"Good morning, Keith," Nick greeted.

"Good morning," Keith said in reply.

"I had a strange night," Nick commented.

"What do you mean?" asked Keith.

"Dreams."

"Yeah, me too," Keith responded. "I woke up several times because of all the thunder and lightning, but I think I had a lot of dreams also."

"Really?" Nick started to get interested, wondering if Keith had also dreamt of the two warriors. "What type?" he asked, expectation mounting.

"Well, I can’t really remember. I think one of them had to do with my Nidoran charging into a pit of okra in the belly of a Spearow or something."

"Oh… OK," Nick replied. "Never mind. Anyway, do you have an idea about what to do today?" Nick asked. Keith smiled,

"Of course," and extracted his map from his backpack which was lying on the floor of the tent. "See, only five miles," he added.

"Then what?" asked Nick.

"Well, you see right here? That’s the Clarkesville Gym."

"Ohhhh," Nick realized. "I understand you now – but… one problem. We only have two pokémon each, and no offense, but your Nidoran and my Eevee really can’t fight too well. And we’re going to challenge the gym leader there?"

"Yep," Keith replied.

"What?" Nick asked, surprised. "You really think we’re going to beat him? Be serious. We’ve trained for two days and we’re going to challenge a gym leader?"

"Yep," Keith said again simply as he pulled out yet another box of Pop-tarts. "Ugh! too bad I can’t carry fruit around in there." He then sighed happily, "But there’ll be food in Clarkesville."

"Keith! Be serious. OK, so I have been training Staryu well for a while, but that’s only one pokémon, and well, Eevee, Squirtle, and Nidoran have just started being trained!"

"You’re wrong there," Keith smiled to himself.

"What do you mean?" Nick asked suspiciously.

"I told you that I got Eddie - and it’s "Eddie," not "Squirtle"- I said that I got him a few days ago."

"You mean you didn’t?" Nick asked, surprised and wondering if Keith had actually lied to him.

"Yes, of course I did."

"Then… How?... - What are you talking about?" Nick exclaimed at a loss from confusion. Keith finally explained,

"Eddie was a gift from my dad. Dad’s had him for a little while. He worked with Eddie a lot, and when I asked why, he wouldn’t tell me. Well, it turned out that Dad was preparing Eddie to help me when I decided to be a trainer, because Dad always new that I was going to decide to be one."

"Oh, cool. So how long has Eddie been trained?" Nick asked interestedly.

"Let me see… I think it was about half a year. Dad got him in September. Yeah, now I remember," Keith said.

"What?" Nick asked. Keith laughed,

"Eddie was my Dad’s birthday present to himself." Nick considered it for a while, then said slowly,

"So Eddie is probably pretty good, isn’t he?"

"What are you talking about? Of course he is! You didn’t really think that a Squirtle trained for two days could pull of a perfect Skull Bash, did you?" Keith grinned, shaking his head. Nick responded,

"Well, I had wondered about it a little, but I never really thought too much of it. But, Keith, that Skull Bash ended up with Eddie crashing into the ground. Remember? It tried to hit my Staryu?"

"Yeah, I know, but that’s just because your Staryu’s really good too. I mean, it used a Minimize all by itself, without an order! That’s a pretty advanced skill," Keith explained.

"Really?" asked Nick.

"Really," Keith answered.

"So you think we can take the gym leader on…" Nick pondered, more hopefully. "I could start out with Eevee, then use Staryu," he planned to himself. "But no, Keith. It’s just not gonna’ happen. Two pokémon against six?" Keith replied, tilting his head a little,

"You don’t really know how the battles work at official gyms, do you?" Nick shook his head.

"OK," Keith continued. "It’s like this. Before the battle, the gym leader sets how many pokémon can be used, somewhere from one to six. You can’t use any more. Whenever a pokémon can no longer fight, then it’s out. Once how ever many the leader set of one person’s pokémon are out, the battle’s over."

"So he might only set one or two pokémon?" Nick asked.

"That’s right, and, what’s more, the gym leader’s aren’t really always all that good. Sometimes, all the better trainers decide to train for one of the big competitions, like the Indigo Plateau or the Orange Island League, so only the trainers who don’t can be a gym leader. And, it’s a full-time job. A lotta’ people just don’t want that responsibility," Keith explained. Nick thought about it.

"Well… I guess we just might be able to beat him, but… still, Keith, I’ve seen the gym leader in Westwood battle. He’s really good!" Nick continued.

"You’re right. The Westwood Gym leader is really good, but they’re not all. Come on, Nick. We’re not gonna’ get anywhere just talking about it. Let’s get moving!" Keith finished.

The boys breakfasted, and, with some difficulty, managed to repack the tent. They checked around to make sure that they left nothing behind, then Nick, Keith, and Eevee continued eastward toward Clarkesville. The storm was over, and the sky was clear, except for several white, pillowy clouds. The air smelt fresh; dew lay on the ground. There was plenty of telltale rustling of leaves in the trees. After a few miles of walking, Nick had an idea.

"Hmm…" he thought. "There must be pokémon in those trees. It’s not just the wind – there is no wind. Eevee can’t get them down, but…" Nick spoke up,
"Keith, stop. I want to try something."

"Huh? What do you mean?" wondered Keith. Nick grinned and said,

"Watch this." He grabbed and threw Staryu’s pokéball to the ground as he commanded,

"Go, Staryu!" Staryu came out of the ball, exclaiming,

"Hyah!" Staryu looked around quickly in all directions, and not seeing any pokemon, looked back at Nick. Nick pointed to the widest sections of the leaves of an overhead tree. Keith looked on in silence, beginning to get an idea of what Nick was going to do.

"Staryu," Nick ordered. "Use Swift on those branches." Staryu obeyed, shooting a barrage of stars up at the tree. They struck the tree repeatedly. In a loud crash, a large section of branches and leaves fell from the tree, almost hitting the boys who scrambled back to avoid collision.

"Now what did you do that for?" Keith asked startled. "Are you trying to kill the tree, or even us?!"

"No, Keith! Look!" Nick said excitedly, pointing at the fallen branches. "I got one!"

"Huh?" asked Keith as Nick ordered,

"Staryu, use Water Gun on that bunch of leaves!"

"What in the world are you doing?" Keith asked, bewildered. Staryu fired, blasting away the limbs in all directions.

"Are you all right?" Keith continued uneasily.

"There it is!" Nick shouted, triumphantly. He ran over to one of the fallen branches and heaved it from the ground to reveal a small monkey-looking pokémon lying beneath it, dazed by the fall. "Yes, Keith! You see! I told you I knew what I was doing." Keith watched, very surprised, as Nick tossed an empty pokéball at the bewildered pokémon. The pokéball sucked the creature in and closed.

"Ha! I caught it!" Nick exclaimed. "That was so easy," he said, turning to Keith. "I just threw a pokéball and…" he went on.

"Uhh… Nick?" Keith cut him off and gulped. "Look behind you."

"What?" Nick said as he turned around slowly. Nick was met by two hard, red eyes staring right into his. The pokéball lay open on the ground.

"...Uh oh," Nick said, staring at the Mankey, who started growling. "Um, Staryu? Eevee? I could, um, sort of use your help right now," he swallowed nervously. Right in front of Nick’s field of vision, the well trained Staryu came flying in with a powerful Tackle attack, knocking into the Mankey right beside its eyes. Nick exhaled a deep sigh of relief and started breathing hard. The enraged pokémon charged at Staryu.

"That would be a Thrash attack," Keith said calmly, now watching the scene in relieved amusement. Staryu was ready. He was used to hitting moving targets. Staryu waited just until the Mankey was right in front of him, then released a powerful water jet that hit the Mankey square between the eyes. The monkey pokémon flew backwards, tumbling to the ground but immediately jumped back up, more mad than ever and charged at the Staryu once more, flailing its fists wildly, shouting,

"MAAAAANKEEEYYY!!!!" Staryu hesitated a moment, and was struck by the charging monkey.

"Ouch," Keith commented. Nick turned,

"Any more useful comments? I’m in a battle, I have to concentrate! Staryu!" he continued. "Water Gun!" As the Mankey was blasted back again, only to get back up immediately and charge, Keith said,

"Yes, I do," and motioned at Eevee, who was standing still watching the battle. The Mankey was blasted back yet again, but still got back up, this time obviously winded.

"He just doesn’t stop, does he?" asked Nick. "Water Gun, Staryu," he commanded. The Staryu fired again, but didn’t make contact as the Mankey rolled to the side and kept charging. Before Staryu could get in another attack, Mankey had kicked it so hard that it flew back to the ground. Nick started to get worried,

"Staryu?" he asked. Nick’s pokémon stood up, shook himself, and gave the Mankey a stare that should have stopped it in its tracks. Staryu was mad, really mad. He started shaking, as if building power, aimed his top appendage at the monkey, and braced himself, ready to fire. Just before he unleashed the blast though, Eevee charged in from the sidelines, gritted her teeth, and struck the Mankey with a Headbutt, unordered.

"Huh?!" Keith and Nick exclaimed together. The Mankey flew off course, to one side, crashed and rolled on the ground, then fell on its back completely knocked out. Staryu relaxed and the boys stared at Eevee dumbfounded. There was a long pause.

"Eevee," Nick finally said. "That was… good."

"Yeah," Keith said. "Very good." Nick off-handedly threw a pokéball at the fallen Mankey, capturing it, and caught the returning orb. He attached it to his belt, leaned down to Eevee, who had looked at the fallen Mankey in surprise, wondering at even her own attack’s effectiveness, and said,

"Well, Eevee, Staryu, good job." He stood up and laughed, grinning. "So you can fight, Eevee," he congratulated. "And so can Mankey." The moment of tenseness was over. Keith grinned at Nick and Staryu.

"Well, you just caught your third pokémon, Nick," he smiled. "Your idea worked."

"I guess it did," Nick said. "Good fight, Staryu!" he said, turning to his pokémon. "Now, let’s go. We have a gym leader to fight."