"Haha! I win again!"
"No fair! One more time, please?"
"I've just beaten you eight times in a row at this. Why do you bother?"
"Grrr... I know I'm better than you at this."
"Alright, one more time, just to prove I'm better."
With a few buttons pressed, the two battle screens came up. Both combatants stared deeply into the screens of their handheld systems. The pokémon battle begun.
Both players were avid pokémon obsessionists. Each imagined himself in a real battle, the stadium seperating them as they both reached for their first pokéball.
"Go, Charmeleon!" Cried Andrew, throwing the ball in. It split, fell open and revealed the powerful fire pokémon.
"Squirtle, I choose you!" His opponent, Callan, threw forth his own ball, bringing out the blue turtle.
"Scratch, Charmeleon!" The fire pokémon hit it's opponent with it's claws, throwing it back powerfully.
"Squirtle, use Water Gun!" Callan called. While all that showed on the screen was a few drops falling onto his opponent, they vividly imagined the pokémon unleashing the huge water jet. The life counter for Charmeleon ticked down to just above halfway.
"Use your Rage attack!" Cried Andrew in their imaginary battle. Charmeleon unleashed a massive clawed punch on Squirtle.
"Use Water Gun again!" Squirtle caused a critical hit, hitting the burning tip of Charmeleon's tail, which had been exposed by the rage attack. This weakened Charmeleon down until it collapsed, fainted, but Squirtle had been badly hurt too. Callan jumped for joy while Andrew lay in shock over the defeat of his strongest pokémon.
"Now you've done it!" He cursed Callan, looking up from his Gameboy. "See how you like this!"
As Callan watched the screen, Andrew's Pikachu appeared. It was six levels down from his level fifteen Squirtle, but super-effectiveness coupled with Squirtle's already serious injuries made it dangerous. Squirtle only got in a single Water Gun before being taken down by a thundershock.
"How about a Geodude?" Callan brought out the pokémon, immune to electric attacks. "Rock throw!" Several rocks were brought down on the poor pokémon's head.
"Enough, Pikachu." Andrew returned the almost-dead pokémon. "Go, Nidoran!"
Looking at Andrew's second-strongest pokémon, Callan felt a twinge of fear. "Tackle it, Geodude!" The Rock pokémon flew forward into a full miss.
"Double Kick attack!" Andrew called. The super-effective fighting technique left Geodude for gravel.
"Good job, Geodude. Go, Kadabra!" Callan unleashed his newly-evolved, level sixteen, very high-speed psychic pokémon. "Confusion attack!"
Nidoran was swept back from the force of the blow. It retaliated with a Horn Attack, before being hit back with another confusion.
Almost defeated, it lay on a Poison sting attack. Callan watched in horror as the words 'critical hit' came up, closely followed by 'Kadabra has been poisoned!'
"Oh man..." He muttered, imagining his Kadabra growing green, swaying from side to side gently. It lay out another confusion, knocking out Nidoran.
"Yes..." Callan knew if he could beat two more comparitively low-level pokémon, he'd win.
"Zubat, I choose you!"
"Kadabra, confusion!"
Maybe it was the effects of the poison, or just general bad luck, but the attack missed.
"Zubat, supersonic attack!"
"Oh, no..." Callan mumbled as the attack connected. The poison took it's toll again, weakening Kadabra further. He knew his next attack would backfire, but he tried anyway.
"Confusion!" As expected, it backfired. Combined with Zubat's leech life and the poison's effects, Kadabra fainted.
Knowing his Pidgey would probably be able to beat the Zubat, Callan brought it out next. But he had forgotten about the half-dead Pikachu sitting in his opponent's list...
"Pikachu, Thundershock!" The attack pulled Pidgey down well past halfway, as well as Paralyzing it. The paralysis prevented Pidgey from attacking, and the next thundershock killed it.
"Oh man..." He brought out his fifth and final pokémon, which he had barely started to train. Andrew's Zubat took down the level 4 Rattata easily.
"See? Told you!" Andrew laughed as he taunted his opponent. "Face it, you can't beat me!"
"Yeah, 'cos you get fluke after fluke. I keep missing, you get critical hits, poison my my Kadabra and Paralyze my Pidgey with one single shot!"
"Don't be a poor loser."
Callan grumbled quietly, the glanced over to the clock, which showed 10:50. "Whoa, I didn't realise it was that late. Come on, we should get to sleep."
As Callan fell into his bed, he thought he heard Andrew laughing softly from the mattress where he was staying the night at Callan's house. Callan's expression turned stony, but this went unseen in the pitch black room.
"If pokémon were real, I know I could beat him." He said to himself, very softly. "That might be cool..."
He shrugged, turned over, and was asleep within minutes.