"For the talent show at the end of the week we should gather up as many eeveelutions as we can and choreograph a little dance for them to do together!"

"Eve, not all of us have eeveelutions."

"Yeah, but those people can focus on choreographing while the rest of us find other people with eeveelutions for this!"

"Maggie, Andrea, Natalie, can we use Jolteon, Sylveon, and Umbreon for this?"

"Sure! I think Jolteon will really enjoy working on this with you guys!"

"If Umbreon says it's okay."

"I'm okay with it Natalie! It'll be fun, and it might be hard enough as it is finding and convincing complete strangers to lend their pokemon to help them with this."

"What about Sylveon? Is she okay with it Maggie?"

"Sorry Eve, Sylveon really loves helping people and usually has no problem just being around them, but she actually has stage fright. I doubt she'll want to be starring in any act in the talent show."

"But I'll still help."

"Really Sylveon? You'd be okay with that?"

"Only choreographing."

"Alright, she says she'll help, but only with choreographing."

"Yay! Thank you Sylvie!"

"You're calling her Sylvie now?"

"Yeah! Nicknames are a fun way to bond! Like my nickname for Aubrey is Reyrey!"

"Yeah, like I call Greninja Grenny sometimes. That's goes well-"

"Hey! No it doesn't! And if anything I prefer A.G."

"Haha! See, Alyssa and Greninja have got it! Can I give you a nickname Gaia?"

"Can you make it sound creepy?"

"Sure! If you want me to."

"Alright, I'm in. Lilac, what's your nickname?"

"Well Alyssa calls me Lil sometimes."

Everyone was in the cabin talking to each other. We'd woken up an hour or two ago and were now cleaning the cabin. The camp had a schedule for everyone. First we all wake up around 7:30 to get ready, then we go outside and behind the camp's tiny pokemon center to do some morning exercises (jumping jacks, push-ups, running on the spot, stuff like that), then we all ran down the hill behind the pokemon center and back up it again in a big curve towards the Inn. Then we all line up outside of it with our cabin mates and wait to be let into the cafeteria for food while being led in a bunch of silly, dumb, and often repetitive songs by different counselors from every cabin. For breakfast today we had pancakes and maple syrup. After that we were all sent back to our cabins to clean them up before the morning lecture. Whichever group had the cleanest cabin room got to be first in line to the mini snack bar during free time, which means first picks for every snack and drink available, no waiting in the scorching heat of the sun because the line extends outside of the Inn, and bragging rights if you managed to keep a long enough streak up.

So here we were, cleaning and waiting for the morning lecture that was soon to come. Today's lesson would be about the first three types all pokemon trainers learned about. Fire, grass, and water. But the test we would be taking just before lunch would be on dark types, electric types, and dark and electric type z-moves. The reason why was because two teams actually won the scavenger hunt yesterday.

- The End Of The Scavenger Hunt -

We ran as fast as we could. Natalie got there first, right at the same time as Team Electric's leader!

"We did it!" They both yelled something along the lines of that. Mike laughed and declared it a tie. He then blew his whistle, signaling to everyone that the game was over and it was time to come back now. Professor Trillium and Professor Loon came up to us and congratulated both teams.

"Good job Bubbles. I almost didn't think you could do it." LG Smirked at Greninja, who only scowled in reply. "C'mon, that little nickname doesn't bother you, does it?"

"It does and you know that already. Why do you need to ask about it?" Greninja growled.

"Well if it bothers you more when we talk about it~"

"Don't finish that sentence. Even if you were done, just shut up."

"Alright."

- Present Time -

"So... How did you get the last three coins that we needed Ninja?" Natalie asked, making up a nickname of her own for Greninja.

"Yeah, spit it out Ninja Froggo." Gaia grinned. "I wanna know too!"

"We can talk about that later guys. We have to go to the lecture now." Maggie said, noticing the time. "C'mon, hurry! We can't leave anyone alone in the cabin!"

We went to the building that was usually used for church sermons and listened to the lesson. Half listened. We were all still curious about how Greninja managed to get three coins all on his own in one trip when the entire group didn't manage to find even one of those coins together. But the lecture ended soon enough and we were allowed to go for our first game. We were told to get dressed in as many dark colours as possible. No problem for me, I just grabbed a baggy black hoodie and put it on. It was a bit big on me, but it fit pretty well.

"Okay Ninja Froggo, tell us how you got the last three coins for your team in the scavenger hunt and we won't get Little Froggo and Speedy Froggo to force the answer out of you!" Gaia exclaimed as soon as we got in our cabin, using Little Froggo to refer to Froakie and Speedy Froggo to refer to Frogadier.

"Alright, story time!" Greninja said, preparing to tell us what had happened before.

- During The End Of The Hunt (Greninja's Perspective) -

I followed Team Psychic around for a little while because I'd managed to overhear them talking about searching for the dragon coin. I was trying to stay out of sight, but it was difficult when this part of camp had little to no good cover. A few stray log cabins, the forest that we weren't allowed to go into (Plus it had poison ivy, so I didn't want to go in), and... Nothing else really.

"Hey, I found a chest!" I heard one kid call out. He had an espurr with him. "There's poison ivy around it!"

"Alright, way to go Dan! Let's see if the dragon coin is in it!"

"Johnny, you fool! Didn't you hear the bit about the poison ivy?"

"Can't Espurr just use psychic or something?"

"Oh, right."

The kids finally managed to get the chest open and safely remove the poison ivy from it, along with anything dangerous that could've been left behind. There were coins in there, but a snake had made its way inside as well! It hissed at the kids and showed its fangs, starting to slither towards them. On instinct, without thinking about the reasons for the snake's behaviour, I threw a water shuriken at it before anyone could get hurt.

"Hey, it's a greninja!" The kid with the espurr smiled. "That's so cool!"

"Yeah, he happened to be here at the right time." Another kid said. "Thanks Greninja!"

I didn't want them to freak out over everything that I said sounding like English, so I just nodded and gestured to the chest to let them know it was safe for them to collect their coins. Some of them thanked me, some of them were in shock, one went for the coin, and another just stared at me blankly. A few of them seemed to be suspicious of me and my intentions, but I was fine with that. Their opinions didn't matter to me.

When the kids left and were completely out of both sight and earshot I went to the chest and picked a dragon coin for my own group. I took a few steps back, still watching where the snake had been in the chest. Somehow I was nervous that one would attack me. It wasn't anywhere near as bad as being scared of lightning when I was a froakie, but still. I just felt uneasy. And I knew why when I bumped into someone behind me. I swung around to see Professor Loon's greninja, L.G.

"Here." He handed me a dark type coin. "I actually think you handled that situation well. Good job."

"Hm? I thought you'd be harder to impress than that." I grinned and took the coin from him. It had always made me a bit frustrated that I had to look up to look this guy in the eyes. When I was a froakie I was so eager to evolve just so I could become taller than him. And although I was taller than the average greninja, I was still short compared to L.G.

"Oh I'm not impressed. I just approve of the way you handled things. There's a difference." He frowned slightly. "You know what would impress me is if you could beat me in a battle. Especially if your card is still ripped when you challenge me, it's pretty much impossible for me to lose to you right now. I'd beat you-"

"If swearing is considered immature why is it also called adult language?" I asked, just to get him to stop his rant that he would usually go off on in his head. It worked. He paused for a minute to think about it and eventually just shrugged.

"You know what, I don't know. I never really thought about it before. You've actually stumped me this time." L.G. started grinning. "Maybe I am a bit impressed. You're getting a psychic coin for that one. Take it and go before I change my mind."

"Yay! All the coins that my team needs to complete the list!" I cheered a little, then added sarcastically, "thanks Poppa!"

"Oh gosh. Bubbles if you're going to nickname me that then I'm going to take that coin back please and thank you."

"Catch me and battle me first!" I shouted, running away and laughing a bit. "Seriously though, thanks!"

"No problem Kiddo." L.G. was actually smiling now. Before looking away I thought I actually saw him shaking his head and chuckling to himself a bit, like he actually found me a bit amusing right now. I didn't know how to feel about that, but as long as he wasn't being a jerk I guess it was okay.

- Present Time (Alyssa's Perspective) -

"Ohhh, so that's how you got the coins all in one go!" A blonde girl whose hair went down to her mid-back gasped. She'd shown up at dinner last night. Apparently her parents were rich and had demanded she come after the first activity because it might be too rough for her and stuff. Also I guess they were trying to get some big entrance for her during supper, but she just told them she could do it on her own. She didn't. Rather than make a big deal of herself she'd just asked around the tables of girls to see where her cabin was sitting, and it turned out to be our table. Her eyes were pale blue and when she came she wore a black skirt, white tights, black flats and a white t-shirt that we only saw because the navy blue sweater that she was also wearing was unzipped at the front. She was wearing a black choker necklace too, with a silver shuriken charm on it.

But now that her parents weren't around she said she didn't have to dress that way and could wear whatever she felt was appropriate for the occasion. So now she was in dark blue jean shorts and this years themed t-shirt (Which we'd all received before bed last night and were now wearing) with white sneakers. The only thing she really kept was the necklace, but we noticed she also had a bow for her hair that she always kept in her pocket. Blue and white.

"Alright, time to go! We're already going to be late!" Maggie announced.

We left the cabin and went to our teams on the field. Mike was already there and about to give instructions.

"Alright everyone, we're going to divide your 18 teams into 2 great big teams!" Mike announced, using a megaphone to be heard now. "Can we have Teams Grass, Psychic, Poison, Dragon, Flying, Dark, Electric, Bug, and Normal stay on this field while the rest of you go towards the chapel when I say go! We're going to give the teams that are over by the chapel clean, completely unused stretchy socks with flour in them and knots tied at the end! There's a circle over there! In the circle is a bucket full of water balloons! For the teams on this side of the field your goal is to get into that circle which will act as a safe zone in the enemy's land, steal a water balloon, and run it all the way back to this side of camp without getting caught! For the people with the flour, to catch an enemy and force them to go back to their side of camp empty-handed, you have to hit them and get the flour on them using the sock mace sort of thing we're giving you! After one round the teams will switch sides and roles! Now go!"

Everyone ran to their sides with their teams. Pearl was a new addition to Team Dark. Although she didn't have a pokemon partner of her own, she seemed to be drawn to me and Greninja, so she stuck by us a lot of the time. So far as we knew she had no dark type pokemon, but we were all fine with her joining and so was Mike.

The game went pretty smoothly both the first and second rounds. Detective Pikachu and Greninja were both very quick, so running and dodging was a piece of cake for them. The electric types were energetic, the dark types were... a diverse bunch for sure, it helped to have an advantage from the air with both flying and bug types on our side, and normal types hardly have any weaknesses anyway. In the end we won.

"Those teams have to have been randomly generated!" Pearl exclaimed as she sat down with me and the rest of Team Dark on the small lawn in front of the main entrance to the Inn. "We had so many advantages!"

"Yeah, people are lazy. Why handpick the teams or arrange them yourself when a computer can do it for you?" Max asked and added sarcastically, "technology is so amazing."

"Are you mocking XYZ's line, 'Science is so amazing'?"

"Yep. By the way, do any of you have a favourite starter?" Max tried to start a conversation.

"Well... I like Scorbunny!" Harry said.

"Any fire starter will do." Ty shrugged.

"Eevee is adorable, but aside from Eevee I choose Piplup!" Akasuki Smiled.

"Fenniken." Dia replied.

"Oshawott." Azzari shrugged.

"Popplio!" Altalune smiled eagerly.

"Eevee, obviously." Natalie said as her Umbreon curled up on the grass beside her.

"I have way too many to choose from... I love most water types, including the starters, but froakie and popplio are my favourites out of those. I also like pikachu, eevee, charmander and squirtle, grookey and scorbunny." I said, naming all of the starters that I had or had the evolved form of, plus squirtle. Again, I loved water starters.

"What about you Pearl?" Altalune asked.

"My favourite is froakie." Pearl smiled.

"Oh no... Just froakie? Please don't tell me you're one of those crazy fangirls who will stop at nothing to get the entire froakie evolution chain, every plushie, and collect froakie in every game where he exists all while trying to force the entire world to see how 'great' froakie is and convince them that he's the best starter even though he's the weakest starter of his region and gives you a disadvantage to most of XY's gyms..." Max groaned. "My cousin was one of those and I swear it was the most annoying thing I've ever had to put up with. Under most circumstances it only would've made me hate froakie."

"I'm not one of those people. My sister used to have a froakie when she was little, and we always played with it, so I'm a little attached still. And what do you mean under most circumstances your cousin's rants would've made you hate froakie?"

"Eh, there's a reason I was able to put up with my cousin's blabbering. If it had been any other starter I would've snapped and avoided it at all costs, but it's always been a bit different with the froakie evolution line for me."

"So you're a froakie fan too?" I asked. Max glared at me.

"I did not say that!"

"It was implied."

"Well... Yeah, I do like froakie, but there are stronger pokemon out there."

"So froakie is or is not your favourite starter?"

"Fine, it is. But I'm not telling anyone why."

"Fine by me. Now I can tease you for immediately judging Pearl for liking froakie even though it's your favourite too!"

"Oh boy, you should've never admitted anything Max." Ty laughed. "Now we can help her tease you!"

"What was I thinking?" Max facepalmed.

"You weren't!"

"Guys, we should work on our test now. We haven't got much more time before lunch. I'll read the questions and you guys can answer them." Natalie reminded us. "Now, the first question is about these symbols. We have to identify all of them."

"This one's dark, this one's flying, this one's electric, and this one's water." Harry pointed at each of the symbols as he talked about them. "Makes me think of a storm honestly."

"Alright, next. What's the electric type z-move called?"

"Gigavolt Havoc." Ty replied. "Easy."

"Okay, dark type zmove?"

"Black Hole Eclipse." Max, Greninja and I all answered at the same time.

"Alright, last ones. Then we'll probably have to go in and eat. What is the only electric type starter to exist in the pokemon games?"

"It's pikachu!" Kaden yelled.

"Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit's clefairy!" Azzari muttered, seeing his opportunity to recreate a pokemon vine.

"Heeeeeeeeeeeeeck!" Kaden screamed, playing along.

"Alright, last one. What pokemon type did dark types have to be combined with to have no weaknesses prior to gen 6?"

"Ghost types." I answered. "I remember reading that somewhere I think-"

"Mhm. They covered each other's weaknesses perfectly." Max replied.

"That's interesting. It must've been a powerful type combination back then." Said Harry.

"What's it weak to now?" Akasuki asked.

"Only fairy types. I should know. Sableye is a dark and ghost type!" Dia grinned.

A few minutes later everyone was seated with their cabins for lunch. Today it was fish n chips. The circular table that we had just barely fit everyone, including pokemon. In order around the table starting with the counselors we had Maggie, Andrea, Natalie, Gaia, Aubrey, Eve, Lilac, me, Greninja, and Pearl. Most of the pokemon ate near the window behind our table, but others stayed with us. Eevee was sitting on Eve's lap and Misdreavus floated around Gaia, only picking up some food to eat every couple of minutes. Umbreon had made herself at home squeezed between Andrea and Natalie, even though she was too short to see the top of the table. She just wanted to be with her trainer. The rest of the pokemon liked the window.

"So... Shall we talk? We need to get our eeveelution performance all set up!" Eve suggested eagerly.

"There's a kid on Team Grass who has a leafeon. I talked to him about it today. He says his twin cousins have a vaporeon and a flareon. He asked if we all want to meet at the pool today to discuss this during free time?" Lilac offered.

"What did you tell them?"

"I told them sure. Flareon can't swim, but it has good ears and likes watching the water, so he said the pool should be fine."

"So now we just need a glaceon and a sylveon..."

"I have an eevee that I've been trying to level up into a sylveon for a long time now. The only problem is that she doesn't know any fairy type moves..." Pearl said nervously. "If we can't find a sylveon we could all try and help my eevee learn baby doll eyes or charm."

"I am absolutely sure I can use neither of those." Greninja said. "Greninjas can't learn fairy type moves, so I know basically nothing about them."

"My eevee knows charm." I said.

"Mine knows baby doll eyes." Eve also volunteered some information. "We can help your eevee learn one of them."

"Yay! Thanks guys!" Pearl almost squealed.

"Are we having ice cream for dessert?" Aubrey asked, pointing towards the desserts table. "I really hope so. It's so hot outside!"

"If you want I can always use a very light hydro pump on you guys." Greninja offered. "It doesn't hurt I promise."

"It's annoying when he uses it to wake you up though." I mumbled. Greninja just laughed at that.

"I'm guessing he's a morning person and you aren't." Gaia grinned. "Misdreavus and I are night owls. Should we be concerned?"

"Very."

"More victims!" Greninja said. He was joking... Mostly... He probably was going to wake us up with a light hydro pump or by dropping a water shuriken on our heads in the morning though.

"Darn. C'mon Ninja Froggo, staying up late is fun!" Gaia teased. "It's not our fault everything looks cooler at night!"

"I know Gaia. I can stay up as late as I want and still get up in the mornings. It does stop me from functioning as best I can, but at least I don't make myself late for everything by sleeping in."

"I always ask him how he does it every single morning and he never answers..." I groaned.

"Yep. Trade secret."

After dessert our tables were dismissed and we were all sent to our cabins for a little while for quiet time. Gaia and Misdreavus looked like they were playing cards, Lilac and Deerling sketched some outfit ideas, Eve and Aubrey were passing notes and playing games on paper, Pearl was writing in what seemed to be a journal, and our counselors were doing their own things on their phones. Greninja and I just sat on our bed and tried to figure out what to do.

'I'm bored.'

'So am I.'

'What should we do?'

'I don't know.'

'Can I hydro pump Gaia yet?'

'No.'

'Fine.'

'I can bring out some of the others if you want.'

'Which ones will be quiet?'

'Let's see...'

I brought out Pikachu, Eevee, Popplio, Vulpix, Bunnelby, Raboot, Cinderace, Grookey, Frogadier, and Froakie.

'Grookey might be loud.'

'I know. We'll see what happens.'

Pikachu and Eevee looked around before whispering to Popplio, Vulpix, Bunnelby, and Grookey about something. They all went through the backpack that we'd brought and grabbed from it a sketchbook and some pencils. They played with those while Raboot and Cinderace passed notes about soccer. Frogadier handed Froakie to Greninja and jumped off of the bed to go explore the room. Pearl saw this and quickly passed me a note from her spot in the bottom middle bunk.

'What's it say?'

'It's asking if Frogadier is on our team.'

I gave Pearl a thumbs up and she kind of just looked in amazement. She'd only been introduced to everyone's pokemon partners, so she'd never seen any of my other pokemon before. Most of our pokemon had finished eating and gone back into their cards by the time she came last night. Until now she'd only seen Sylveon, Umbreon, Jolteon, Eve's Eevee, Litten, Misdreavus, Flabebe, and Greninja because those pokemon never went back in their cards. She hadn't known about any of the other pokemon in the cabin.

"If you guys want to take this time to introduce all of your pokemon or bring them out to talk you can." Andrea said from her bed. She didn't care about us being quiet.

"Okay. But let's make it more interesting than that! Who here in Cabin Primarina wants to battle?" Gaia suggested. The name of our cabin was Cabin Primarina, to my popplio's delight. Each cabin was named after a pokemon that was introduced in Sun And Moon.

"Hey, who has a fire type?" Lilac asked. "Deerling and I will battle them!"

"I'm all for being ref, but don't destroy anything k? We're still inside, and this cabin is tiny." Andrea reminded us.

"I have Chandelure." Gaia shrugged. "But I also have a litwick that wants some practice."

"We'll take on either one Gaia. Take your pick!" Lilac said excitedly.

"Alright, come on out Litwick!"

Gaia released Litwick on one side of the room and walked over to it while Aubrey and Eve dragged the table and chairs in our cabin to the larger space between the counselor's bunks. Deerling and Lilac ran to the side of the room closer to Aubrey and Eve's bunks. The rest of us sat at the ends of our beds to watch the show.

- During Free Time -

"I'm glad our second activity tomorrow is swimming." Popplio swam up to me, smiling and laughing. "I love swimming! And we won't have to spend some of our free time after that getting changed for the pool. One of us who doesn't like the water can go to the tuck shop for snacks for everyone, and then nobody will lose any time here!"

I smiled back at her. "Yep! I think Misdreavus volunteered for that."

This camp day was flying by. Here was our schedule without the exact times:

Wake up

Breakfast

Lecture

Game

Lunch

Quiet time

Activity 1

Activity 2

Free time

Supper

Lecture 2

Game 2

Campfire/Swimming (It alternated nights)

Bedtime

We were currently at free time. Popplio was happily swimming around. She'd found a boy with a sobble, and his sister who had a piplup, and they were all playing together. Some of my other pokemon were swimming, and others were playing around the edge of the pool. Gaia's all seemed to be hanging out with Charmander and keeping him company for me. Almost all of Aubrey's pokemon were playing tag with some pikachus, including mine, Lilac's, and Carter's. Her ninjask had a bit of an advantage in speed, but they didn't seem to care. Mudkip was Aubrey's only pokemon who was swimming. Eve and Pearl were swimming with all of their pokemon. To everyone's surprise, even Pearl's fennekin didn't seem to mind the water.

"Hey, Ninja Girl!"

I spun around in the water to see the girl with the Delphox who had challenged me yesterday. We never did get our battle then. But now that we had a full day at camp and some free time to burn we could battle.

"Hello!"

"Where's your greninja? I was wondering if you'd be okay with having our battle now." She walked over to me. "My name is Phoebe by the way."

"I'm Alyssa." I hopped out of the deep end of the pool easily, actually diving to the bottom and jumping from there first. It was a trick that Greninja had showed me. It had taken years to master it, and it was really difficult, but I was proud of myself for learning. Might've defied science, but whatever. My world, my rules. "Hey Greninja, come over here for a sec!"

Greninja jumped out of the water the same way I did and walked around the edge of the pool to me.  I walked over to the spot where I'd left a towel and some of my other stuff along with the rest of my cabin and put on a thin t-shirt, waterproof shorts, and my water shoes.

"You came prepared." Phoebe grinned at me.

"I was expecting you." I smiled back. Then I turned to my partner. "Hey Greninja, Phoebe was wondering if we could have our battle with her now?"

"Sure. Why not? I was looking forward to some action anyways." He replied.

"Awesome! Lets go then!" Phoebe cheered.

We made our way to the field where everyone gathered at game time and stood on opposite sides of each other. Some campers were nearby playing horseshoes with their pokemon nearby, so we asked a boy from their group to ref.

"Alright, one on one battle, I assume everyone knows the rules, battle begin!" He yelled and his friends watched from beside him.

"Delphox, use mystical fire and flamethrower!"

Greninja waited patiently for Delphox to actually use one of the attacks before dodging by launching himself into the air with a hydro pump.

'You know what to do.'

'Of course. Type advantage makes my job easier too.'

Greninja landed and threw some water shurikens at Delphox, then jumped into the air and used hydro pump, aiming at her the entire way up so that the only way to dodge would be to the sides. It seemed like a lot of steps, but he was quick about it and hardly gave Delphox any time to think. It was just one of the things we'd been practicing a lot recently. Anyways, we landed the hit.

"Delphox, are you alright?" Phoebe asked. When she got a confirmation from Delphox she gave her next command. "Great! Now use flamethrower again!"

'Double team, water shuriken, hydro pump.'

'Alright.'

Greninja dodged the flamethrower again and used double team, He and his copies ran circles around Delphox to confuse her, waiting to get the real Greninja behind her. When Delphox took out a few of the copies and almost hit Greninja, they all threw a water shuriken. She jumped up to dodge them, and that's when Greninja used a hydro pump from behind her.

"Here I am!" He laughed.

Delphox was knocked to the ground and nearly looked like she was out, but she managed to get back up again and used fire blast. Thinking quickly, Greninja used substitute before he could get hit. I was worried for a minute. I shouldn't have been. Blocking and dodging were my greninja's specialties. It was almost all he'd been practicing since his card got ripped last winter.

But Delphox wasn't done yet. She used a flamethrower, aiming for where Greninja had gone. He managed to charge up a water shuriken and threw it at Delphox before dodging most of the attack. It would've nailed him if that shuriken had taken any longer. He was on the ground now from a bad attempt to dodge.

"Quick, flamethrower again before he can get up!"

Delphox followed her trainer's command and Greninja used hydro pump as the flamethrower was coming at him, his move breaking through Delphox's and nearly hitting her as she dodged. Greninja used water shuriken again and just barely hit Delphox. She was learning how to dodge a bit better too, since she clearly couldn't just stand there and take all of Greninja's attacks.

"Keep using flamethrower!"

"I'd ask if that's the only move she knows, but she's already used mystical fire and fire blast!" Greninja said sarcastically and dodged again. He then used hydro pump to launch himself into the air again, managing to disappear while he was up there. Everyone was so focused on the water he's sprayed at the ground and their confusion about him not aiming at Delphox that only I watched where he went and what move he used next. Double team.

His copies landed around Delphox and started jumping out at her, looking like they were about to attack. Delphox took out all of the copies and didn't see Greninja anywhere. Then he appeared behind her again and used night slash. We all watched and waited for a few moments. Everyone stayed still. Nothing happened. Then...

"Delphox is unable to battle! Greninja wins!" Our referee shouted.

Greninja held out his hand to help Delphox up. She was shorter than him at 4'11'', the average height for her species. "That was a good battle. Thanks for helping me get some practice in."

Delphox took his hand and got up. "Yeah, thanks for agreeing to it. Even though you had the type advantage."

"Type advantage won't matter eventually. Alyssa has a younger brother who has a cinderace that he's been training with for a long time. He uh... Yeah water types don't stand a chance even though they do have a type advantage. That's the fastest way to explain it."

"Oof. Sounds powerful."

"Yep. And Alyssa has a vulpix that's been training against her froakie. Since Vulpix is always fighting Froakie and Froakie has a type advantage, Vulpix is actually getting really good at standing her ground with water types. I can't wait to see how powerful she becomes when she evolves. If she wants to, of course."

Delphox and Greninja continued their conversation about their younger siblings and Phoebe and I started a conversation of our own.

"Greninja is more powerful than I expected. I thought we'd at least land a few hits." Phoebe said, shaking my hand.

"He's a ninja, He likes sneaking up on people and surprising them."

"That makes sense. How long have you two been partners for?"

"Since I was in senior kindergarten, I think. I got his card as a birthday gift from Professor Trillium when I was a kid and he was a froakie. He freaked out as soon as he saw Pikachu."

"You have a pikachu?"

"Yep. My only electric type."

"Wow, cool! I like to focus on fire and electric types."

"I like diversity on my team, but if I had to choose just one type, water all the way."

"Why'd you join the dark type team then?"

"Why not? Thought I'd try something new this year."

"It's always good to try something new."

"Agreed. Want to go swimming?"

"Sure! I like the water, Delphox probably won't join us though."

"Alright. Race you there?"

"No way! Greninja has a higher speed stat than Delphox! If you're anything like your pokemon you'll win for sure!"

"Maybe. Want to find out for real? Y'know, instead of judging my abilities based off of my pokemon partner?" I grinned.

"Fine! You're on!" Phoebe grinned back.

We got our partner's attention and off we ran, back to the pool. And of course, Greninja and I won. What? I didn't say I wasn't like my pokemon partner. I just asked if my new friend really wanted to judge me based off of him.