I looked around the side yard of my house, trying to focus on what was right in front of me. My pokemon were all out of their cards, excluding mythicals and legendaries. There were 22 of them, which happened to take up quite a lot of the yard. My Cinderace was training Raboot on the side of the yard with the raspberry bushes beside the cedar hedges. The were trying to see who was better at kicking fireballs over the fence that was several meters away from them by the looks of it. Clefairy and Clefable were taking care of the garden sort of in the middle of the yard. We'd had a garden longer than anyone in my family had been using this yard for training, so it wasn't foolish placement. We'd just never gotten around to moving it. Clefairy and Clefable liked taking care of it though, along with some of my other pokemon. Bunnelby went over to help them along with Diggersby, whose ears came in handy for digging out certain places in the small patch of dirt where there were only weeds to be removed. Popplio was trying to make one big bubble to cover the entire garden at once as Pikachu cheered her on.

The rest of my Pokemon either seemed to be fighting or hiding. Sudowoodo was practicing new camouflage techniques while Koffing searched for him. Charmander and Dragalage were sparring, Eevee and Mudbray were sparring,  Grookey had wound up fighting with Krabby since he'd decided to see how many smacks with a stick it took to tick Krabby off, Rookidee and Rhyhorn were sparring, and Vulpix and Froakie were just about to take a break from their match. It looked like a draw to me.

Then there was the last pair. Two of my hardest working pokemon. Frogadier and Greninja were on the rectangular brick space between the side door and the garden that some of my other pokemon were taking care of. They seemed to be just finishing up. I stopped watching Vulpix and Froakie try to get the better of each other to see who would win; My partner whose card had almost been ripped in two over a year ago, or his pre-evolved form.

You could see that Greninja was struggling a bit, but he kept calm all the way through it. Frogadier continuously tried to use cut on him, but he dodged every time. Sometimes it was very narrow. Sometimes he just barely managed to not get hit. He wasn't trying to counter anything at all. Ever since he'd been told he wouldn't be able to battle anymore due to the condition of his card making it too dangerous for him to take a hit, his main focus had been learning how to dodge everything. He knew he couldn't take a really hard hit, so he was trying to slowly build up more of a tolerance to pain, and teach himself how to avoid that pain in the first place. By now he was so good at this that he was dodging with both hands folded behind his back. This went on for a little while, until Frogadier had Greninja backed up to the edge of the bricks where it and the grass met.

Froakie hopped up on my shoulder and Vulpix sat down beside me to watch as Greninja formed a water shuriken and used it to attack Frogadier before he could use cut again. It was so quick and unexpected that Frogadier was caught off guard by Greninja suddenly going completely offensive. He was too quick for Frogadier and managed to pin him between the brick wall of my house and a water shuriken.

"Okay, you got me again." Frogadier laughed, reaching for his translator mic and turning it on. He was speaking in his own language, but it sounded like English now thanks to the microphone translating everything. He could choose his own voice too. He and Greninja used the same voice. They sounded kind of like normal human boys actually.

"You did better this time. Just remember I still like to attack people in a battle, even though I'm forced to dodge a lot more now." Greninja smiled. He always had his translator mic on. His was hidden by his tongue scarf though. You could see most others wearing theirs. They were like the microphone headsets that people sometimes wear on stage, just a lot less obvious. You actually had to look right at the user's mouth to see the tiny black dot that was the microphone.

"I almost thought Greninja was just going to let him win this time." Froakie spoke up. He sounded like a young human boy. A child. He kind of was. He was one of the youngest pokemon in the family. His mic was hidden by his frubbles.

"No way!" Vulpix wasn't wearing her mic. She didn't like it very much. I understood her well enough anyways.

"What? Frogadier's getting really good." Froakie smiled.

"He is." Greninja walked over to us. "Froakie you should train with him. He could teach you a lot and might be a bit easier for you to beat than me right now."

"Are you saying I'm not strong enough to beat you?"

"Actually I am. You can't beat me. Not yet anyways. Even Frogadier lost to me when he thought he finally had me. And you know how long he's been training against me for." Greninja picked up his water bottle from off of the grass and took a drink from it before continuing. "A good ninja always has to have some sort of plan or trick up their sleeve. And I don't go easy on people just because they're family. If anything, that makes it possible for me to go even harder on them because I know them better."

"That makes sense. Also I haven't evolved and don't plan on it anytime soon." Froakie shrugged. He wasn't hurt by what Greninja said. He knew it was the truth.

"Evolution can make you stronger, but there can also be disadvantages to it." Greninja chuckled. "For example, I still miss throwing frubbles at people."

Froakie grinned and threw some frubbles at Greninja just for the sake of annoying him, hitting him in the shoulder. He brushed them off and let Froakie hop on his head for a ride so that I could pick up Vulpix.

"So... Only a day or so into summer break and I'm already bored." Frogadier came up to the rest of the group. "What are we going to do this summer?"

"Alyssa and I have plans. We'll let you guys know after camp, which we leave for tomorrow remember?" Greninja promised. "Has everyone started packing?"

Most of my pokemon confirmed that they had, but Popplio, Sudowoodo, Frogadier, and Clefairy had been so focused on other things that they'd completely forgotten. That wasn't a big deal since pokemon don't have the wear clothes or anything so they'd all just have backpacks with a few small important items with them. Most of them would stay in their cards a lot anyways, from what I was guessing. The only pokemon who couldn't go in their card anymore was Greninja. That worked out fine seeing as he was my partner, so he would've been out a lot anyways. But now I didn't have the option to put him back in his card at all because with the damage that had been done to it not even the doctor knew if it was safe for him to be back in there. Since the camp was an overnight camp lasting one week and boys and girls were separated into different cabins, I didn't know how this was going to work. I could worry about that tomorrow though. For now I had to help Popplio, Sudowoodo, and Clefairy pack. Frogadier could handle packing himself.

- Supper Time -

My family kept chattering away around me. I was zoning out. Everyone had packed everything they needed and wanted to bring to camp for the next week. I wasn't eating very fast. I never felt hungry at mealtimes for whatever reason. Jake and his Cinderace, who was his pokemon partner, were talking to each other about something or other. Probably their plans for while I was away. They would be going to our grandparents's house for a sleepover all week. My dad, his Machamp, and his Hawlucha had been working a lot in the shop lately. I think my dad just really liked fighting types. They were discussing their little project. My mom was, once again, very anxious about what everyone thought of the food, and her Braixen, Alolan Vulpix, and Alolan Ninetales were assuring her that is was very good.

'Hey.' Greninja came and sat down beside me with seconds, talking to me without actually saying anything. We could communicate telepathically, which was great for when he noticed I was feeling anxious and felt he needed to talk to me privately right away in a room full of people.

'Hi...' I replied. We were still just communicating through our thoughts, so nobody else heard. We continued on with this for a while.

(' = Telepathic             " = Out loud             Italics = Greninja)

'Are you okay?'

'Yeah. Why?'

'You seemed anxious.'

'I'm fine.'

'Okay, what happened?'

'Not sure how camp is going to go this year. Or how the others will react when they find out about our other plans for the summer.'

'Hey, if they don't like it they can blame me. I was the one who asked you about it. I didn't really think it through. I'd just woken up for one of the first time after my coma, but I don't regret it.'

'I only said yes because I saw how desperate you were.'

'Me? Desperate? Never, totally not! Never. Gonna. Happen.'

'Haha very funny, you were.'

'I know I was. I don't know why. I just... saw things when I was asleep that night. Or I think I did. Either way I want to go on this journey. And we will win this time. It's not going to be like last year.'

'Well it'll also be way harder than last year. This isn't just the city's league anymore. We'll be all over the country in just one summer.'

'Haven't you always wanted to explore Canada and see it for more than what it is in just our town?'

'Yeah, I just never imagined it would be so soon... Especially without any adults.'

'Meh. I'm close enough.'

'Greninja, we're both 14.'

'... Jake's coming with so like, we're still the closest things to adults that will be on this trip-'

'Alright alright. Let's just get it over with along with my anxiety.'

'Or you could set your worries aside and actually enjoy the journey. I know it seems like an uphill battle from here, and it has ever since Grandpa died, but it'll be okay.'

'Alright, I'll try. Sorry.'

'Why are you sorry? There's nothing to be sorry for here, stop worrying. Let's just eat, write, do some last minute preparations and pretend to sleep when really we'll probably just stay up all night and talk.'

'Okay, that's a pretty accurate description of what happens on this night every year since we started going to camp.'

'Exactly. As it should be.'

I finished eating quicker than usual after that, and Greninja and I went to my room. My pokemon slowly started letting themselves in one by one as they finished up too. I was at my desk with Greninja sitting beside me. We were writing a story, but as it got closer to the end of the night we started double checking the lists to make sure we had packed everything that we'd need while we were away from home. We moved on from trying to write a short story to occupying ourselves with plenty of planning, research on where we would be staying, and who we would be with. What would we do for fun while we weren't training or battling? What would everyone want to see and where would they want to go, also would all that even be possible? We tried to take guesses at what everyone would want. We also had to organize a bunch of teams for each different type of pokemon out there. With only 22 pokemon cards (Not including legendaries, mythicals, items, or energy cards) that was going to be difficult. Mythicals and legendaries weren't allowed in the challenge I was participating in since they actually weren't that hard to come by in my world. We did have the internet to buy cards with after all.

Pokemon come in cards in my world. The condition of the card determines the health of your pokemon which dictates whether it can battle or not. Greninja's card was ripped about a milimeter past the halfway point, which meant even though it would be extremely rare, he could faint for no reason without warning sometimes unless he took some pills that the professor in my province had given him. He also wasn't supposed to battle at all, but he didn't follow that rule. He figured the only way to get stronger would be to practice and keep doing his best in everything. And he didn't want to just stand around and watch my other pokemon have battles, he wanted to help. That's why he was now so good at dodging. The only reason he isn't allowed to battle is because it can be very dangerous for him to take a hard hit, but if he never gets hit there's no danger anymore.

"We should go to sleep guys." Eevee hopped up on my desk and I quickly stacked the papers I was writing on and put them in my binder, closing it so that she wouldn't see. Eevee didn't think anything of it as she knew I didn't like it when people read my stories before they were finished, and that's what she probably thought I was writing.

"Yeah, it's getting late. 11:53 already." Greninja glanced at my alarm clock. "C'mon guys, we have church tomorrow. We'll need to get up early, so lets go to sleep."

Most of my pokemon groaned in annoyance. Frogadier and Froakie were just finishing their game of chess, Clefairy, Clefable, and Vulpix had been using string and some glass beads and shells to make bracelets, and the rest of my pokemon were playing Game Of Life. We managed to move the Life game board onto my desk without messing up the game, along with everyone's money and cards. Froakie and Frogadier finished their game up quickly with Froakie losing (he started panicking because of the lack of time and moved too quickly), and Clefairy, Clefable, and Vulpix tied the string for their bracelets whether they were done putting beads on or not. They all looked pretty either way. Most of my pokemon went in their cards to sleep, but Eevee, Vulpix, Pikachu, Popplio, and Greninja stayed out. They always did. Sometimes some of the others wanted to stay out of their cards, but not often.

My room was at the end of the upstairs hallway in my house, with my dresser being beside the door, my bedside table beside that, and my bed in the corner beside it. Ever since Greninja's card got torn we'd sort of turned my bed into a bunk bed using wooden poles that we'd attached to the back of my bed's headboard and the end of it. Then we put a wooden board below that, wooden boards around the sides, and set up a mattress and sheets inside. That's where Greninja slept. Eevee, Vulpix, Pikachu, and Popplio were much smaller, so they slept on the golden coloured spinney rocking chair at the end of my bed in the corner. It seemed like it was just made of cushions stuck to the skeleton of a chair underneath, and there was a blanket and four pillows for them up there. Then there was the window beside the chair, a shelf full of stuff on the other side of it, my desk on the next wall beside it, and my closet beside my desk and behind my door. The middle of my floor was left empty, except for tonight. Tonight we had several bags in the middle of my floor. One luggage bag for me, a dark blue backpack for all of my pokemon to toss their stuff in (they never felt the need to bring much with them when we traveled), and another luggage bag for after camp. The girls who'd stayed out of their cards had seen Greninja and I add that last bag to the pile and asked what it was for, we just told them it was a surprise. They didn't ask more questions after that, but you could tell they were curious.

'So, Toronto first?'

'Yep.'

'Then Thunder Bay... If they've finished building by then.'

'Yeah, they should only need a little while longer. Last week they said just a week or two more, so by the time camp is done the electric type gym should be too.'

'And then we'll go to Winnipeg.'

'And probably avoid Churchill. As much as I love polar bears and would love to go to the Polar Bear Capital of the World, I think Popplio's a bit afraid of them.'

'Why wouldn't she be? Don't polar bears eat sea lions?'

'Seals. But yeah, they would eat a sea lion too I think.'

'Popplio probably looks enough like a seal that it would be a bit risky to bring her to Churchill.'

'Yeah. So we'll only go if we have to.'

'Sounds like a plan.'

We kept talking until we both got too tired to think straight. We didn't know what to expect for most of our trip. We knew there were 18 gyms in our country, since Canada had enough room for all those gyms. We just didn't know where the gyms were located based on type. From a stereotypical standpoint, the ice type gym could be anywhere, but we were guessing it was most likely in one of the territories while the grass type gym would be in one of the plains provinces. We'd finally decided to just assume it would be in Saskatchewan, the 'bread basket' of Canada. That meant we could expect it in either Regina, the capital, or Saskatoon, the major city where Saskatchewan's second gym was. And the water type gym was most likely in one of the four maritime provinces.

This was going to be fun, scary, confusing, and overall exciting on so many levels. One thing was for sure: This summer was definitely not going to be boring, and our battle was only just beginning. Lots of battles were.