Neighbors

Funny how, even through it all, it felt right: almost as if I could have anticipated that Calem and I would be facing each other in a big and decisive battle...

Though still vague, we had just begun to uncovered the truth behind mega stones and the mega evolutions, and we now stood before each other, looking into each other's eyes and trying to sort out the feelings of rivalry, fear of defeat and friendship, all for the Mega Ring – the missing piece to unlock the mega evolutions on our Pokémon, handed down to us by the guru himself. I was scared – always insecure, always too careful, constantly overshadowed by Calem's fearless determination... But there I could see he feared, too: he couldn't afford to lose, finally... And his fear made me believe I could do it!

Charmeleon was the first out of his Pokeball – Calem sent out his Meowstic. While both seemed equally locked in a preliminary staring contest, Meowstic let out an uncalled-for fake out, which left Charmeleon dumbfounded. Calem laughed and ordered him use disarming voice, the singing hit my yet confused Charmeleon at full blast.

"Ouch! That was a good start." Trevor remarked.

Half a minute into battle and Charmeleon had already sustained two hits and inflicted none, but before I could succumb to pessimistic worry, the fire creature recomposed with an angry roar, and ran headfirst towards his foe.

"Charmeleon, use dragon rage!" The command was appreciated, Charmeleon obeyed promptly. Two embers later, the clever Meowstic was down, and we rose victorious.

Calem wasn't fazed by the early defeat though. I'd seen enough of his battles to know they meant nothing to shake his steady foundation, cause he was a master at turning the tables when victory seemed most unlikely. His next choice was his Quilladin.

Despite the advantage in types matchup, Quilladin proved itself quite an adversary, being the most experienced one in the party: with a defense curl, it avoided most of Charmeleon's flamethrower damage, brushing it off as if it was nothing and picking himself up for battle again! His admirable token of determination in face of the odds made me nervous, and made Charmeleon angry: I let it go full force against Quilladin in a physical attack, hoping to break his defense – terrible idea! Quilladin waited patiently, hardly breaking a sweat while Charmeleon furiously charged at him... At the last second, Calem commanded a rollout attack, catching my Pokémon completely off his guard. Charmeleon fell to the ground, and even though he clumsily managed to dodge the next hit, he got rolled over twice after that – enduring it as best as he could, I perceived. By the third one, he was out. Calem smiled presumptuously.

"Right!" I sighed to myself, trying to stay calm. Quilladin had an iron defense... I needed super effectiveness to defeat it, but mostly speed, before he could charge his rollout. "I know just the guy..." I held the Pokéball next to my sweaty brow, whispering him to try his best... and sent out my Fletchinder.

"Same mistake again, neighbor?" Calem laughed.

"Not this time..." I sweated nervously, but only then beginning to feel the excitement of the battle flowing through my veins. "Ember!" – I commanded, pointing ahead. Fletchinder flashed me a quick glance, then onwards he went with the prompt.

"Take him, Quilladin! Rollout!" Calem angrily screamed, and Quilladin jumped in the air, curling itself into a ball and dropping back like lead, skidding and rolling Fletchinder's way.

But, just as I hoped, Fletchinder's speed greatly surpassed Quilladin's, enabling him to cover the heavy ball with fire and dodge its attack at the last second.

"Do it again and he's done for!!" I energetically ordered before Fletchinder was too far from Quilladin, and watched as the bird made a quick maneuver, flying above my head and charging at Quilladin again.

This time, however, he wasn't so lucky in dodging: my rushed prompt might have crippled his attack, and he fell under rollout right after hitting Quilladin with another ember. The two of them went down...

Now I was left with only one Pokémon, not knowing which of his Calem would choose. There wasn't much logical thinking to help me out in a situation as such... Calem picked his pokeball, and I picked mine, choosing to honor the beginning of my journey by sending out Azure, my Frogadier. Calem's choice was a very intimidating Absol...

"Ho, ho..." An old amused laugh parted the Guru's lips, who placidly watched us "I guess skill alone will determine the winner..." he encouraged.

Three drops of heavy sweat could be seen crossing Calem's forehead, and I'm sure I looked no different. Being done with the glaring, we commanded our Pokémon with a simultaneous scream, and they ran at each other, starting the fight.

Frogadier and Absol were formidable adversaries: they were both extremely fast, performing commanded moves almost as soon as we started calling them out, dodging each other and recovering from attacks with haste. It seemed they were both too aware of their responsibilities there, and so they moved with a lot of caution, and quite aggressively when an opening seemed present.

At length they were both tired, and neither I nor Calem could judge who was doing better; they had already landed so many attacks on one another, that we had lost track of the damage taken, especially because our hardy Pokémon gave themselves no time to stress over it, jumping up and forward again and again like unwavering machines... I longed for it to end soon, not because I was tired of watching, but because I was scared for them...

The fight was over when hidden power hit Azure, and water pulse engulfed Absol. Calem, I, and all our friends gasped in shock as the two Pokémon seemed visibly defeated at the same time... Finally, they breathed heavily. Finally, they seemed too tired to move, facing each other with the burning of rivalry threatening to fade away under heavy lids.

"Could it be... A tie?!" Korrina, who also stayed to watch, wondered to herself in awe.

"Absol!!" Calem suffered, unsure whether to call him back or not.

I didn't know it either: the two creatures would not stop facing each other, as if they were just waiting for their breath to return in order to pick themselves up and fight again.

After a minute or two of the torturous spectacle, Azure's legs began trembling... shaking... He closed one eye and cried lightly, and, somehow, stood up. Absol emulated the determination: his eyes gleamed, burning hot again... but his body couldn't follow. He fell down, fainted.

"No... Absol!!!!"

Frogadier had enough energy left to glance backwards at me and stretch a short smile, then he, too, fell headfirst.

"I can't believe it! I can't believe how close that was!!" The guru cried in excitement, assuming a position between Calem and I, who both ran to our respective creatures, embracing and congratulating them for the hard work.

"A less fair person would call it a tie... But how could I, beholding the strength your weary Pokémon gathered from nowhere, just to stand and make you proud?"

I held Azure tighter against me: funny enough, he seemed to smile in his sleep.

"And yours, too, Calem – Your Pokémon seem to really believe in you. They gave their best for you, and must be fully honored for that!"

Calem nodded, a heavy and sad expression weighing down on his brow.

I could not confirm it... I could not tell them what Frogadier's smile looked like in that last second: so reassuring, so pleased with himself, as if he had proven a point to me... As if he said 'see? You are a worthy trainer...'. Could it be that he felt all of my doubts?

"You heard him, boy... You did a fine job! Now it's time to rest!" I called him back to his Pokéball and stood up.

"I would love to congratulate the two of you..." The guru stretched his arms, pointing our ways "...But a deal is a deal, and I only have one mega ring, after all! The winner is Anne, and may she find the ultimate way of honoring her team!"

Korrina walked closer to me, holding out a charming bracelet with a gleaming stone in the middle – my own gleaming stone, bearing my locked potential. When she put it around my wrist, though, it felt too heavy a burden; Calem's expression a much too sullen one to stare into, day in and day out, from there on!

His disappointed eyes traced me – they lightened up quickly, and a smile flashed there. Just like my Pokémon, Calem could read my thoughts there:

"Don't worry, neighbor! You earned it!" he reassured me with a pat on the shoulder, where his hand weighed upon for a few seconds longer.

That was a good, rare moment of victory in my early life... But it was also pretty clouded with fears – after all, I had barely won... Only because Frogadier could stand his ground for a fraction of a second longer than Absol. Luck or merit? My merit or Azure's? Was it right to keep that ring, when Calem was clearly the best trainer? So many insecurities...

My friends – and even Calem himself – kept repeating it: I earned it. I won. I was going to be the first of Sycamore's pupils to discover a mega evolution, and that's what mattered. I won against Calem, even if by a fraction of a second...

...I won, only to get completely wiped out by Team Flare!!