Pokemon - Solo's Strange Journey

It is Friday. 

Today is Sports class and then Battle class for the young adults.

"You guys are in pretty bad shape." Akari points out the obvious as everyone else is wheezing their lungs out.

Even Turtwig and Piplup with their inhuman physical stamina are out of breath. Short legs are the problem.

The first half of the Sports class was an outside lecture about the benefits that come from working out for the trainer, as well as for their pokemon. 

Despite their already great physical performance, working out has beneficial effects to pokemon: Slowly increasing their physical strength, increasing their movement speed and increasing their stamina a little bit.

The second half of the class was running around the training field. For 2 hours, no exceptions. 

Swole regrets overdoing his workout the previous day.

"You need to work out more." Akari continues her own little lecture. "In the worst case you need to run and dodge wild pokemon attacks."

"Eh? But I worked out yesterday! That's why I'm exhausted!" Swole is grasping at his pained muscles with every step.

"And... I... don't... Huff" Dawn tries to answer but has to stop talking midway to catch her breath. 

Akari can do nothing but shake her head and continue her run, until the bell releases the students from their task.

Everyone besides Akari and Buneary collapse on the spot where they try to keep their breakfast down. 

"Swole, you shouldn't train to the point where you can't function in an emergency. What if wild pokemon attacked us on the road?"

"You're right..."

"Akari... Huff... We're not in... the wilderness." Dawn forces out a rationalization for her laziness. "And I don't... plant-- huff, huff... plan to go there." She is really struggling through it. "That's too... scary... huff... for me."

Swole, still wincing in pain from the workout, recoils as he remembers the month before trainer school. 

"I didn't plan to go into the wilderness either and look where that plan got me. Akari is right. We should be prepared for the worst or we might just die out there." He says before taking a huge swig of water.

"You act like wild pokemon are just randomly wanting to kill us--"

"They do." Swole interrupts Lucas. "One morning, my hiding place failed and a Nuzleaf almost cut off my head. If it wasn't for Buneary, I would be dead."

Akari nods but Dawn, Barry, Lucas and Zoey are all shocked. 

"What?" Barry cannot believe it. "You seriously, almost got killed when you got Buneary?" 

This is the first time Swole decided to share the traumatic parts of his journey with his friends. 

Now that he has had some time to get over the events, he does not feel as if he needs to keep them secret anymore.

"Oh yea. Loads of times. Most times I could run or hide. But I got this scar from the Nuzleaf because we were sleeping." Swole shows off a long cut scar on his arm as the group starts heading for lunch.

"And on the first night, I almost lost my legs to frostbite, if it wasn't for Aspear Berries. Then I found a Shellos, who would probably have eaten me if she wasn't already full. A psychotic Bidoof who just barely didn't see me. Later, he evolved into a Bibarel and almost defeated Buneary, when we were on our way back home. And then the Nuzleaf..." 

Swole thinks a little to see if he forgot anything. "That's 5 near deaths in just a month in the wilderness. Don't mess around guys. You really need to toughen up a little." 

"Gulp. Seriously?" Asks Lucas, and Akari nods in confirmation. 

"Sounds about right." She says.

"Damn."

The group talks a little more as they eat their lunch and in a moment where Swole was distracted, Buneary starts stealing the meat off of Swole's plate.

"Seriously? You're still hungry? Where are you putting all of the food? Sigh... pick what you want from my plate, I will go and get some more lunch while we have the time." 

Swole stands up and heads to the lunch lady, growing increasingly more fidgety and pale along the way. 

When he returns, he immediately places Buneary on his lap for the rest of the mealtime. 

His weird behavior has not gone unnoticed by the group.

"Are you alright? You looked like you saw a ghost near the lunch lady." Lucas voices the concern of the group.

"Yea... I'm fine now. Don't worry about it." Swole says as he pets Buneary, who lets him get away with it. This time.

"Anyway," Swole is trying to change the subject. "What do you girls think about the fact that the world is ending?"

"What?" - "Who changes a subject like that?" - "..."

"Did you read the news? Come on, Lucas, show them the article." Swole further urges along and Lucas shows them the article.

---

The universe is falling apart!

---

"Bull. Shit. Shut the fuck up, guys." Dawn tries to call out the boys prank. "That's not even funny."

"No, no. Read the article." Lucas insists. "Apparently abductions are through the roof, weird people are appearing out of nowhere and the earth is quaking... Actually, Zoey, where did you say you were from?"

Akari is sweating bullets but dodged the suspicion somehow.

Zoey answers, "I'm from Snowpoint City."

"Aha! A '''farmer''' from Snowpoint City! Likely story! That makes no sense! You are an alien sent here to abduct us!" And the group starts laughing at the joke.

"Haha, you're making a good point. That would explain why I'm secretly taking notes on my roommates while they sleep." Zoey agrees with Lucas and thoroughly creeps out Dawn and Akari, who both push their chairs away from Zoey a little. 

"Hahaha, I'm kidding. I'm not doing that, haha." She is not kidding.

"I'm pretty sure," Swole says, "You're too busy thinking about what to do with your roommates while they sleep to think about abducting them, Zoey. Wink, wink." The guys and Zoey laugh out again. 

"Don't be creepy, guys... And Zoey. Girls don't like that." Dawn is not amused but blushes nonetheless.

"Hey, I'm a girl. I can't be creepy. And I know what girls like too. Wink, wink." Zoey defends herself and makes Dawn and Akari blush a little more at the topic.

---

The school bell interrupts their conversation. 

Their first Battle class begins. 

The combat instructor is an older guy in a skintight outfit who introduced himself as Captain Braviary. With a capital 'C' Captain.

He wears a blue bodysuit, a yellow scarf, yellow boots and gloves, and he wears a red helmet with a stylized golden Braviary design on it. 

He also has a Chansey out who helps him.

"I get my powers from my strong faith in Mew!" The older, but still well muscled instructor announces during his introduction. 

Implying he has some kind of supernatural power but not showing any.

Unlike any other lesson before, this one did not start with much theory. 

Instead the Captain Braviary let the students pull papers with a number on it, to determine who battles against who.

Beside the random extra characters, the match-ups are this:

Dawn vs Zoey

Lucas vs random NPC

Swole vs Barry

Akari vs Asshole

It was at this time that the group found out that the real name of Asshole is actually Paul. 

But they all agreed to continue to refer to him as Asshole.

"NOW! Would the students who have drawn the number 1 step forward?" The instructor told the first students to come forward for their battle, while the other students settled down on a set of bleachers surrounding the battlefield.

Two boys step onto the plain dirt battlefield. A youngster in suspenders and with a hat and the other young man is wearing a green boys' scout uniform. 

A Youngster and a Camper.

The instructor is also the referee for the battles. "The first battle will be between Mr." 

Caw!

A Murkrow interrupts the instructor as the overeager pokemon breaks out of the Youngster's pokeball and flaps over the battlefield, excited to fight.

"Please calm your pokemon. Anyway, he battles against Mr. " 

Whoosh.

A sudden, random gust of wind picks up and the students in the bleachers struggle to keep their scarves wrapped around their necks. 

When their gazes return to the battlefield, a leafy green Burmy has entered the battlefield. 

"Begin!"

"Murkrow, use Peck against the Burmy!" - "Burmy use Bug Bite!" 

The camper and the youngster shout out their orders. 

The louder trainer wins in their juvenile minds.

Both pokemon are equally weak. "Again!" - "Again!" 

And for the next few minutes the pokemon repeat the same moves over and over again.

Swole and Buneary are bored out of their mind already and eventually, Murkrow and Burmy pass out at the same time.

"Yawn... It's a draw." The instructor ends the match. "You two... This was a pathetic battle. In two weeks you are going to have another chance to prove that you aren't useless as trainers. Everyone else, what would you have done differently?"

Most of the students raise their hands. 

Almost everyone would have done something different.

"You, in the fisher outfit." The instructor points out a teenager, who wears a fisherman outfit to school for some reason.

"I would have used Burmy's Protect move. And then Struggle Bug."

"Very good. You can use Protect to prevent any damage from a move, as long as you time Protect correctly. And then you can use the time you gained to hit back with a large area of effect move like Struggle Bug. Not only would Struggle Bug deal damage but it would also reduce Murkrow's attack power and leave you in a much better situation to continue the fight."

The class continues to give suggestions and the battle instructor explains the pros and cons of them, until the next two students are called to the stage. Dawn and Zoey.

The two contestants meet on the battlefield. 

"Let's go Piplup!" Dawn's Piplup jumps from her arms directly to the center of the field after doing a few front flips to land in a perfect pose: His flippers stretched out and his beak held high.

"Come on out Misdreavus." Zoey tosses out her pokeball and a purple girls' head with an amorphous body and large stylized eyes, comes out of the pokeball. 

Misdreavus. The screech pokemon.

A pokemon that likes to scare people in the middle of the night to collect their fear as her power.

She makes a little twirl in the air and then floats above the battlefield, ready to fight the Piplup below.

"Are you two ready?" - "Yes!" - "Yeah!"

"Begin!"

"Piplup, use Bubble!" - "Misdreavus, Thunder Wave!" 

The two pokemon quickly charge their attacks and fire them at each other at the same time. 

Thunder Wave spreads across the battlefield and a wide stream of bubbles is hurled at Misdreavus.

The bubbles in the air pose no hindrance at all for the wave of electricity. 

Thunder Wave washes over them and then over Piplup. Arcs of lightning start appearing all over the surface of his body. 

At the same time Bubble moves through the wave of electricity unimpeded and hits Misdreavus head on with a noisy pop-pop-pop. 

Misdreavus loses some altitude from the hit.

Both attacks hit their target. 

"Misdreavus, get back up in the air and use Confusion." - "Don't give up, Piplup. Use Peck!"

Misdreavus starts floating up again and when Piplup jumps to hit his Peck, the electricity makes his body flinch for just a moment. 

This moment causes the Peck attack to miss its aerial target completely.

Meanwhile, Misdreavus is free to aim and hit her Confusion. 

Bright blue light shines from her eyes and surrounds Piplup before smashing him backwards. 

"Piplup, no! Come on, get up and use Bubble."

"Confusion, again."

Before Piplup could get up and use his attack, Misdreavus has already finished charging her next Confusion and hits Piplup, smashing him back down and interrupting his move in the process.

Dawn tries to order Piplup to dodge, but the exhausted pokemon is in no condition to dodge anymore. 

Especially not almost instantly hitting move like confusion.

Confusion, much like most psychic type attacks, focuses on a specific area and, as if extending an invisible arm, the psychic energy moves to the target before it can hit. 

A quick pokemon can dodge the area and a smart psychic type pokemon can predict where the opponent will be after the dodge and aim there instead.

A slow pokemon like Piplup has no chance of dodging.

After two more Confusion hit the increasingly exhausted pokemon... 

"Piplup is KO. Zoey Evans and Misdreavus win!" Announces Captain Braviary. "Good job Miss Evans."

As Misdreavus and Piplup receive health care from the instructor's Chansey, he asks the class, "Now, does anyone have suggestions how the two could have fought better?"

Swole's first thought is for Piplup to dodge the Thunder Wave but he realizes that dodging a wide area of effect move is impossible. 

His second idea, to power through it, doesn't work either, as Piplup has demonstrated. 

At that point, he begins to realize that Buneary herself, does not have a way to deal with Thunder Wave.

The same is true for a ghost type pokemon like Misdreavus. 

Buneary only knows fighting and normal type attack moves. Neither of them can hurt the ghost pokemon.

... "Those were all good suggestions, but with Piplup's limited move set, its fate was sealed after being hit by the Thunder Wave." The instructor is finishing up the round of suggestions. 

"It is true that sometimes, a fight simply is not fair. But! In situations like these, you can always use your surroundings."

He points at the ground, the dirt has some footprints from Piplup in it and a few spots of mud too, from missed Bubbles. 

"Tossing around dirt has similar effects to the move Mud Sport. And tossing around water has similar effects to the moves Soak and Water Sport. Many of you probably don't know this yet, but to counter Thunder Wave, all you need to do is toss dirt up or cover yourself in mud. And soaking a ground type pokemon in water makes even electric attacks effective against them."

With that Swole remembers his fight against Bibarel, where he and Buneary were using pebbles to counter Yawn bubbles. 

The trainer might not be allowed to interfere in the battle, but the pokemon can still 'cheat'.

That is a counter for Thunder Wave down, but a counter for ghost types is still missing.

---

"Next up is Mr. Lucas Diamond versus Mr.-- Cough cough! ... Sorry, I inhaled some dirt. Cough. Would you two please step forward? Cough cough." 

Instructor Captain Braviary waves Lucas and the student dressed in fisherman's gear onto the dusty battlefield while he tries to clear out his windpipe.

The two students go and meet up on opposite sides of the battlefield and throw out their pokeballs.

"Chimchar, go!" - "Tynamo, it's time to hook us a win!" 

The fisherman wins the first part of battle: Having a better catchphrase.

The fire monkey pokemon, Chimchar, versus the floating electric eel pokemon Tynamo.

"Are you both ready?" The instructor asks the students, and they nod in confirmation. "Begin!"

"Chimchar, stay ready for Thunder Wave and get closer for Scratch." Chimchar hears the order and jogs to Tynamo, always ready to fling the dirt around him to counter a Thunder Wave. 

But Chimchar is not the only one who hears the order. 

"Tynamo use Thunder-- No, use Charge Beam instead." 

The fisherman changes his order when he realizes that Thunder Wave will just become a wasted effort.

Tynamo quickly charges up the electric energy needed and fires off a tight beam of cackling lighting. 

Chimchar, who was ready for a lightning attack, flings dirt in front of himself and reduces the power of the beam but does not manage to prevent the attack from connecting.

With two booms, the Charge Beam first penetrates the thin cloud of tossed up dirt, and then hits Chimchar head on. 

A wave of static electricity washes down Chimchar and leaves him in pain but not paralyzed.

Tynamo on the other hand, is now charged and bristles with static electricity.

"Use another Charge Beam." - "Don't stop Chimchar, hit it where it hurts!"

Chimchar rushes the rest of the distance and manages to interrupt Tynamo from unloading another Charge Beam. 

The Scratch connects and leaves 5 long red lines over the white face of the electric eel.

"No! Tynamo! Use Thunder Wave, get Chimchar away from you!" The fisherman orders his Tynamo and she charges up the electric energy, much quicker after applying a charge of Charge Beam. 

A wave of electricity is released all around her.

But Chimchar is still too fast. Since he was already running on all fours, he quickly tosses the dirt all around him, causing the 0-damage, electric status move to get absorbed completely. 

Tynamo wasted her stored electric power.

"Chimchar, use Power-Up Punch and then Scratch!" Shouts Lucas.

"Shit! Tynamo, try Charge Beam again."

Tynamo once again tries to charge up electric energy for a charge beam, but she once again gets interrupted by the quicker physical attack. 

Chimchar manages to hit Tynamo with Power-Up Punch and his muscles tighten up from the leftover fighting type energy. 

He immediately follows up with a Scratch attack to keep his momentum going and hits Tynamo again without letting him recover.

...

This chain of attacks was enough to knock Tynamo out. 

Tynamo, when fully evolved, is an extremely strong and versatile pokemon but her base form is almost useless.

"Tynamo is KO. The winners are Lucas Diamond and Chimchar." Announces Captain Braviary.

Another round of suggestions starts but Swole and Buneary are too busy strategising. 

"Buneary, if we fight an electric type, I want you to be always ready to counter with dirt."

"Bun."

"And we are going to train code words for attacks. I can't believe I didn't think of that before. Of course opponents will adjust their strategy when they hear what we plan to do."

"Bun."

"As for you, Mr. Lucas Diamond," The combat instructor finished using the fisherman for his lecture and switches over to Lucas. 

"Your fighting style is pretty good already. My only recommendation would be to never waste a moment. When your Chimchar approached Tynamo, the only thing it did was move. Chimchar could have used that time to fire Ember or close the gap faster with Flame Wheel. But both options must be trained really well to keep your guard up against Thunder Wave at the same time."

"But Chimchar doesn't even know Flame Wheel yet and Ember is one of his weakest moves." Lucas tries to justify his choices but the instructor does not accept it.

"Then now you know what you need to train next." Captain Braviary dismisses Lucas' excuses. 

"Any more suggestions? ... No? ... Alright you two, go back to your places. Next up, Mr. Swole Solo and Mr. Barry Pearl, would you both come up please?"

---

Swole-POV:

Yes! Finally! It's our turn! "Let's win this Buneary!"

"Bun!"

Buneary and I head down the bleachers and I use the last few moments we have to strategize just a little more. 

"Buneary, we're going to play it safe. Turtwig is slow, so go to the edge of the arena and use Baby-Doll Eyes on your way."

"Bun."

"Then Defense Curl while we wait for him to approach."

"Bun."

"You should be able to dodge any Leafage or Razor Leaf easily."

"... Bun." 

Two to three orders in advance seem to be her limit...

Good enough. Buneary knows the strategy and we arrive at the battlefield. 

I stay behind and Buneary walks ahead, ready to fight.

"Go, Turtwig." Barry shouts out and Turtwig comes from his pokeball, to come face to face with Buneary's battle-ready visage.

I'm so glad I'm on this side of the battle. 

I can actually see Turtwig shaking his little sapling on his head in fear and trying to resolve himself for battle. Adorable.

"Are you two ready?" Asks the combat instructor and I nod my head. 

I can see and hear Barry giving his confirmation too, as I keep my focus mostly on Barry and only a little on Turtwig. 

Buneary can handle Turtwig, but maybe Barry has some good strategy. It's best to keep focus on the trainer for cues. 

"Fight!"

Captain Braviary gives the signal and Buneary instantly starts charging fairy type energy, while approaching me backwards. 

"Turtwig, use Leafage!" As expected.

Buneary is already sidestepping the move, and starts firing off Baby-Doll Eyes. 

Two large ethereal eyes appear above Buneary and pink light seeps into Turtwig. 

The Leafage misses and Buneary runs the rest of the way to me, and starts doing Defense Curls.

"What?!" Barry shouts out. "Turtwig, go after Buneary and use Tackle!"

Turtwig starts charging across the field with Tackle, but is not even half way, before Buneary is ready to fight again. 

"Counter with Double Kick." I order and she starts charging fighting type energy.

The weak fighting type move, charges notably faster now that we have started training Jump Kick. 

Buneary meets the Tackle head on with a kick.

Boom

The first kick lands and takes the wind out of Turtwig's sails. His momentum stops completely.

Bam

The second kick goes into Turtwig's face and smashes him back into the middle of the battlefield. 

"Follow him with Quick Attack and Pound." - "Turtwig! Get up and use Tackle!"

Before Turtwig can even stand up and shake off his dizziness, my bunny runs into him with Quick Attack and barrels him onto his back again. 

Then she uses the momentum and perfectly chains the move into a Pound attack, by smashing her charged ears into Turtwig's exposed stomach.

Critical hit.

"Buneary, use Double Kick!" Turtwig's feet wiggle around as he struggles to turn around. 

A heavily breathing Buneary helps him back on his feet with a kick to the side.

And with the second kick, Turtwig tumbles all the way across the field.

I pull out Buneary's premier ball, just in case she continues the fight after Turtwig passes out.

But the turtle is tougher than expected. 

Yet again, he is struggling to get his feet under his body to stand up. 

"Follow up with Quick Attack and Pound again!"

Buneary sprints across the field and uses the same method again. 

Turtwig sees the attack coming, squares his shoulders, tightens up his muscles and resolves to take it head on. 

Barry can't do anything but uselessly look on.

Turtwig charges some normal type energy in a last ditch effort to use Tackle. 

Buneary's Quick Attack connects and Turtwig passes out instantly. 

"Stop! Buneary!" I shout immediately.

Thumb, hovering over the button to return her to her pokeball.

But Buneary hears me and aborts her Pound attack.

"Turtwig is KO!" Comes Captain Braviary's voice from the sidelines. "Swole Solo and Buneary win!"

Buneary rushes over to me and jumps into my arms in celebration... I like it but it's out of character for her.

I half expected her to scream like a psychopath instead. 

"Good job, Buneary! You were really great! Amazing, really!"

"Not a single hit..." Barry is on his knees on the other side of the field. 

Turtwig lays passed out in front of him. His sapling, broken and some blood coming from his nose.

Barry looks devastated. 

I can see from here, how his eyes are a little misty... Damn... Did we overdo it? 

Fuck.

Barry is pulling out his pokeball to return Turtwig but the combat instructor grabs his shoulder and shakes his head. 

"Go and take Turtwig to Chansey. Then stay until the end of the class." 

Barry shakily nods his head before getting up and carrying Turtwig over to Chansey.

Alright. Barry is not about to run away crying anymore and Turtwig will be taken care of.

I tighten my hug on Buneary again.

"Well fought you two." The combat instructor says to us before turning to the other students. 

"Mr. Swole Solo here displayed an almost perfect fight. He used his opponent's weaknesses, and used Baby-Doll Eyes and Defense Curl to further increase the gap in brawling power."

"With the odds stacked up against Turtwig, it didn't stand a chance in direct combat and we saw the results... Do any of you want to make suggestions how the fight could have gone better? For either fighter?" 

He starts asking into the crowd and no arms go up. 

Did we intimidate them too much?

Sweet!

"Nobody? ... Well, Turtwig is actually one of the few pokemon, who are perfect to counter strategies like this. Turtwig learns very early on the moves Withdraw, Growth and Absorb. With Withdraw it can increase its defenses. With Growth it can root itself into place to prevent flinching back as often, while also increasing its offensiveness. And finally, Absorb can be used to stay fit while also damaging your opponent. A purely physical brawler like Buneary here, doesn't have too good of a chance against that."

"And Mr. Solo even gave Turtwig the perfect opportunity to set this strategy up, by starting with a defensive move and then even walking further away to spend more time setting up defenses."

Huh. That's right... I didn't think of that. 

"Buneary, we will need to think of a strategy against tanks." I whisper to her and she rolls her eyes at me. 

Probably thinking that she would have won anyway.

... So it will come down to me. Having to think of a strategy against tanks, without her help...

After the combat instructor finished his lecture, he sent us back to the bleachers and we sit back down next to our friends. 

They all congratulate us on the fight. 

Barry is still with Chansey.

"Next up, would Miss. Akari Platinum and Mr. Paul Shinji please come down?" Akari and literally who?

Akari stands up, and in a solitary corner of the bleachers, Asshole stands up as well. 

"Ah, he meant Asshole."

---

The group laughs a little bit, while sending Akari off. 

"But be careful, his Elekid is pretty strong."

"Don't worry, Swole. Cyndaquil is pretty strong herself." Akari responds as she pets Cyndaquil's head.

You see that Buneary? 

That's how a starter pokemon is meant to react to petting! 

Cyndaquil is loving the attention and even leans her head further into Akari's hand.

The two trainers walk down to the arena, Akari whispering strategies into Cyndaquil's ears along the way.

Once they meet on the battlefield, Asshole wordlessly releases Elekid from his pokeball and Captain Braviary asks them if they are ready. 

Asshole nods and Akari confirms with a "Yes, sensei."

"Begin!"

"Cyndaquil use Ember."

"Ha! Elekid use Thunder Wave!" 

Asshole must have hoped for an attack move like Ember to set up the stunning effect of Thunder Wave.

But what he didn't expect, is that Ember wasn't aimed at Elekid. 

Cyndaquil has aimed her Ember attack into the ground in front of her and then aims upward to hit a larger area.

The attack creates a large dust cloud in the air and a few Embers even manage to hit Elekid, whose Thunder Wave gets absorbed by the dirt.

"Shit! Elekid, use Charge."

"Cyndaquil, continue with our plan!" Akari has set up a strategy and Asshole seems to be playing into it. 

The dust is still in the air and makes electric attacks weaker, so Asshole attempts to wait it out and increase his electric damage in the meantime.

Elekid swings his arms quickly and builds up a lot of static electricity in the horns above his head. 

Meanwhile Cyndaquil uses Smokescreen. 

A thick cloud of ash and smoke streams out of Cyndaquil's snout and fills the air around her. 

It prevents all light from passing through the field to Cyndaquil. She is completely hidden from sight.

"Now, use Curse!" Akari orders her hidden Cyndaquil to set up for the fight.

As far as I know, Curse is the only move that has two types. Ghost and normal: Depending on the type of the pokemon using it.

A non-ghost type pokemon like Cyndaquil will use normal type energy. 

The effect is to slow down and to increase its defensive and offensive stats.

"Pah! Useless! Elekid, continue with Charge. When the Smokescreen passes, use Shock Wave." 

Shock Wave is a special attack and Curse does not increase the special defense. 

"Come on, Cyndaquil, you can do it! Use Curse again." 

Do what? What is Akari thinking? She is turning Cyndaquil into an immobile target!

But then I see it. A tiny, dark purple smoke cloud appears over Elekid's head and from it emerges a nail.

... "Huh!?" 

I'm shocked but the others don't understand what's so shocking to me and looks at me weirdly. 

"How?! Cyndaquil is using Curse as a ghost type!"

The nail slowly inches closer to Elekid's head. "Elekid, get away from that nail!" 

Elekid tries to run away but the nail keeps hovering right over his head. 

A ghost pokemon's Curse does not stop until the target or the user is defeated. 

Elekid now has a time limit to finish the fight.

"Fuck! Elekid, run into the smoke and use a full power Shock Wave." 

Despite the growing panic, Elekid follows his trainer's orders and, soon a massive discharge of electricity emerges from within the smoke cloud.

Asshole orders, "Again!"

Lighting keeps coming from the cloud over and over, until it just stops. 

Is Elekid defeated? Is he just out of power? Did he win?

Eventually today's light breeze blows the Smoke Screen away, and the results of the battle are shown. 

Elekid lays on the ground. 

KO. A nail driven deep into his skull. 

Dawn gasps at the sight. 

"Don't worry. Curse can't leave permanent damage." I say to calm Dawn down. 

The move only works on a metaphysical level and cannot cause any real injuries.

But where is Cyndaquil? She is not visible anywhere on the battlefield.

"Cyndaquil, you can come out now." Akari says and Cyndaquil reveals herself. 

She had dug herself into the dirt and her snout is heavily singed from the electric attacks, but she is otherwise completely unhurt.

"Incredible display, Miss. Akari Platinum." The combat instructor praises her efforts, "It seems like the committee chose well, to invest into your future." 

Committee? Her parents didn't get her into the program?

"You countered Elekid's strengths perfectly and used your own strength perfectly too. And you surprised your opponent with unusual strategies. I have nothing else to say to this, except, well done."

Akari cheers at the praise and raises Cyndaquil up into the air before hugging her in joy.

"As for you, Mr. Paul Shinji," Captain Braviary continues. "You did not necessarily do anything wrong in this battle. Except you panicked when you saw Curse being used as a ghost type attack. Otherwise, you made all the right decisions."

"Whatever. I still lost." Asshole says, before returning Elekid to his pokeball and leaving for the bleachers.

Akari remains on the field and the combat instructor is telling her something in private. 

Buneary could probably tell me what they are talking about down there... If only I could understand her.

But once they are done, Akari comes back to us and each of us congratulate her on her win. 

Her fight really was amazing. I could never have guessed that would happen.

"How did you teach Cyndaquil to use a ghost type move?" I eventually ask her after the congratulations had settled down, and the next two students were called down. 

"Well... I will tell you guys, but you must promise not to tell anyone else. The instructor told me that the pokemon professors would pay me for telling them first." Akari offers.

As greedy as I am for the information, all evidence points towards Akari being poor. 

Maybe she was kicked out of the platinum family or ran away?

Either way, I don't want to cause my friend to lose out on money.

"Then you shouldn't tell us!" I urge her. "It's just curiosity and I don't want to risk your money. But tell us once you have the money, alright?"

"Deal."

Speaking of learning ghost type energy, how does a pokemon learn any new type? 

If I want to teach Buneary Fire Punch, I will need to figure that out.

Cheering interrupts my distracted thoughts, "... and her Butterfree win!" 

I catch the end of Captain Braviary's victory announcement. 

A girl in an orange skirt, orange bow-tie and blue vest wins with her Butterfree, against a guy wearing a judo outfit and his Machop.

The girl looks normal, but why do so many of our classmates have 0 style?

After one more round of suggestions and explanations, the 12 students all had their turn at battle and the class ends.

"Everyone, can I have your attention please?" The combat instructor keeps the class from leaving into the weekend. 

"... As you all know, next week you are going into a forest route for survival practice. And the week after, we will spend the whole Friday holding a tournament. The winner gets a TM of their choice as a prize. I want you all to use the time you have next week, and train for the tournament. If you're not showing enough skill, I have your parents' permission to keep you back in trainer school for another week."

Our parents' permission? 

Right... We are adults on paper only... 

Great. 

We can legally risk our lives in the wild, but we can't drink and our parents can still control our lives.

"On that note, would team 1 as well as Miss. Dawn Berlitz and Mr. Barry Pearl please stay behind here after class? Your performance was subpar, and I will assign you training regiments and homework for you to improve yourselves."

Oof. 

Man, I would NOT want to be in that group... Although, we are all more or less beginners here, so there shouldn't be any shame in it. 

Still, Dawn looks very ashamed of herself... "Dawn... Um, try to see the positive? You might get some insights from this none of us will get." 

At least she smiles a little at that. "Your cheering-up sucks. But thanks for trying."

"Hey, where is the cheering-up for me?" Barry asks. 

"You're a guy." Responds Lucas. "Tough it out." Barry slumps a little more as Zoey laughs at his misery.

As the two separate themselves from the group, I think about my options for the evening. 

Cooking is a must and I might as well cook for tomorrow while I'm at it.

Otherwise, I have to buy some more meat. 

Buneary is going to eat through my stash in no time at all. 

And on the way back from the store, I can check out the library again and see if I can find any info on teaching new type energy to Buneary. 

Fire, ice and electric would be really good for the different elemental punches. 

And I know she should naturally be able to learn psychic type too... Maybe it is only Lopunny that can learn it though. 

I'm not too sure but that's why books exist.

I also need to read through Buneary's species book more thoroughly to find a fairy type attack that she could train for. 

And then I need her to train Jump Kick some more... 

Maybe I could have Buneary keep focusing on fairy type energy in between Jump Kick training sets. 

That could optimize training--

"Swole, are you still with us?" What?

"What?"

"He wasn't."

Lucas asks me again. "We're wondering if you want to cook with us now."

"Oh, yea. I want to cook a lot at once and keep the leftovers in the dormitory fridge for the weekend. To save time."

"Sweet, then let's get cooking, while we wait for Dawn and No-Hit." 

Sheesh, no need to call him that... Chimchar probably wouldn't have landed a single hit against Buneary either.

"Don't be an asshole." Says Zoey. "That's Asshole's job. He needs the money."

Haha, man that guy sucks. Good thing he matched up against Akari. 

I think her Cyndaquil and my Buneary are by far the strongest pokemon among the students and someone had to teach Asshole a lesson. 

Although, Zoey's Misdreavus is a real problem for me too... I can only hope I don't match up against her in the tournament.

After we arrive in the kitchen, we continue our banter as we produce loads and loads of chicken tortilla wraps. 

Mine have the perfect ratio for Buneary, but she ends up eating 3 wraps before she is satisfied. 

1 more than calculated and 2 more than the average Buneary should be eating.

Where does she put all of those calories? 

Muscles, I hope.

---

Right before I head out with Buneary to go shopping, studying and then training and probably some other stuff I can't think of yet, Barry arrives from his... detention?

"Aw, you guys already ate without me?" He says and Lucas shoots out a response. "It sucks to suck, doesn't it? Did you already train Turtwig today?"

Casual bullying aside, this is probably what Barry needs the most.

The guy is not taking 'being a trainer' seriously enough. Same as Dawn.

Actually, Lucas has only started taking it seriously, since his humiliating defeat against Asshole.

Then... If Barry can turn himself around, beating him into the ground in a practice match will have been worth it.

"No... Turtwig is out of commission for today. Nurse Chansey's orders." Ouch. Sorry. "My homework says, I need to train him the whole day tomorrow."

Barry depressedly makes himself some food, and a second portion for his Turtwig for when he wakes up.

He still looks so defeated.

"So, what was going on after class?" Asks Zoey. "Did you get chewed out?"

"Yea... Dawn was chewed out first." Says Barry. "When she told the instructor what Piplup's training regiment looks like, he got pretty mad about her focusing only on looks and style and neglecting everything else... And I'm using Turtwig wrong. I had started training him Bite, but I'm wasting my time. I should have gotten Turtwig up to speed with Withdraw and Growth instead."

Well, if Turtwig can't land a hit with Tackle, then he definitely won't land a hit with Bite either.

The instructor is right.

"Anyway... Good night guys... I'm heading in early." Barry says as he takes his food with him into our dorm room.

It's still hours until the sun goes down.

... "Didn't he say Dawn was sent back first? Then where is she? Should we look for her?"

I ask into the room where only Akari, Cyndaquil, Lucas, Zoey, Buneary and I are remaining.

"She is probably crying in our bathroom." Says Zoey. "... It's what I used to do when I was chewed out in school."

"Can you girls check up on her? I think she could use some cheering up after that."

The girls leave for their dorm room and only Lucas is left with me and Buneary.

"We're going to go shopping and then to the library. You wanna come with us?"

Lucas himself looks deep in thought for a while, and finally responds.

"... The whole next week is just survival class..."

"Ehh, yea?" What does that have to do with shopping and studying?

"And only one more week of trainer school after that."

"That's right? Why?"

"I will make a phone call and we can meet up in the library. Alright?"

He tells me before walking off to the public phone booths at the pokemon center and mumbling to himself.

"... Fuck me. I should have studied more."

He says the last part to himself but it was still loud enough for me to understand.

Well, you only have yourself to blame for not getting your shit together when you had the time.