The two young upstarts silently stood facing one another, their gaze unwavering. Each focused on conditioning themselves for the coming battle, refusing to show weakness to their opponent. The spectators knew from just a glance neither one would accept anything less than a victory today.

A short span of time had passed since Chloe and Mason arrived. The people on the sidelines, Pallet Central staff, ran logistics; they pulled auxiliary equipment out of a Container ball, brought out a referee, gave headsets to the battlers, and released a xatu and a kadabra on each side, setting up psychic barriers to prevent any collateral damage or danger to the audience.

During this time, Ken asked Mr. Brown if he could send him a recording of the battle for his mother as he did not want to miss a single detail himself.

On the left end, Chloe wore a red and black matching set. When coupled with her voluminous, brown curls, she seemed more like a young lady about to go and have a fun night out with friends; it didn’t appear at all like she was about to engage in a serious fight by proxy.

There was only one clue that hinted to the latter. Her hazel eyes were sharp and narrow, staring down her opponent like a murkrow would its prey.

Her rival, on the right, gave off a strong, tolerant feeling with his upward tilting chin and dark eyes, which flashed hidden fire upon closer observation.

Mason wore a white and navy outfit, easily showcasing his tall and sturdy frame. The half smirk etched across his wide jawline completed the look of a noble young master as if he knew he was this handsome, flaunting to the world his self-confidence and superiority.

'Wow. These two people are extremely attractive.'

Ken had thought the rumors were over-exaggerating, but he realized he was the one in the wrong. He would not even give it a second thought if people told him that today instead of a battle, they both were giving a Coordinator performance, individuals who went on stage with their pokemon with music, dancing, or both - the pop artists of this world.

Light, witty banter exchanged back and forth between Chloe and Mason, and the public showmanship eventually concluded as both signaled they were ready to the referee.

"Begin," declared the referee.

The rivals stared each other down and released their pokeballs at nearly the exact same time, Chloe’s ball making a wide, straight arc while Mason’s had a slight spin to it.The two orbs landed, bursted open, and bounced right back, their owners catching them perfectly on the rebound.

The moment of truth had now arrived.

The audience waited with bated breath as the bright flashes of light began to dissipate and tangible shapes formed in the middle of the battlefield.

On the left, a sky blue knee-high, rotund figure emerged. Little chubby limbs with tiny digits, a curly tail, and a spherical head protruded from a rigid, tan encasement.

An auburn four-legged creature of a similar height stood on the right side of the field. Tufts of fur, large, triangular ears, and orb-like eyes formed from its small head. Two fluffy tails indicated its young age.

Most of the audience sighed heavily, realizing the odds were in Chloe's favor.

The squirtle and vulpix squarely faced off against one another, ready to spring forward at their respective trainer's orders.

Turning its head slightly, the fire pokemon made accidental eye contact with Ken, who felt a familiar warm feeling flaring from within. He gripped his chest, squeezing hard, as he tried to recall where he last felt this strange sensation.

Even with the type advantage, Chloe would not allow an excellent opportunity like this to go wasted.

"Maru, Bubble!" She quickly shouted as the vulpix was slightly distracted.

The blue turtle puffed its cheeks out and subsequently released a flurry of round spheres at its opponent, each slightly shimmering with a blue glow.

Mason clicked his tongue, "Dodge, Rose!"

The fire pokemon refocused just in the nick of time and immediately followed its owner's orders by hopping to the side, narrowly avoiding the small balls bursting and drizzling water all over that area.

"Maru, use Tackle, then Bubble." A half-frown formed on the girl's face when the previous attack missed.

The squirtle got down on all fours to increase speed and charged straight at its enemy.

The auburn pokemon dodged this attack easy enough on its own. Jumping back to its original position, the vulpix sidestepped the charge but was slow to avoid the follow-up water attack on its flank, creating white circular blemishes due to the opposing Energy-type interactions.

"Rose, Quick Attack."

Its hind legs glowed as the fire pokemon pivoted after the recoil from the attack and swiftly pounced at the water one.

"Withdraw." Chloe knew her pokemon was slower and wisely chose to pursue defense.

Bouncing off the hard shell, Rose backed off and released small bursts of fire in the form of an Ember; the attack easily overpowered by another Bubble at the girl's command, successfully drenching the shot sparks and continuing onward to its target.

However, the vulpix moved quickly enough this time and skillfully avoided the water-type move by not overcommitting to its fire attack.

Mason's eyes narrowed as he gave his next order, "Rose, let's do it. Power Ember."

A shocking sight unfolded after his pokemon registered the command. The fox's fur exuded an orange glow as the sun's rays instantly intensified and heated up a little. Energy in the form of orange specks condensed from within the sunbeam and directly flowed into the fire pokemon like tiny fireflies.

The vulpix opened its maw wide as a decently-sized fiery sphere formed and released balls of fire at its opponent. Caught off guard by the power behind the attack, the blue turtle frantically shot some bubbles to try to counter the flying flames but failed to do so as the small spheres popped and fizzled away. Some of the flames knocked the Squirtle of its feet, leaving behind light scorch marks on the hard shell.

Mason smirked with pride in his tone, "Rose here has the Drought ability, allowing her to use the natural Energy from the sun to power up her fire-type moves."

"But you already knew what Drought was, didn't you Chloe?" He paused for dramatic effect, "Well, too bad book smarts don't translate to trainer skills. I was always better than you in our class practicals anyway."

The brown-haired girl's expression became ugly as it seemed Mason poked a sore spot of hers.

She angrily yelled, "Maru! Get up already and shoot out a Bubble!"

The shelled amphibian flipped back over right-side up and heeded its trainer's command, sending a much more powerful array of blue glossy spheres aimed in the direction of its enemy.

However, this was countered by the charged-up fire move, and the two blasts of opposite elements resulted in both a stalemate and a slowly spreading mist.

After several more back-and-forth streams of fireballs and water orbs clashing against one another, forming a light haze in the battlefield's center, a standstill of sorts emerged as each battler decided to conserve their pokemon's energy for now and devise a better strategy.

Being more quick-witted of the two, Mason sent out a somewhat surprising command, "Feint Attack."

Dark-type Energy replaced its orange shimmer as the fire pokemon's silhouette increasingly dimmed and blurred more and more, much like a camera becoming very out of focus. The added mist environment assisted the vulpix greatly, reducing the turtle's accuracy with its bubbles and allowing enough time for the fire pokemon to close in and bash the squirtle hard.

As the audience was shocked by the unexpected dark-type move, Mason decided to enlighten them, "You see, Rose's father was a strong and powerful Houndoom, giving her a basic grasp of Dark Energy. These are simply the benefits of having a well-bred pokemon. It's a shame; Chloe, you should've also —"

He swallowed his words as he watched Maru easily brushing off the attack and getting up once more.

"What was that Mason? Were you going to say something stupid like how I should've chosen my starter from a breeder's wide selection like you instead?" Chloe loudly harrumphed, "I'll have you know that because my squirtle is a purebred one from the University, his defense is even stronger than average. Why do you think he's named Maru? It means 'Floating Castle' in the old language."

Now, it was the boy's turn to show an ugly expression, trying to wipe it off quickly from his face as he hastily sent out another order to end this conversation.

"Power Ember, Rose!"

"Withdraw!" Chloe knew the move was even more powerful at such a close distance, type disadvantage or no.

The hot flames skidded off the hard shell as the blue turtle continued sheltering against several more bombardments of the stronger form of Ember.

After some time, Mason had his pokemon retreat further back in order to catch its breath. The female teenager took this opportunity to have hers use a Tackle.

Emerging from its shell, the squirtle showed signs of moderate damage as a pink tinge graced its blue skin all over. However, the turtle still charged at its opponent, which successfully landed - the vulpix failing to dodge in time due to exhaustion from overusing its flames.

"Bubble, Maru!"

Anxious, Mason shouted a more complex order, "Rose, dodge with Quick Attack!"

The fire pokemon expended some of its remaining Energy reserves to instantly shift to the right, narrowly avoiding the small water spheres.

Chloe's eyes widened, surprised by her rival's ability to teach such a complex command to his pokemon in such a short amount of time.

A half-smirk sneaked onto the tall boy's face as he loudly clapped along with his next command, "Power Ember, Rose!"

"Bubble!"

The half-smirk transformed into a full one when Mason heard Chloe's words. Ken was confused at the male teenager's odd expression up until he saw the next sequence of events.

What was expected to be another collision of fire and water turned out to be something else.

The Squirtle still shot its orbs of water at its target — or at least it tried to. However, the auburn pokemon was hard to nail down; it had blurred once again and performed a Faint Attack instead of its trademark fire move.

Everyone was caught off guard by the surprise change in attack, except for Mason and Rose, the latter quickly pouncing and landing a direct hit with the dark-type move while the squirtle missed its shots.

And before the blue turtle could get back on its stubby feet again, Mason haughtily said, "Better luck next time, Chloe. Ember."

The weakened form of the fire-type move was enough to finish off the squirtle and knock it out cold, leaving light burns and even more scorch marks on its skin and shell.

"Squirtle is unable to battle. Victory goes to Vulpix and the trainer Mason," the referee called the match as the audience was still dumbfounded and flabbergasted at the results of the pokemon battle; many people present had expected Chloe to have this one in the bag when she revealed her type advantage at the beginning of the match.

Ken thought that this was an important lesson in how type advantages were not everything in a battle, especially with how Mason mislead his opponent by using that clap to send his real orders to his vulpix while shouting out a false verbal one.

Chloe returned her fainted pokemon, and the two rivals met in the middle of the field to shake hands and say a few words to each other, which ended up being off-mic.

As Ken patiently waited for his friends' excited chattering to subside to say a few things himself, he again met eyes with Mason's vulpix, eliciting that familiar feeling to rise up once more.

Before most could realize what was going on, Rose quickly dashed towards Ken, causing the warmth in his chest to heat up more and more in response to the fire pokemon getting closer and closer.

“What is your pokemon doing?!” Chloe shouted at her male counterpart when she saw the red blur.

“Rose! Stop!” Mason yelled repeatedly, unsuccessful in his attempts.

The audience's surprised shouts faded into the background as the vulpix stopped a stone’s throw away and stared intensely into Ken's own amber eyes.

The last thing Ken could've sworn he saw were tiny, yet powerful flames in the fox's beautiful eyes, before he ended up losing consciousness from the fire burning in his chest rising up to his head, inducing a fever dream of sorts.

A strong heat was all he could feel. Darkness was all he could see. Weird sensations confused his senses as he struggled to grab a hold of himself and his disappearing thoughts.

And then, finally, Ken fully slipped into his unconscious state.