common room the next morning.

"You were gone for literally one night, I hardly noticed you were gone." Alex said honestly. Even if Edward had just been on some long and arduous quest to find some new Pokémon, Alex had been asleep the entire time so it wasn't possible for him to have noticed the change. "So I take it your mission was a success?"

"It was better than that." Edward said confidently. Whatever he'd managed to find, it had to be good.

"Well come on then. What is it?"

"Here." Edward smiled as he threw his only Pokéball up revealing his brand new Pokémon. Everyone in the common room stopped to look at it.

"I suppose you think that's funny." Alex said.

"I think it's funny." Lenny said.

"Now is not the time for your childish contributions Lenny." Alex joked. "But seriously Edward, why?"

"You don't like it?" he asked.

"No, but isn't it just a little bit... I dunno... cliché?" Maybe that was the point that Edward was making. The Pokémon that he had spent all night looking for before training and evolving twice that was right here in front of Alex was none other than the counterpart to Alex's signature Pokémon. Edward had found himself a Beedrill.

*

"And with that," Williams said, after a long talk about type coverage, "This lesson and this term is over. I do hope that you all have a good break over Winter but I would like to give you a little something to think about over the holidays. When we return, we shall be starting some work on the art of double battles so I'd suggest finding a battle partner and perhaps even thinking out a few strategies just so that you're well prepared. Class Dismissed."

As Williams officially started the Winter break, even Bella breathed a sigh of relief. It had been a long start to the school year but she'd settled in well, laid her foundations and was ready to finally have a couple of weeks off. The room filled with tired students began to filter out with every single one of them talking about the prospect of double battles and who they'd partner up with. Bella didn't need to think about it. She immediately knew who she had to work with.

"I'll see you two later." Bella said to her two friends, Lucy and Megan. "I need to get to my doubles partner."

"Oh, of course." Lucy smiled, rolling her eyes. She and Megan had already teamed up.

"Good luck!" Megan winked.

Bella shook her head a little as she turned and walked across the classroom to a gang of boys. Before she could talk, one of them turned around and spoke to her first.

"Hey Bella, how do you fancy joining me in doubles? The two best battlers in the year would make quite the combo."

"My thoughts exactly." Bella replied. "Which is why I was going to ask Alex to be my partner. Sorry Edward."

"Oh." Edward said, his smooth grin wiped clean off his face. "Well that's... cool." All around him, Edward's friends were literally dying of laughter. They were clearly never going to let him live this down.

"So how about it Alex?" Bella asked.

"Why would you want to be partners with me?" Alex asked, putting on an over the top quizzical look. "Oh yeah. I'm awesome!" Well at least his confidence hadn't changed since winning the competition.

"Alex, I want to be partnered with you because simply put, you are the only person in this class who's good enough to not be more of a hindrance than a help."

"Ok cool." Alex smiled. "Now you get to be the best with me!"

"I really love your arrogance." Bella muttered as she turned back to her friends who had been eagerly watching.

"Oh my god, how did it go?!" Lucy asked.

"Tell me he said yes!" Megan squealed. Of course they would react like this. Even when Megan herself was in a relationship with Alex, the two of them just wouldn't stop going on about her 'obsession' with Alex.

"Could you two for once just drop it?" Bella sighed. Honestly, Bella just didn't get it. There was nothing to talk about, nothing to see and yet they talked and yet they saw. Obviously Bella was interested in Alex but only in his battle strategies. She'd lost twice in her life and both times were to Alex. He'd managed to get inside of her head and tear her own battle tactics to pieces in mere moments. She couldn't understand him. He didn't make sense. Bella didn't like not understanding things. She prided herself on being intelligent. Alex was like a little voice in her head reminding her that she didn't know everything and she had to work harder. Maybe working with Alex would give her some much needed insight into how his brain worked. Then just maybe she'd figure out a way to defeat him.

*

Bella remembered the first time she'd been here. It was when Alex had given her a demonstration of what he was really like as a trainer. He'd shown her a very in depth, precise and thorough training method that beforehand Bella would never have associated with the carefree Alex that she'd seen in lessons. This was Alex's training spot. The derelict temple next to a small clearing with tall rocks and trees surrounding it.

"So the first thing that we should decide is what Pokémon we'll use." Bella said. It was bitterly cold but Alex had insisted that he couldn't train anywhere but his special spot. She'd reluctantly agreed. "I suggest that we both use our strongest Pokémon which would be Lucario and Marowak."

"Why can't I use Litwick?" Alex asked.

"Because let's be honest here, you only just got that Litwick. It's untrained and if you use it, we're not going to win anything."

"But if I don't use it, it won't get stronger. That's kind of how training works."

"I get that." Bella sighed. Already Alex was being difficult. "But you can train your Pokémon in your own time. Right now, we're focusing on strategies that combine our Pokémon. It'll be easiest to do that if the Pokémon we use are well trained."

"Fine." Alex said, tossing his Pokéball up into the air, revealing his Marowak. Bella already knew everything there was to know about this Marowak. She'd lost to it twice and had its moves and features permanently memorised.

"Lucario." Bella also sent out her Pokémon. It was her newly evolved Lucario which was bigger, stronger and much more intimidating than when it was a Riolu. Alex looked at it very closely, studying its new and improved features.

"Alright then, let's get started!" Alex said, rubbing his hands together. "Double battles are new to both of us so where do we start?"

"I'd suggest figuring out any kind of synergy our Pokémon have with each other." Bella replied.

"How do we do that?"

"It's difficult but I've been thinking a lot and I think I see some potential." Over the past few days, whilst Alex had been busy relaxing, Bella had been brainstorming strategies. She wasn't going to let him hold her back. "What I immediately notice about these two Pokémon is the large difference in speed between them. Marowak is fairly slow whilst Lucario has Quick Attack at its disposal to dart quickly in and out of a fight. Marowak's speed is its major downfall and I noticed that every time you battle, you're very wary to not get caught in a fight. You like to keep your distance."

"So you're suggesting that I could send Marowak in on a suicide mission and you could use Lucario to nip in and rescue me?" Alex asked.

"I could do more than rescue you." Bella replied. "Lucario could come in from behind and attack, knocking the opponent off balance, making them an easy target for you."

"Ok. But the bottom line is that I don't need to worry about Marowak's lack of speed."

"Exactly. But that's not all we've got to work with. I don't know if you've paid enough attention to my battles but Lucario learned Bone Rush recently meaning that both of our Pokémon can fight with bones. With a little work, we can figure out some kind of combo."

"Listen Bella." Alex said, putting on his annoying teacher voice. "I don't want to burst your bubble here but currently, that's just not going to happen."

"And why not?"

"Like you said, my Pokémon can fight using a bone. Yours knows what a bone is and how to swing it wildly at an opponent. The two are very different."

"Are you seriously questioning my Lucario's skill?" Bella asked, getting increasingly more annoyed at Alex. She may have lost to him twice but that was no reason to be downright rude about her and her Pokémon's skill.

"I'm not saying your bad." Alex defended. "Just that in comparison to Marowak, you're not great either." Bella rashly decided to test Alex's theory.

"Bone rush!" She yelled, her temper snapping for a moment. Lucario fashioned a glowing bone from thin air and gripped it like a sword, taking several swipes at its opponent. Alex didn't move a muscle. He just watched his little warrior block every attack with ease before rolling sideways to dodge and then go on the offensive, attacking from the side, then diagonally and finally performing an uppercut, knocking the bone clean from Lucario's hand and leaving it defenceless.

"See what I mean?" Alex smiled. "I've trained Marowak every day since I caught it, perfecting its technique. It's not something you get just from learning a move or by reading a textbook. It's so much more than that."

"Teach me." Bella reluctantly said. In mere moments, Alex had once again gained control of a situation that once belonged to her. Obviously, Alex made every second of his lesson count.

"Excellent, let's begin the course for bone-sword-fighting, with yours truly, Professor Murphy, officially the finest battler in the world." Alex grinned. He loved holding power over her. "The first step is simple. It's a game of baseball." Alex nodded towards Marowak who got into position immediately as if it had already carried out this task hundreds of times.

"Maro." Marowak grunted, signalling that it was ready.

"Batter up!" Alex cried, picking a small pebble up off the ground and hurling it at his own Pokémon. Marowak swung its bone with control and a touch of elegance, timing the stroke perfectly. "It's a home run!" Alex grinned before turning to Bella. "Like I said, it's extremely simple. You literally just practice hitting something at first. Once you start to get timing right of just hitting the object, usually a rock or a stick or something, then you try placing the shots. Example."

"Wak!" Marowak cried as Alex threw another stone at it, this time, waiting a tad longer before making its swing, almost as if it were playing a cut shot that flew straight at Bella. It would've connected with her forehead if it weren't for the reactions of her beloved Lucario who jumped in front of her kicking the stone away. Instinctively, Lucario began defending Bella further, firing off a powerful aura sphere attack which Marowak deflected without batting an eyelid, hitting the blue ball of light so well that it rebounded, hitting Lucario square in the chest and sending it to ground.

"And that rather conveniently brings me on to the next point." Alex said, acting as if the quick exchange of attacks hadn't even happened. "Reaction times are the most important thing. When you watched me train that one time, Butter fired rocks from all different directions and it was down to Marowak to see them coming and make an appropriate block but of course, that's only possible if you've got the timing down first. From that point on, it's all about patching up your weaknesses and practice loads."

Bella had to admit she was at least a little bit impressed. It surprised her that Alex had thought up a training regime himself for a strategy that he created himself that he then perfected all by himself. None of it was by any book but he'd believed in what he was doing and it had worked. Maybe there was some credibility in Alex's method of work.

"Alright then, I'll work on that later as it'll probably take some time. Thanks." She said quietly, giving Alex a small smile.

"Hey don't mention it." Alex grinned. "Professor Murphy is always around to help those with a need to fight using a bone in a sword-like manner. But seriously, if you ever need help with anything, just come and ask me. It's not like I have anything better to do."

"Thanks Alex."

Sorry for the wait on this chapter but life is super busy and half way through writing I realised that I had to change something completely so I basically had to re-write the whole chapter. As always, please leave a review, it really motivates me to write more.