Six Ways to Sunday
no seriously. it's an actual saying.
remember when the monsters under your bed weren't real and the skeletons in people's closets weren't piled so high?
good times.
[ chapter 0; the end ]
The gates open.
This time, it's a forest, tall trees and tall grass, artificial sunlight that only lights up some of the ground because the leaves obscure the rest.
"A, stay in the trees, B, on the defensive, C, in the sky, D, with me," our captain calls out.
His commands are executed fluidly. The A squad leader swings herself up into the highest tree branches effortlessly, and the rest of her team follows. A few of them let out their smaller pokemon; the squad leader's emolga sails through the air, silent and hidden by the foliage.
Squad B splits off into groups of three, each group sending a ground type underground at intervals surrounding the flag. I can see twins on squad B release a tag team of a cloyster and a kecleon, the kecleon creating an invisible field around itself and the cloyster, and the third member in their group lets loose an umbreon. Then they disappear out of my line of sight.
Everyone in squad C is paired off. My ex's best friend helps my ex onto his charizard, while my ex unleashes that demon of a marshtomp. The other pairs are all setting up similar framework.
Our captain is also the D squad leader. We follow him into the forest. Those of us that have hound pokemon let them out of their pokeballs. My houndoom, Jack, nuzzles my hand, a brief gesture of affection, before becoming aware of where we are and instinctively pitching his ears forward, entire body wired and alert. Our captain releases his arcanine. All six feet and three hundred fifty pounds of him. Even if he tried, he couldn't manage to be anything but noticeable.
"Yo, squirrel, you lookin' to get us caught?" Cory mocks jokingly. Of course, we were all thinking it, but only he's irritating enough and close enough to our captain that he won't get verbally abused too badly for asking.
Sure enough our captain just flips him off half-heartedly. "Hey watch yourself you rank-diver. We're gonna do this trojan horse style. Split up, half with me, we're gonna be the distraction. Cory, since you're so vocal today, you take lead for the other group, go around and hunt for the flag. And for Arceus's sake, be quiet. We can only distract them if they can't hear you running your mouth all the time."
He nods his head towards the path that runs parallel to a stream; the running water should cover most of the noise we do make. Our squad splits in two easily. We've had to split before and it's always best to remember any formations you run so you don't have to waste time figuring things out again.
Cory takes us down to walk close to the stream banks, and our shoes make a quiet, disgusting noise as we step across a particularly muddy patch. "This is fuckin' dirty, mate," he hisses, only half pretending to complain. You can tell he's at least somewhat serious because he's slipped into his native accent and slang.
"Coincidentally, that's what your girlfriend and I did last night," our captain retorts, and a soft 'oooh' rises from our group. No one laughs though; if this were a normal match we would, but not today. Adrenaline has numbed us to our situation for now, but it does nothing to lighten our mood.
Smirking faintly, Cory just shakes his head and leads us deeper into the opposing team's territory.
The plan runs smoothly at first. But the chaos breaks out when we get ambushed by a Rachel and Leon's audino-gardevoir pair. The gardevoir's eyes glow for a moment as it tells everyone within its range of communication where we are.
It harasses the dark-types that we send out with a couple Focus Blasts. Then my houndoom's well-placed Dark Pulse takes it out and it disappears in a flash of red energy.
We move quickly now, speed being our priority instead of stealth.
An Ice Beam from the sky starts to form a frozen circle wall around us, only to be cut off by a ThunderBolt from the trees. We hear a bird squawk in pain and a crash as it tumbles down into the trees.
I stay to unfreeze the legs of some of my teammates, who were caught in the blast, while Cory leads a few to move ahead. While Jack's occupied, I release Annie and Monty as protection. Annie cackles maniacally as she sets up a Substitute, and Monty doesn't even need me to ask him to use Coil.
Sure enough, our opponents find us. I can see Duke and Owen and Mel at the front of the oncoming wave. Up in the sky, I recognize James's shiny braviary.
We do what we can to hold them off. Annie pisses people off by Disabling moves from beneath her Substitute armor, and Monty fires Gunk Shots at an alarming pace. Two of my teammates' pokemon, a flareon and a rapidash, are taken out by a particularly nasty Water Pulse.
Above head James's braviary is screeching, presumably insults, at a frustrated froslass in a tree who can't seem to pin its wings with its Ice Beam.
Then the alarm sounds. Our Entei Army banner is projected on the ceiling dome of the arena. Cory's gotten the flag back to our side. Jack leans tiredly against Owen's electivire, the very pokemon he's been trying to scorch for the past twenty minutes, and rather successfully, if its blackened fur tips are anything to go by.
We start to recall our pokemon. There's not a lot we have to say to each other.
In fact, it's really just a nod, and a "good game". The anticipation of the words "good bye" is there, too, but no one on either team can force those words out. Good bye means finality - forever - and even if it's the most likely result, neither of us wants this to be our reality.
I'm so angry. So angry that needs to be a winner and a loser. So angry that, in the end, the winner is the real loser because winning means you've graduated onto battling for real, in the real world, where the stake is your life, not just points for your ranking, and that the losing team gets to live with the guilt that they were actually relieved because it wasn't them.
We're high up, in the Headmaster's quarters, being congratulated on our victory and also informed on what comes next for us. I'm not listening; none of us are. Instead, I'm looking out the giant one-way mirror that is the Headmaster's window, the one that his creepy xatu stares out 24/7.
There are new students, arriving in staggered bunches at the academy gates. I remember my first teleport - the gardevoir's name was Mae.
For a moment my eyes flick up to look at our team captain. His gaze is heavy; nineteen is too young to be carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders. There's a look of anguish on his face as he watches the new students. I know what he's thinking.
How many more?
How many more will they deceive? How much longer can this be kept a secret? How many more lives will they ruin?
"And just remember, all of Hoenn thanks you for fighting on behalf of your country!" the Headmaster finishes. Cory laughs in scorn. Then the xatu's eyes flash and the laugh stops abruptly as he grits his teeth in pain at the violent mental assault.
"It is the end of your life here, and the beginning of the rest of your lives. You will be given time to say your good byes."
so this is a pokemon academy fic, but the academy borrows some of the structure from ender's game, and neither of those 'verses belong to me
r&r~