The battle between the two had commenced. Dan's over-confidence had gotten him in trouble at the start having his Burmy quickly lose his fight and getting seriously injured at the hands of the sudowoodo, The battle turned briefly when Dan used Twiggy, hitting with a highly effective mix of absorb and withdraw. With the first of Zvi's pokemon down, and only Noctowl left. The battle looked desperate with Dan's two extremely hurt pokemon.


"Ugh....We can win guys...don't give up just yet!" Dan said "Hey! Don't think you've won just yet!" 

Dan used his Rat first, sure there was some way to win, but that dream had been nearly crushed when Rat went down in only a single hit.


"No...Rat... You did well." He said as he put his pokemon in its ball.

"Okay Twiggy, You got this."

The battle went on longer than even Dan suspected, with Twiggy getting up after every hit, refusing to lose. Until one hit, when Twiggy didn't get up at all.

"Twiggy!" Dan said as he rushed to his injured Pokemon "Heh, you won...Kid..." A sadness rushed over Dan, it had stung him losing to a kid younger than him, but moreover 

"Hehe, Wow they're tough..." Yelled Zvi gleefully 


"Yea, that weird Tree one wiped the floor with me! Let's fight again sometime, and next time, I'll win!" Dan said with a chipper tone.


After a less-than-formal goodbye and a quick yell towards the farmland, Dan left bound for the center.

as Dan walked back toward the center, he called his mom. 


The call was short but sweet, trading hello's and asking how everyone is. 
His mom, Cynthia, asked about what crazy travels he has already gotten into, which started Dan on a rant about the beach and trail, and if he'd met any cute [i]boys[/i].

But, The Elephant in the room, her sickness, went undiscussed.


As he finally reached and entered the Pokemon center, (Around 1:50) he said his final words, which hit him in a hard way, for an unspoken reason.


[b]"Goodbye Mom, I love you."[/b]

He hung up the phone an wiped a tear from his face, Only realizing now how dirty he was. But he didn't care.

After handing his pokemon to the Nurse he sat at the closest table and waited.