Pokemon - Solo's Strange Journey

Narrator-POV:

Thus, the evening has found its end. 

The final night of their week-long survival lesson has passed. 

And their final morning of the next day begins with the sounds of professor Hedera's off-road truck.

She came early to pick up the group and has kindly explained that their classmate Paul has been safely recovered from the wilderness.

He did not manage to pass the survival lesson and will be held back for the 4th week of trainer school.

Dawn's secretly held fears of failing trainer school, have also been assuaged when professor Hedera informed them that they have all passed.

Swole and Akari, with flying colors, and Dawn managed to convince the combat instructor with her displayed growth and progress as a trainer.

Dawn was relieved beyond measure, until realization hit her that her bikini was filmed by drones and seen by her teachers. Relief quickly made way for embarrassment for the rest of the ride.

The professor's parting words, just before they reached the mass of other waiting students, were: 

"I would recommend not eating any pokemon in public. It is certainly legal, but almost everyone in every city would frown upon you for doing it. Being known as a pokemon-eater is not a label you want to stain your career with."

"I told you guys it was gross!" Lucas felt vindicated at her statement.

However, the professor did not intend to discourage the trainers. "Don't listen to him. It's healthy, it's natural, sometimes you don't have an alternative and many rural areas still do it culturally. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it, and you will have a hard time finding a professor, champion, breeder or top coordinator over the age of 30 who hasn't eaten pokemon at least once."

The professor, despite looking rather young and fit, was already 36 years old and had worked with many now famous colleagues, who did partake in the borderline cruel activities.

She herself has eaten a lot of pokemon during her studies of the wilderness zones.

As for the reason for the disconnect of regular people to the realities of the pokemon world: It is because they see them as pets nowadays. 

Dogs, cats and other domesticated pet-animals have been consistently replaced with pokemon.

This is in addition to the fact that these pets often have human-level intelligence.

Magikarp are actually as intelligent as a small child.

The unwashed masses consider eating pokemon as repulsive as eating a human. Many regions have abolished the tradition entirely, because of this.

All regions, except for Kanto, Johto and Sinnoh. 

These three regions have made the authoritarian decision to stay with their traditions and keep a list of rapidly multiplying pokemon instead. 

They are the pokemon who are generally preyed upon by other pokemon in nature and are legal to be hunted and eaten by humans.

Once the students have met up with everyone else, the greater group of Swole, Dawn, Lucas, Akari, Barry and Zoey seat themselves in the back of the bus to tell each other of their week for the duration of the ride.

Zoey has captured a Glameow she found over the week and Barry captured the first pokemon they stumbled upon. 

A Starly.

Later, Barry has also captured a Buizel as his third pokemon.

Akari did not find a pokemon that she considered suitable for her team and ended up with no new addition. 

But she is certainly not falling behind, since her Cyndaquil alone can still beat Barry's entire team in a friendly match.

Akari was also the de facto captain of their little team, due to her survival knowledge. 

Over the week, she has taught Zoey and Barry how to navigate forests, how to find wild berry trees and generally, how to survive.

And she has managed to convince Zoey to eat pokemon with her too.

The two girls had agreed to keep it a secret at first but realized that their counterparts, Swole and Dawn, had done the same thing, when Lucas and Barry started gossiping about their 'gross and disgusting' teammates.

Overall, the students decided that it was a fun, useful and memorable week.

Once back in Jubilife City, life returned to normal.

Going to class, visiting the remaining sights and cooking, training and studying together.

One of the last sights remaining was the global trade station, commonly abbreviated to GTS. They went there in the hopes of shopping for rare pokemon items.

Things like evolution stones, technical machines (TMs), power boosters and elusive mega stones.

Although the GTS had almost everything to offer, anything it did offer, was at exorbitant prices. Far out of the price-range of badge-less students.

And so the days passed.

Everything was back to normal.

Everything, except for Akari.

Swole has noticed that she is increasingly distant and behaving more and more nervously for some reason. 

Especially around Lucas.

The girls try to include her in their activities, but she keeps giving flimsy excuses and only participates in events with the whole group.

As for the other girls; Zoey and Dawn have invested some time to catch up with the most important events of the Grand Festival that concluded while they were away.

The winner turned out to be Fantina, the Hearthome City gym leader and a world famous ghost pokemon trainer.

Her final battle, or rather show, was decided by her Banette and Drifblim in an all-new, never-seen-before performance. 

Drifblim shrouded the stage in complete darkness and Banette had used flashy attacks in elaborate patterns to tell a short, visual story, while defeating their opponents at the same time.

She won by judge points as well as by defeating her opponents who could not manage to defog the arena.

By the time her opponent's pokemon were defeated, they did not manage to accrue enough style points to secure a win.

As for this year's league conference, of the almost 100 trainers who managed to collect all 8 badges, all but 64 were sorted out during the preliminary fights.

On Monday, the 64 remaining trainers were pitted against each other using non-random match ups: 

The trainers who were estimated to be the 32 strongest, had to fight the weakest trainers.

So number 1, Cynthia, fought against number 64, an unrecognized trainer by the name of Sergio, from Kanto. While number 32 fought number 33.

This is done to ensure that the strongest fighters do not accidentally knock each other out on the first day and ruin the whole event. As well as create more exciting matches for the more average trainers.

Some might say this is to the detriment of the weakest trainers, but they had no chance to win either way.

Monday through Wednesday, this repeated. 

But Thursday, the 8 strongest trainers of the Sinnoh region are all considered to be on almost the same level of strength and their match ups are randomized instead.

Today, on Friday, the 4 semi-finalists are going to be fighting.

---

Swole-POV:

I got dressed in my gym uniform today.

Slick, black suit pants with matching shoes. 

An ironed, white dress shirt, with rolled back sleeves. The uppermost button, left unclasped to show off the beginnings of my muscles and my very first bit chest hair.

Narrator: Note, that it is a single, blonde hair. It is not even visible against his pale skin.

And my belt with two pokeballs.

I also made sure my hair looks both well maintained and a little wild at the same time.

My style is on fleek.

"Who do you think will win today?" Asks Barry as I move my hand through my hair again, to make sure it's still perfect.

Right now we are preparing a light breakfast together, before the class tournament.

"I really hope Candice wins!" Says Zoey. 

She is sitting on a chair and chatting with Dawn while we fry up some eggs for breakfast sandwiches.

Candice is this year's underdog. 

She had a lucky few rounds and got good match ups. She is an ice-monotype trainer from Snowpoint City. And this is her third attempt in the Platinum League conference.

Commentators are saying she might inherit the Snowpoint City gym this year, and it's no surprise that Zoey wants a fellow Snowpoint City dweller to win this year.

But her team doesn't stand a chance against Cynthia. "Cynthia will easily get into the finals again. And between the other 3... I think that Johto guy has really good chances."

The semi-finalists are Cynthia Shirona, defending her champion title, Candice Kiai, Volkner Pearl, an uncle of Barry and... Tobias Ryushu. 

"You mean Tobias? I don't think he stands a chance against Candice. His dragons can't do shit against her ice team." Argues Lucas.

"Don't count him out just yet. Lance won against Lorelei too and I think that Lance Ryushu taught this guy how to win against ice trainers. Besides, it's randomized."

"Yea, but he only has 5 pokemon!"

"That just means his 5 pokemon have got to be a whole lot tougher than usual. And he didn't even have to show his 5th pokemon yet! He won all his battles with just 4 pokemon! I swear, that guy is tough."

"You wanna bet?" Asks Lucas.

"Guys. Don't do betting." Dawn tries to reel us back in.

Betting is for suckers. "She's right. Have you forgotten the prices at the GTS? We can't waste our money."

"Alright, alright. I guess you are too pussy, to stand by your opinion."

"Fuck you. I'll see you in the tournament. Try not to drop out in the first round." 

I say as I pick up two sandwiches and leave first with Buneary grinning evilly at Lucas.

...

"Welcome everybody!" The combat instructor shouts out to us from the arena. "For those of you who have forgotten or see me for the first time, my name is Captain Braviary! And my powers stem from my belief in Mew!"

"What powers!?" Someone shouts.

Captain Braviary ignores the random comment from the bleachers. "I have taken the time and looked over your performance over the previous weekend. Based on that, I have matched up the tournament... like this!"

He whooshes an arm around and out of nowhere a rolled up, large piece of paper unrolls and unveils the tournament brackets. 

His Chansey stands next to it and starts panicking a little bit.

A 16 participants tournament with 4 guests, since there are only 12 students.

A couple of camera flashes light up. The Jubilife TV, a multi-media company that does not specialize on TV only, is also in attendance today. 

They are here because students of our school have an incredibly high success rate.

I heard that of the graduates, 80% become successful trainers in their respective fields. 20% even become internationally recognized. 

Like Cynthia, professor Rowan and Barry's father: Palmer Pearl.

The important families are paying a fortune into the success of their children and then, predictably, the children succeed.

It's nepotism.

But it works and I benefit from it. So, who cares.

"What!?" The instructor suddenly exclaims. "How in the hells did that happen?!" 

A few names on the paper are unreadable because the ink was smudged.

He shouldn't have rolled up the paper.

But from what I can see it is me versus 'Guest 1'. 

Lucas versus a smudge. 

Zoey and Dawn are up for a rematch and Akari and Barry are set up for an incredibly unbalanced fight.

Then, there are a few more matches between smudges and guests and one smudge that looks a lot like a peach pit. 

Seriously. It has the two semi-circles on each side and a weird black starfish-like spot in the middle.

It's a little weird how only our names are readable. 

But that's just one of those weird coincidences of the universe.

Like, how the moon is 400 times smaller than the sun, and coincidentally, the distance from our planet to the sun, is 400 times greater than the distance between the moon and our planet. Which makes them both appear the same size.

Anyway, Buneary and I are the first to battle and once Captain Braviary calls for us, we make our way down and eye our opponent.

He's about 8 years old. At most. 

And he wears blue shorts, a tank top, a hat and carries a bug catching net.

... He is a bug catcher.

Buneary hops to her spot on the battlefield and starts growling at him.

"You need to call out your pokemon for the fight." Captain Braviary reminds the young child.

"Oh! Right... Metapod, come on out!"

... A Metapod...

Seriously? 

Did we not manage to get any better guest trainers? 

The Metapod is literally shaking in fear.

"Are you ready?"

"Yes." - "We surrender!"

"Huh? Boy! Why did you sign up only to surrender immediately?"

"That Buneary is too scary! Metapod, return!" The kid almost starts crying and the combat instructor face-palms and sighs heavily.

I think I need to verify Buneary's ability.

It should be Limber but at this point I wouldn't be surprised if she actually has Intimidate.

"Good grief. Well, a win is a win. Come on Buneary, let's go watch Lucas lose in the first round."

I feel bad about this fight. 

It's more like bullying a little child.

But Buneary looks proud as a lion as she prances back to me. 

Winning without even fighting was a massive ego-boost to her, rather than a hit to her guilty conscience.

Does she have a guilty conscience?

"Right!" The combat instructor removes his hand from his face and turns to the audience. "Swole Solo and Buneary are the winners! You two may return to your seats."

---

"Next up! Lucas Diamond and... uhhh..." 

He struggles to read the splotch of ink on the tournament overview. 

"You! Fisherman guy! Come down here!"

Oh! It's that guy again. 

He wears a different fisherman outfit now but I know he has a Tynamo. 

Today he comes in a dark red swimming vest and his fishing rod has a super ball bobber design.

As he passes by me on his way down to the arena, he gives me a nod in greeting and I nod back.

He seems like a decent bloke.

I really hope he wins now. 

Lucas would be so pissed.

The two hold out the pokeballs they want to use for the fight. 

It's an unofficial rule, that participants of a fight do not change the first pokemon they want to start battle with after they see what their opponent uses.

Except in league organized fights. 

In that case, your team order is registered and it becomes an official rule to use the registered first pokemon.

"Come on out Chimchar! We're in it to win it!"

"Let's flex our mussels! Shellder, come out!" Chimchar and Shellder emerge from their pokeballs and Shellder strikes a pose where he balances on two of his horns as if they were legs.

What a catchphrase! That guy is amazing!

"Are you both ready?"

"Yes, sir!" - "Yeah."

Lucas is as lax as ever. Even though he is at a clear type disadvantage. 

His confidence, or rather cockiness, is bordering on... Well... Bordering on being overconfident. Not sure if there is a better word it could be bordering on.

Never mind the borders, if the Tynamo guy has improved at a similar rate as Lucas did, then Lucas doesn't stand a chance.

"Begin!"

"Withdraw! / Flame Wheel!"

Chimchar encases himself in a mantle of fire and spins towards Shellder, who simply closes his shell and a thin layer of water envelops him. 

Somehow the water solidifies and takes the brunt of the Flame Wheel as the two pokemon clash in close combat.

I have never seen Withdraw before but intuitively, I would say this move is the perfect counter to every fire attack. 

It looks as if Chimchar can't even apply the burn status effect to his opponent anymore.

The Flame Wheel probably did close to 0 damage here and was turned entirely into a gap-closer by Shellder's defenses.

"Don't let up! Power-Up Punch!" - "Again, With-- No, change to our offensive plan!"

Shellder retreats a little back into his shell, preventing outside viewers from seeing what he is preparing while Chimchar's fighting type attack hits the shell for some minimal damage.

Power-Up Punch is an attacking move which is not used entirely for the damage, but for the power increasing properties of the move. 

Chimchar's muscles visibly bulge and tighten and his raw attacking power increases.

Then suddenly, a massive flood of water spills out of Shellder's mouth-hole. And then he spins in place to give the whole thing a spin.

It's Whirlpool!

And Chimchar is at the worst possible place to be caught in the move.

He is spinning right around Shellder close to the center.

The water swells and takes up about a quarter of the arena but magically remains in the shape of a funnel. 

The sides are around a meter in the air and the spinning water drags everything close towards the center, where Shellder is still spinning around.

And unlike regular water, this water is infused with type energy and it's going to hurt Chimchar for as long as he stays in there.

"Blast yourself out of there with Ember!"

He's struggling for a little while but eventually manages to rip a hole onto the Whirlpool with his Ember where Chimchar falls out of the attack. 

The centrifugal force, or rather the momentum, still tosses him halfway across the arena and away from Shellder.

He looks in bad shape.

"Water Gun! Let's keep the initiative!"

"Dodge and then another Power-Up Punch!"

The whirlpool falls to the ground, washes over the arena once but then quickly dissipates.

The fatigue is starting to show in Shellder. 

He's taking really long to charge up his Water Gun now and Chimchar manages to easily dodge it while he closes the distance.

Next, Chimchar sprints the rest of the distance and hits yet another Power-Up Punch which further increases his strength.

"Follow up with Scratch and then Fury Swipes!" - "Retreat into Withdraw!"

The Scratch hits the target before Shellder could complete his Withdraw and then... 

I lean forward.

What just happened?

Chimchar somehow managed to immediately use Fury Swipes right after Scratch. 

Last time I saw Chimchar use Fury Swipes, he took forever to charge it. 

Now he can do it much faster than it should be possible!

"Buneary, did you get that?" I ask her and she nods.

I know that Pokemon have much better senses. Including a vague sense for compatible energies. 

I will need to discuss that further with Buneary when we have the time.

We need to be able to do this too. At the very least I need to expect others to do this against us.

At the same time as Fury Swipes ends, Withdraw finishes too.

"Another Power-Up Punch!" - "Push him away with Whirlpool!"

This time the water type move stutters and stalls because Shellder just can't collect any more type energy. 

He has overused the water type with no breaks, and this will be the end of the match.

Power-Up Punch hits again but Chimchar's muscles do not bulge a 3rd time. 2 times is the limit for him right now.

"Shit! Use Ice Shard instead!" - "Counter with Scratch and Fury Swipes!"

Finally, the fisherman remembers to switch his attack types and almost instantly a thin spike of ice shoots out of Shellder's mouth.

It was too fast to be countered by Chimchar.

Chimchar stumbles back from getting a face full of ice but he pulls himself back together and continues his Scratch and Fury Swipes combo through the pain.

This time, at the end of the Fury Swipes, Shellder passes out. 

The two halves of his shell open up fully, his tongue lolls out and his eyes turn into swirls.

"Shellder is KO! Chimchar and Lucas Diamond are the winners! Congratulations to you two. And good effort you too..." Captain Braviary rechecks the tournament board, still showing the blotch instead of a name. 

"... You did well. No need to fuss over a loss. Continue to improve like you did, and you will become a great trainer."

Captain Braviary pats the fisherman on the shoulder before sending him on his way to get his pokemon healed by Chansey.

"Would Zoey Evans and Dawn Berlitz please enter the arena?" He shouts out before making his way to the tournament board and writes my and Lucas names into the next round of the elimination battles.

"Good luck you two." I tell them before they walk down the stairs and onto the battlefield.

"Thanks / Thanks." They both say at the same time before glaring at each other.

---

The two ladies walk down the stairs, side by side, each trying to look dignified and confident.

Dawn has pulled out a different set of clothes today. 

Short blue boots and a dark blue turtle-neck pullover with golden accents on it. In addition to a light-pink skirt.

Zoey goes for her tomboy look. Jeans with a pullover tied around her waist, a white and tight t-shirt over her torso and her aviators stuck in her hair.

Both look good. 

And confident.

But I know Dawn's usual nervous ticks. Usually she fidgets with her hands. 

Either messing around with her hair or tapping her thumb to the side of her index finger.

And when she can't do that, she pulls them into tight fists. Like she does right now.

And I know for a fact that she is not actually confident in her chances against Zoey. 

I remember, back in the forest, she told me she was going to easily defeat her rival with all the progress that we made together. But over the week, she saw that Zoey didn't go slacking off either.

They have both improved tremendously and I think Dawn's confidence in her chances took a hit when she realized that.

Zoey is probably also just pretending. I think. 

When she saw Piplup's and Dawn's performance during training, she had asked me what Dawn did to improve so much in such a short time. 

She seemed really worried at the time.

"Piplup, let's splash the competition!"

"It's time to enchant the audience! Let's go Misdreavus!"

Buneary and I need a decent catchphrase for our battles.

I was not aware that I needed one for the tournament. 

Should I just go with 'don't kill them'? It fits our theme.

When Piplup comes out of the pokeball, a bunch of bubbles come out with him that shoot out in random directions over the arena. 

He also strikes a pose with his flippers stretched out. "Piplup!"

And for Misdreavus, when her ball releases her, a large, dark smoke cloud comes out with her that obscures her and only lets her shadow be visible.

Misdreavus' shadow dissolves, as if watching a mirage clear itself and when the smoke cloud dissipates completely, Misdreavus is gone!

"Hihi" 

A girlish laugh comes from the arena.

A suspiciously shaped shadow moves across the field.

Out of it emerges Misdreavus with a little twirl.

In terms of spectacle, Zoey won this.

That was unironically pretty cool to look at.

Maybe I should have gotten a few of these pokeball stickers after all. 

The girls tried to convince us guys to get some but none of us took the bait at that time. Perhaps I should...

... Nah.

"Ahem! Are you two ready? Or do you wish for some more time to show off?" The combat instructor asks. 

Sarcastically? 

There was no tonal hint for it to be sarcastic. He sounded serious about the offer.

But the fighters decline the extra time and give their ready signals.

"Begin!"

"Bubble Beam!" - "Thunder Wave!"

Both pokemon seem to have readied themselves before the fight began, and instantly released their pre-planned attacks.

A wave of lightning washes across the battlefield, charging sand and small rocks with static electricity wherever the wave meets the ground.

On the other side, Piplup releases a tight beam of bubbles. A few of them have a downward spin and they plop into the ground!

Dawn took a page out of Akari's book and is creating a cloud of dust over the battlefield.

But unlike Akari, she didn't have to waste most of the attack's power to create the cloud. 

The vast majority of bubbles keep shooting straight and hit their mark right against Misdreavus!

Piplup's control over the bubbles is impressive. 

And the Thunder Wave from a non-electric pokemon is too weak to pass through the little bit of dust and mud in the air.

"Confusion! Knock him in the air!" - "Roll away!"

But the move comes out too quickly and manages to catch Piplup mid-roll. Dealing some damage and knocking him into the air in an arc.

"Follow up with a Confuse Ray!" - "Piplup, use Bubble Beam against Misdreavus!"

Three small projectiles that spin around each other float swiftly across the battlefield and are aimed at Piplup's landing spot.

Mid-air, Piplup uses Bubble Beam again and it moves him slightly off course... 

... I don't think Dawn thought that through fully.

The bubbles pass through the Confuse Ray without them interacting with each other. 

Piplup's attack pushes him further away from Misdreavus but eventually, the Confuse Ray still hits Piplup.

The knock-back effect of the Bubble Beam only increased the distance the Confuse Ray had to move! 

Dawn should have used Bubble Beam to either side instead and by the way Dawn facepalms, I can tell she also realizes her blunder.

"Come on Piplup! Snap out of it! Use Aerial Ace!"

Uwah? As far as I know, Piplup still can't really use Aerial Ace! Last time I checked, he still failed 4 out of 5 times.

"Misdreavus use Swift!"

Piplup's flying type energy collects but then suddenly dissipates uselessly. The move failed... 

Huh?

Oh!

Now I get it! The move failed and no energy could rebound and Piplup did not hurt himself in his confused state!

And if it DID succeed, there would have been a chance for the move to work despite the confusion!

Although, the confusion probably made the move much less likely to succeed, so I doubt the effectiveness of the strategy. 

It's worth looking further into it though.

Misdreavus on the other hand was free to hit Swift without issues. 

Perfect aim against a stationary target.

"Confusion, again. Knock him around a little."

Dawn mumbles something that sounded like a curse. "... Use Bubble Beam!"

This time Bubble Beam charges up but the bubbles are flying all over the place, some hitting Piplup and none crossing the large distance to hit Misdreavus.

The Confusion then makes it even worse because Piplup is knocked around and hits even more bubbles.

Piplup lands on his face, stumbles up and around for a few steps but then his eyes turn into swirls and he falls over, face first.

"Piplup is KO! Misdreavus and Zoey are the winners!"

"Shit..." This time Dawn audibly curses as she returns Piplup to his pokeball where he can rest. "Sigh, good job Piplup. You did your best. Next time we will win."

"Woho! Good job Misdreavus!" Misdreavus flies into a tight hug with her trainer and they spin around and cheer.

"You two can leave. Chansey is waiting near the stairs to heal your pokemon." Captain Braviary directs the trainers off the stage and the two are followed with some camera flashes. 

"Next! Would Akari Platinum and Barry Pearl come to the arena?"

I can see Dawn and Zoey talking a little on the way before hugging each other while Dawn has some tears in her eye.

---

"Good luck, Akari." I wish her good luck as she and Barry pass me on their way down.

"Don't lose too hard, Barry." Says Lucas.

Akari smiles in response and I can't help but grin at Barry as he grumbles about the unfair treatment just because he is a guy.

Even though Lucas was simply right this time. 

This time, it has nothing to do with Barry being a dude.

Akari is just too strong with her Cyndaquil. She probably has trained her for years already. 

Like that Ash guy, whose Pikachu knows tricks that we can only dream of.

"Go, Cyndaquil." - "Let's win this! Buizel!"

Cyndaquil hops down from Akari's shoulder and into position and Barry tosses his pokeball from which a regular looking Buizel emerges.

I saw his performance during training a few times and I can't say that I'm too impressed. 

He's a little stronger than a regular wild pokemon, but that is probably just due to the training he had since he was captured.

Cyndaquil is at a type disadvantage but I doubt that is going to matter against their skill.

"Begin!"

"Quick Attack!" - "Switch to plan B."

Oh shit!

Cyndaquil charges some fire type energy but interrupts herself shortly before being hit.

The Quick Attack hits right on target and Cyndaquil takes some damage as she tanks the move.

"Cyn!" 3 balls of purple glowing fire float out of Cyndaquil's back and slowly move to converge upon Buizel.

Will-O-Wisp.

The water pokemon, usually easily able to counter any fire move, is still recovering from using his own attack and cannot dodge. 

The Will-O-Wisp fire blazes up for a short moment before seeping into a single spot on Buizel. 

There, it leaves a discolored spot on the surface. 

A burn mark.

Buizel is in a really bad spot already. 

Not only will the burn continuously damage him, but it also lowers his attacking power!

"Use Water Gun!"

Cyndaquil is still continuing with her plan and tanks another attack, this time a very effective water move.

After tanking, and charging her next attack, she suddenly catches fire, her whole body burning brightly, and jumps against her target. 

Buizel is only hurt a little bit by the non-effective attack, but then, somehow, the flames move back towards Cyndaquil, whose dorsal fire starts burning more brightly.

I have no idea what move that was, but it seems to have some strategic advantage.

Still without another command, Cyndaquil uses Quick Attack to get to the other side of the battle, away from Buizel.

"Don't let her escape! Follow her with Quick Attack!"

Buizel charges after her but Cyndaquil just dodge-rolls to the side causing Buizel to overshoot his target.

"Go back to plan A!" Akari shouts across the arena to make sure her pokemon hears the change of plans.

Almost instantly afterwards, Cyndaquil releases a Smokescreen all around herself.

Is plan A to use the weird Curse?

"Flush her out with Water Gun."

"Plan B again!"

The Water Gun shoots blindly into the Smokescreen, moving left to right and back to the left, desperately trying to hit Cyndaquil.

All of a sudden, a steaming, hot Cyndaquil jumps out of the smoke cloud, encased in flames and rams into Buizel again.

The hit was still weak but still manages to drop Buizel to one knee.

Yet again, the flames seep back into Cyndaquil's body and increase the blaze on her back into a tiny inferno.

Is that Flame Charge? 

If so, how did she manage to hide it from us during training? 

Is that why she was being so seclusive? For secret training?

As for her strategies, I think plan A is to hide and wait for the win, while plan B might be to run away and wait for the win.

"Point blank, Quick Attack!"

Buizel runs towards Cyndaquil but she is so quick now, that she can dodge the move despite the close range. 

At the end of Buizel's sprint he falls over in pain but gets up again.

The continuous damage is taking its toll.

"Damn it! Buizel, use Water Gun again but spread out the attack!"

"He stole that from me..." Grumbles out Dawn next to me.

Good choice, Cyndaquil can already dodge Quick Attack without a lot of reaction time, something unavoidable is his best chance now.

"Counter with Swift!"

Instead of running away uselessly, this time Cyndaquil shoots out a shower of tiny stars that blast a hole through the wall of Water Gun. Some projectiles even went through completely and hit Buizel.

A couple more stars sneak through and then the low pressure wall of water stops completely.

"Buizel is KO! Akari Platinum and her Cyndaquil win!"

Another barrage of camera flashes lights up the battlefield as the two trainers take their pokemon and walk towards the Chansey near the stairs.

Barry is crestfallen again but brightens up after Akari says something to him that I couldn't hear.

Honestly, Barry did a lot better than I thought he would. 

His only real blunder was the first Quick Attack. 

Or rather, he probably didn't yet know a retaliation like that was possible.

That was the same kind of unfair shit that this Pikachu did.

... My next battle is against Lucas, then Akari and then either a guest or a blotch of ink. 

Or I lose against Akari.

The next four battles are guests and splotches and I only need to watch their semi-final battle.

I pick up Buneary and stand up with her. We need to go strategize in peace.

It would be nice to watch Asshole lose, but it might as well demoralize me if he wins.

Not watching them is the right choice.

"See ya later." I say goodbye to Dawn, Zoey and Lucas before I go down the stairs.

Akari is right down the stairs together with Barry and Chansey. Chansey is currently healing Buizel and Akari is waiting for her turn. 

"Congratulations Akari. Your battle skills are incredible."

She startles and then turns around. "Thank you, Swole. I admire your battle skills as well. You won your fight without giving out a single order or even making a single move."

...

"That was a joke. But 2 weeks ago, you showed great skill. Today your opponent was just very weak." 

"Oh! It was a very good joke!" 

It wasn't. The delivery was flat and far too formal. 

Who taught her how to make jokes? Dawn's great great great great great grandmother? 

"Haha, yea... Poor kid. I felt a little bad for him in the end."

"Nevertheless, where are you going? I believe it will be some time before your next bout?"

'Bout' means battle? "I'm looking for a secluded spot to strategize a little. I want to maximize my chances against Lucas. And if I want to have a winning chance against you after that, then I need all the strategy I can get."

"Haha! I know you will do well in your fights. And I know you are a great trainer! And once we cross paths on our way to the finale, then... Then I will need to give it my all and I wish you good fortune."

"Thanks. And good luck in your fight against Zoey too... Well, see ya later."

"Until soon." 

'Until soon'? Sometimes she talks really weirdly. 

If she wasn't so cute, I would probably put her into the same mental box as the other weirdo's I met recently.

Anyway, with Buneary on my shoulder, I select a lonely place on the bleachers. 

It's on the opposite end of Asshole's loner-spot and then I start strategizing together with Buneary.

---

"So." I pull out my notebook.

"Bune?"

"You said you understood what Lucas and Chimchar did with Scratch and Fury Swipes?"

"Bun. Buneary Bune."

Nothing. Damn.

This weird ability would have been really useful right now.

I guess I've been trying too hard to understand her, for this weird subconscious thing to happen again.

Let's start by writing down what I can remember.

Basically, Chimchar used Scratch and then without charging again, he switched into Fury Swipes.

According to the pokedex, Scratch is not an incredible move.

It has no extra effect and it simply has an output of 40 type power, or TP, in professor Kukui's model.

Fury Swipes is pretty much the same move, except it's much weaker but it hits an average of 2.8 times instead.

Fury Swipes is rated at 18TP. So that's... 50 point-something in total.

The only difference between that and... let's say Quick Attack with Pound is the base strength.

... The total power is somewhat similar too.

... I get it!

We tried Quick Attack into Double Kick as well as Quick Attack into Pound!

When chaining these moves together, Pound comes out quicker than a chain with Double Kick.

But on its own, Pound takes about as much time as Double Kick.

Buneary must be gathering more power than needed and can then reuse that energy for the next attack.

And the reason why Fury Swipes was so much quicker, is because a single hit is just so much weaker.

"Can you use leftover energy from one attack to charge the next one?" I ask Buneary a simple yes or no question for her to verify my theory.

"Bun!" Yes! Alright! Hole in one!

"In that case... Would you be able to use Double Kick instantly after Jump Kick?"

After a short moment of consideration, "Bun."

Awesome! Sweet! That would be a pretty insane combo attack!

"This means that Jump Kick and then Pound would take longer because they are two different types, right?"

This time Buneary thinks a little longer, "Bun."

And since we learned to reliably use Double Hit, we can replace Pound with it completely.

Double Hit's individual strikes are rated as a little bit weaker than Pound, so the move should come out faster after a Quick Attack.

I wish I could speak with Buneary properly!

Just how many pro-tips does she have stored away in that cute little head of hers?

"Next up," I leaf to the next page on my notepad. "Piplup used a move that would most likely fail when he was confused. Does that make sense to you or would waiting out the confusion be better? ... Can I get a yes or a no on Dawn being smart."

"Bunnie."

"So Dawn's move was kinda dumb?"

"Bun."

"Okay." I cross out my notes and go to the next page.

"Then let's think of some strats... For Lucas I would say we just start the fight with Baby-Doll Eyes and then beat his pokemon up with superior strength. This should work equally well for Chimchar as well as for Buizel."

She nods along energetically, her ears flopping around.

"Besides a random burn effect, there isn't anything that Lucas can do against us... No, wait."

I mentally go through his last battle again. "Actually, Power-Up Punch could be a major issue and we need to dodge it. If we had Play Rough, then we could counter it but as it is, dodging is the only option."

Now she nods along in a disappointed manner.

I know she loves brawling and hates being weaker in any kind of way.

"Buizel has nothing. He would be a safe win. But that just means it's safe to assume we fight against Chimchar... Let's build up a plan A. We start off with Baby-Doll Eyes and Chimchar's options are Flame Wheel or Ember. We can dodge Ember and break through Flame Wheel with Jump Kick."

Her eyes are starting to glaze over. I'm about to lose her already.

"Alright, Baby-Doll Eyes, dodge Ember and then use Jump Kick. Can you remember those three orders?"

Her eyes unglaze and refocus before she nods.

I think she can remember the orders more easily if I just skip all the explanations.

I look back to my notes while Buneary digests our strategy.

Baby-Doll Eyes is starting to become pretty bad.

As our opponents get stronger, the weak move will be less and less useful.

Our replacement for it is going to be Charm. And we have already made some progress to it, since Play Rough is just too far off.

I just wish we had a little more success with Charm.

I think it's like 1 more week of training before we can use the move in battle. It would have been so much better than Baby-Doll Eyes for today.

"After the initial exchange, I expect Lucas to enter close combat with us and then you can just destroy him with superior speed and power. The Scratch and Fury Swipes combo can be safely ignored because of their low damage output and you will dodge Power-Up Punch."

Plan A sounds like a solid plan.

"If he stays at range, just continue with Baby-Doll Eyes. He can't hit you from range. You got all that?"

An insecure nod.

"Baby-Doll Eyes, dodge, Jump Kick and then brawling. That's what plan A boils down to."

A more confident and determined nod.

"Oh! And expect to use Double Kick right after any successful Jump Kick."

That will be an easy win. Maybe a Leppa Berry after the fight and we should be back in top condition for our fight against Akari.

... Our fight against Akari...

She tends to set up strategies and just wait for the win.

... In that case, Buneary just needs to get in and not let up. At all.

If Cyndaquil sets up with Will-O-Wisp, then we lose because we don't do enough damage anymore.

If Cyndaquil sets up one or two Flame Charge, then we lose because she becomes too fast and we can't hit her anymore.

If we lose track of Cyndaquil in her Smokescreen, then we lose because she can just hide and defeat us with her weird Curse.

Damn, those are some harsh loose conditions.

Our only way to win is to stay right on top of Cyndaquil, hit her when we can, counter Will-O-Wisp with dirt and dodge or counter any Flame Charge that comes our way.

That's a lot to consider. No way I can tell all that to Buneary.

Especially when a different battle comes up next. It would just confuse her.

I will just tell her the strategy after the next fight.

"Hey Swole!"

Huh?

metal bar SFX

Oof!

Lucas tried to vault over the railing that separates the back rows and the front row seats but the bar fell out of the socket and he crashed.

"Yikes. You okay dude?"

"Ouch... Yea, I guess." He says as he shakes off the pain in the hand that he landed on.

Doesn't look broken or anything. "The girls sent me to pick you up. The coach gave us a lunch break before the second round will begin. He also said there will be a big announcement in 30 minutes and we should watch the time."

"Alright, we just got done strategizing the best way to destroy you, so we're ready for lunch. Isn't that right?"

"Bun!"

"Bruh. Don't do that to me."

"Too late. You're getting destroyed."

"Haha, fuck you too. By the way, did you see? One of the guests is this Ass Catchthem guy from the forest."

"Ass Catchthem? Hahaha. Nope, I wasn't looking at the last 4 fights. I guess he won?"

"Yea, but it was close. He and his Pikachu seem about as tough as an opponent as Akari. But he sent out his Starly."

"Fucking... 4 years extra experience. And then he comes with his shitty Starly? Cocky bastard. I hate Kantonians."

"Haha, come on, let's go. The girl is waiting."

Actually, the girls are just talking with each other, it's just Barry who looks like he's waiting for us--

Oh! Right! "Let's not keep the girl waiting for too long."

---

Lunch was a quick affair. 

Just some brown rice, some slow-release carbs, to keep up the energy for the next few fights.

Lucas had returned Chimchar back to his pokeball, Chimchar still looked a little out of it from his first fight against Shellder.

But Buneary is still perfectly fit! Haha.

This is going to be a really easy fight!

"Welcome back everybody!" Captain Braviary announces after he counted 16 students and guests, who have returned to the bleachers.

Captain Braviary is standing by his tournament bracket paper. 

Next to him is a strange woman with red hair and a gray, skintight outfit with a white skirt.

"I have a few important announcements to make. First up, Team Galactic, the research and development branch of the Galaxy Acquisition Group, has graciously decided to sponsor our tournament a little bit."

"So the first place gets more stuff?" Asks some random student from the second half of the tournament brackets.

A lot of heads turn in his direction. 

All but Akari. For some reason, she seems transfixed on the woman on stage.

"Good question!" Captain Braviary shouts out and regains everyone's attention, then he strikes a random pose where he gives us a quick salute.

"Now, the school had originally provided the funds for a TM of the winner's choice. This was to motivate guest trainers to give their all. But now! This prize will go to the best student in the tournament."

A bunch of people murmur in response to that. 

Probably the guests who feel cheated out of their prizes.

"But! Hear me out! But the guest trainers can still win prizes. The first place winner, no matter if a guest trainer or a student, will receive a mysterious pokemon egg. It was found inside of a ruin in the wilderness. Now, this on its own doesn't sound very mysterious... However! ..."

He pauses for dramatic effect, "The ruin had been thoroughly researched already. No pokemon entered or exited the ruin. But all of a sudden, one morning, researchers found the egg. It appeared out of nowhere. And the researchers were unable to identify the species from the eggshell design."

At that, the woman removes a blanket from a stack of objects.

She reveals a silvery egg inside a portable incubator. There is a long, wavy and pink pattern on it. 

There is no pokemon that comes to my mind, to identify the species of the egg.

"That's not all folks!" The hype-beast continues his pitch as the woman reveals what's beneath the other blanket. 

"The second place will receive the most recent item catalogue of the GTS as well as a coupon of 80.000₽. You heard that right! A cash boost to your journey of the equivalent of all 8 badges! A cash boost that most trainers don't even manage to make in a year!"

A lot of teenagers, and Barry, the child, in the audience stand up in excitement and the news reporters are taking photos of the revealed prizes.

Captain Braviary motions for the teenagers and Barry to calm down.

I personally don't get why they are so hyped up. 

Most of these people don't have a chance to win that. 

... Barry already fucking lost! Why did he get so hyped up?!

The money is a really nice reward, but the egg has the potential to be even better. 

Pokemon eggs are basically an investment with much greater yield than 80.000₽.

I would get to raise and teach a pokemon from day 1. 

It costs a lot of time, effort and food to raise him or her, but they would have a much greater potential than any random, wild pokemon would have.

Supposedly.

According to some internet articles.

People like Barry would obviously need to go for the cash price since he is already at the limit of what he can feed. 

But Akari, Dawn or I would be better off with a pokemon egg.

"And finally, place 3 gets the same as place 2 except for 20.000₽ instead."

Team Galactic is really splurging on us with that.

Maybe they are trying to recruit us early for the advertised wilderness expedition?

And if I manage to get place number 1, then I would get the egg and a TM.

I could get Giga Impact or some other insanely expensive move that I couldn't hope to afford otherwise. 

I could even sell it back to GTS and finance my adventures that way.

Or I could get Fire Punch. 

It's a very useful move on my to-buy list.

"Listen up!" Captain Braviary reigns in the chatting students again. "This financial investment also comes with the stipulation that the participants need to prove their worth. And some of you had more of a challenge while others had none at all in the first round of battles."

Some seething gazes settle on me.

"That's why Ms. Mars here has reshuffled the remaining participants!"

What?

"Take a look everyone!" He reveals the changed tournament plan. 

Some names are somehow yet again unreadable but the important ones aren't.

FUCK! 

"No, no, no, no! That's bullshit!"

I can't believe he did this to me.

"Oof. You got fucked over worse than me!" Comments Lucas.

"Ha! No way! How lucky am I?" Comments Zoey.

"Fuck me. Seriously?!"

1st battle: ... Zoey Evans versus me.

2nd battle: Lucas Diamond versus Akari Platinum.

Even Buneary looks resigned. 

We should have spent more time training for Play Rough! 

Fuck! 

We only have status moves!

"Would Zoey Evans and Swole Solo please come down to the arena?"

I don't even get time to think. 

They want me to lose. 

These bastards.

My steps slow down unconsciously as my mind races on overdrive through my options.

Surrendering is the most obvious option, but I'm not going to just give up on the pokemon egg.

Double Hit, Quick Attack, Double Kick, Jump Kick and Flail are all 100% useless here. 

But I might be able to use Quick Attack to dodge.

Buneary is slumped over on my shoulder. 

Her disappointment in her own capabilities is obvious.

But it's not her fault. It's mine. 

I'm the trainer. 

And I wasted my time helping Dawn, when I should have covered our own weaknesses instead.

That was an expensive mistake.

My boot unexpectedly hits the dirt and I stumble a little.

No time to get distracted.

We still have status moves. Splash, Defense Curl, Baby-Doll Eyes, After You and Sweet Kiss.

Splash is as useless as it always has been. Maybe we could use it instead of Quick Attack to dodge vertically but that's it.

Defense Curl and Baby-Doll Eyes are useless against special attackers like Misdreavus.

After You doesn't work without a partner.

"Swole Solo!"

Huh? "What?"

"You need to select your pokemon for the fight. Stop daydreaming." Says the combat instructor.

Daydreaming!? Are you shitting me you cunt?

Buneary heads down to her starting spot in the arena on her own. Misdreavus is already in her position and grins mischievously at us.

"Sorry Swole!" Zoey shouts across the arena. "Better luck next time?"

Better luck next time... Better luck?

"I am ready!" Shouts Zoey.

My gaze refocuses on the battlefield. "Hey! Buneary!" I get her attention and she looks at me with crestfallen eyes and limp ears. "We still have a chance to win this. Be ready for--"

"Hey!" Shouts Captain Braviary, angrily. "No last second orders! Show some sportsmanship, boy. Are you both ready?"

Fuck! Right. 

It's kinda forbidden to communicate with your pokemon after your opponent has given the ready signal. 

Which makes the ready signal kinda meaningless, since we aren't ready yet!

But of course Zoey is ready. 

She can safely use Thunder Wave or Confusion and all I have are hopes and dreams.

However... She must think that I don't even have hopes and dreams. 

Her confidence is far too obvious.

"I'm ready!"

"Begin!"

"Thunder Wave!" - "Quick Attack, trust me!"

Buneary begins her speedy dash across the battlefield.

At the same time, Misdreavus rises into the air a little more while quickly charging Thunder Wave before releasing the move across the field.

I never got around to verifying Buneary's ability. 

If it isn't Limber, we lose.

The wave washes over Buneary... But no static stays on her!

Yes! 

She continues her sprint! We are immune to paralysis! Wuhu!

"Huh?!" - "Change to Sweet Kiss, now!"

Buneary jumps the last few meters and shoots straight towards her opponent.

A faint pink glow coming from her face, indicating a weak, hasty Sweet Kiss. 

But it's still a damn quick one!

The fruits of our training.

"No! Misdreavus, dodge!"

But it's too late! 

Ahahaha! 

The new order was too late and Misdreavus is too slow to dodge the speeding bunny!

Buneary's face grazes Misdreavus' as she speeds past her but the pink glow lingers and seeps into Misdreavus' cheek.

"Yes! Again! More power!" As soon as Buneary hits the ground she turns around and sprints back to Misdreavus. 

Her blood-lust is clearly visible in her eyes. She's in it to win it, by any means necessary. 

Just as I am.

"Snap out of it! Use Confusion and kick her away!"

"Dodge with Splash and continue with Sweet Kiss!" 

I want to win this. Making the fight harder for Zoey is not enough! 

No, this will be our win!

A manic grin of my own spreads across my face.

A sudden burst of normal type energy lets Buneary bounce straight into the air, just when the red gems around Misdreavus neck glow the brightest.

A wave of sand, where Buneary was just half a second ago, is tossed towards the edge of the arena. 

But Buneary's jump brought her out of Confusion's area of attack.

Buneary falls back to the ground and uses the rebound of Splash to direct herself towards Misdreavus.

"Again! Confusion! We can't let her touch us!"

Misdreavus' red, bead necklace begins glowing again but a sudden discharge makes her wince in pain and causes her to close her eyes.

She doesn't even see what's coming. 

Buneary is jumping straight for her face, her lips glowing in pink fairy type energy.

Smooch

Right in her fucking face! Misdreavus can't keep herself afloat and falls to the ground.

A few camera flashes light up the arena.

"Sweet Kiss, again! Don't let her recover! Put all your effort into it!"

Misdreavus is still reeling from hurting herself in her confused state and struggles to get back into the air. 

That's when Buneary secures Misdreavus face between her paws and kisses her right in the face again, to make the confusion even worse.

Some more camera flashes light up again.

... Uh... In her face? 

My eyes wander away and look towards Zoey instead.

She's blushing brightly.

My own face feels a little hot.

Shit. This is awkward now. 

Another psychic backlash hits Misdreavus.

... But it's working. 

"Uh... Use another Sweet Kiss. Ahem. Give it your all... We can win this... fight."

Misdreavus is barely still with us and Buneary shoots me a glare before charging even more fairy type energy and getting back into it.

But instead of the pink light seeping into Misdreavus, this time Misdreavus lights up pink and emits small balls of pink energy, which seep into Buneary instead.

"Was that Draining Kiss?" I mumble out as I try to distract myself from the view. 

Buneary finishes her kissing session-- Her move-- Her attack! And gives me a nod.

Zoey is still blushing and too distracted to give new orders.

Draining Kiss... Draining Kiss! That's a fairy type attack move! I don't have to wait and hope for a win anymore!

"Use Draining Kiss! Show her what you can do!" Ehhh. "Um, I mean, let's win this. Yea."

This manages to snap Zoey out of her own state of confusion... Or arousal. With that amount of blushing, it could very well be arousal.

"Hey, since when can Buneary use Draining Kiss?!" She shouts to me.

"Since just now! I ignored that option because Buneary's special attack sucks." I shout back.

"Ah. Thanks! Yeah, I can see how she's sucking... Misdreavus, get away from her!"

"Don't let her get away! Knock her out with your smoo-- With your Draining Kiss!"

Misdreavus tries to scramble away but Buneary easily catches back up and kisses her again. 

And from this angle, I can see that it really isn't just in the face, but on the mouth instead.

Damn! She's really going ham in there!

I-- I really need to look away.

"Misdreavus, hide in the shadows to wait out the confusion!"

No! I won't be able to hit her anymore.

"Don't let up Buneary! We can't let her escape!"

Even more pink light seeps over from Misdreavus into Buneary as their kissing deepens even more. 

I hope someone makes sure that the 8 year old guest trainer and Barry aren't watching this.

"Stop!" 

All of a sudden, from the corners of my eyes I can see Chansey running into the fight and pushing Buneary off of Misdreavus.

"Misdreavus is KO! Swole Solo and Buneary are the winners!" 

The combat instructor announces and the silent audience creates a scene of perfect awkwardness.