Beau swished his head to the right, getting his brunette hair out of his viewpoint as he focused on his teammate next to him. The tanned teammate nodded and smirked with the assurance of their chance of winning in mind. With that guarantee from his best friend in mind, Beau quickly looked over at his opponents across the battlefield, which was a giant red and blue pokéball. They were all evenly matched so the win would rely on strategy and teamwork.
"I want a clean match, okay guys? I don't want to be hounded by angry Elite Four members later today," the referee stated. Beau laughed a little at the thought of the tall man running away with a possible Salamence or Mightyena at his heels.
"Yeah, we got it, Gregory. Just get on with the rules!" yelled a spitfire kid who was right across from Beau. Aaron was just itching for this battle, already enlarging his pokéball he retrieved from a pocket which no doubt held his strongest Pokémon. Gregory glared at the rude teenager and cleared his throat to state the parameters of battle.
"This match will be a Two-vs.-Two tag battle. Each trainer will only be allowed the use of one Pokémon each. Both Pokémon on the opposite team need to be knocked out to declare a team a winner," Gregory specified the rules and continued with identifying the trainers, "This fight is against Beau Dagenhart and Kai Kurin on the Blue Team against Aaron Tornes and Marco Canavacciuolo on the Red Team. Let the battle begin!"
Aaron, whose hand was already on his Ultra Ball, had immediately released his Pokémon. An elegant Absol appeared on the battlefield and was soon joined by Marco's large Flygon, which had quickly taken flight. Beau swiftly reached for one of the pokéballs on his belt and grabbed the one that contained his strongest Pokémon and oldest friend. He heard Kai calling out his Weavile next to him and then Beau got ready to throw his own pokéball.
"Are you ready, Missy? All eyes are on you!" Beau shouted as he tossed his red and white sphere into the air. A little Misdreavus entered the battle and screamed a battle cry. Aaron gave the first order to Absol who had started up a whirlwind around its body, the scythe on its head beginning to glow. Absol swung its head swiftly, releasing a white crescent blade of energy towards Weavile and Misdreavus. Kai quickly ordered Weavile to use Icy Wind to meet with the oncoming attack.
The Sharp Claw Pokémon charged forward while blowing a breath of wind containing sparkling blue snow towards the Razor Wind attack. As the two attacks met, it created a sort of dense mist that divided and soon enveloped most of the field. While Weavile disappeared into the mist, Beau told Misdreavus to get above the mist to see the battlefield from an aerial viewpoint. From above, Missy could see Absol charging into the mist but Flygon had seemingly disappeared.
"Flynn, use Dragon Breath!" Marco called out to his pokémon. Beau looked around to try and spot the insect-like dragon Pokémon to warn his Misdreavus. He caught sight of the pokémon diving towards Missy coming from behind her. Flygon had its mouth open and released a light blue beam of air shooting directly towards Misdreavus.
"Missy, watch out! Behind you!" Beau yelled at his pokémon. The warning did no good as Missy had barely turned around when Dragon Breath hit her dead-on. She grimaced as the damage was dealt but focused enough to dodge a charging Flygon and get ready for a counterattack. Beau swiftly ordered Missy to use Dark Pulse and her red necklace started to flash brightly. A dark ball of black and purple circles appeared in front of Misdreavus and she aimed for the Flygon. By that time, Flynn had turned around and started to use Dragon Breath again. Both launched their attacks at the same time, Missy firing the circles as a beam and Flynn shooting her blue, fiery breath. The attacks collided and created an explosion that dispelled the mist below, revealing Weavile and Absol in battle and their owners calling out attacks.
While Misdreavus and Flygon circled and bombarded each other with their attacks, Weavile and Absol were charging at each other. Aaron and Kai commanded their pokémon to both use Night Slash. Weavile's claws glowed bright crimson while Absol's glowed whitish-purple and they both rushed at each other. Kai directed Weavile to also use Agility to get behind Absol. Weavile sped around him and attacked Absol's back.
"Absol, dodge it!" Aaron cried out to him but he was a bit late. Absol quickly followed with his eyes the white trail of energy that Weavile left behind and when he realized Weavile was behind him, he jumped to his right to avoid it. Weavile's Night Slash clawed Absol, who had not been quick enough, on its left side. He skidded a bit to turn back to Absol and prepared for the next command he was given. Weavile used Agility to jump high into the air and while diving back down towards Absol, pulled back his right fist. The said fist was suddenly surrounded by a blizzard and turned icy white. While Weavile was falling, he aimed at Absol while he was still recovering from the Night Slash.
Aaron then called out to Absol and told him to use Detect. Absol's eyes glowed blue and saw where Weavile would hit and how to avoid it. Absol closed his eyes and opened them again to reveal that his eyes had turned back to normal. Looking up, the Disaster Pokémon saw the oncoming Weavile and jumped away to dodge the Ice Punch attack. Absol was getting ready to use Bite when Misdreavus rushed in front of him and started to circle him, which caused Absol to pause in confusion as to what was going on. Suddenly, he and Missy were both hit by a powerful gust of wind with silver crescents in it. This attack did four times the damage to Absol than it did to Misdreavus due to type-disadvantage.
Missy had been flying away from Flygon's Silver Wind to avoid it and saw an opportunity to damage another enemy. Flynn was relentlessly following and attacking Misdreavus and didn't see where she was headed. This accidentally caused her to attack her own teammate as well as her intended target. Misdreavus recovered from the attack quickly as it wasn't very effective and she charged at Flygon who had stopped her attack, which helped Missy hit Flynn's underside directly. A white beam of energy came out of Flygon's back which came around to Misdreavus and engulfed her in an aura-like light. After it dimmed, Missy had noticeably healed from some of her injuries while Flynn seemed to become weaker than before.
Kai saw an opportunity to damage Flygon after Misdreavus's Pain Split attack and ordered Weavile to use Ice Punch again. Weavile jumped again with Agility and hit Flygon directly on her back with his icy fist. As the Ice-type attack made contact, it began to freeze over Flynn's body and her wings were soon disabled. Flygon started falling straight to the arena ground in a sort of free-fall movement and couldn't break free of the ice. Flynn soon became well acquainted with the floor of the battlefield and the landing broke the ice surrounding her. Not that it did much good since Flynn looked ready to pass out with that Ice-type move being extremely effective.
Following Beau's commands, Missy formed a dark purple and black ball in front of her open mouth. She then fired it at Flygon to finish her off when Absol stepped in front of the attack, barely damaged by the Ghost-type move. Absol then opened its powerful jaws to use Bite on Misdreavus, which with the ability Super Lucky, turned it into a critical hit. Absol only released Misdreavus when Weavile's Metal Claw attacked him. Misdreavus flew away as far as she could while Weavile continued to attack Absol relentlessly with glowing white claws, which were being counterattacked with Razor Wind. Missy then faced Flynn again as she flew up in the air and started flapping her wings rapidly. A cyclone of purple wind was released towards Misdreavus and she just fired another Shadow Ball against the Ominous Wind. The black and purple sphere went through the Ghost-type attack, dispersing it with a large air tunnel following the Shadow Ball, and hit Flygon's underside.
"Missy, follow up with Psybeam to finish it off!" Beau called out to Missy and her eyes turned multi-colored. She launched Psybeam from eyes to Flynn while her defenses were lowered. When the Psychic-type attack hit Flynn, she got confused and lost her sense of direction. Flying downwards, Flynn finally landed on the ground with a powerful hit. As Flygon fainted, Gregory raised his red flag and determined that Flynn unable to battle.
"Damn it; Flynn return!" Marco grimaced as the red beam from the pokéball engulfed his Flygon and made her disappear from the battlefield. Marco looked over at his partner and encouraged him to beat the hell out of the Blue Team. Aaron nodded in agreement and told Absol to use Bite and follow up with Night Slash. Absol launched towards Misdreavus while knocking Weavile out of the way as he went. Missy's eyes glowed yellow, as it was about to use Charge Beam but flinched when Absol attacked her. He shook her around for a bit and threw Misdreavus in the air. Absol's claws glowed whitish-purple as he jumped to attack the Screech Pokémon. Missy took a few critical hits from Absol before Weavile attacked him with Metal Claw.
"Misdreavus is unable to battle!" Gregory shouted as he raised his green flag. Beau quickly returned Missy back to her Pokéball and settled for cheering on his best friend. "They're both evenly matched and neither has a type-advantage over the other. Weavile's advantage: His health and speed. Absol's advantage: His ability and attack." Beau analyzed in his mind, "Strategy is the only way someone can win this. Of course, Weavile has a wide range of different type attacks while Absol only has Dark and Normal." Beau made his way over to the sidelines sitting next to Marco. He was greeted with a short wave as he sat next to him. Beau asked Marco whom he thought was going to win the match but he shrugged instead. Being the polite person he is, Marco just lightly commented how both were incredibly talented trainers.
Looking back to the match, Marco and Beau saw Weavile using Agility to escape a Razor Wind attack but was soon followed and hit by Absol's Pursuit. He quickly turned around to his attacker and both of them went into a Night Slash battle. This caused Beau to face palm, which made Marco give him a questioning look. Noticing Marco's quizzical expression, Beau explained that Night Slash was a Dark-type move and wouldn't be very effective against either of them. Kai must have realized this as he suddenly turned his Night Slash into Metal Claw, which did better damage. With a lucky swipe, Weavile was able to knock Absol back a bit. Enough room for him to power-up an Icy Wind and freeze a portion of Absol's left side, making him unable to move his left front leg.
With Razor Wind being Absol's only option, his head's scythe lit up and a whirlwind surrounded it. Absol swung his head a few times to launch many attacks from where he stood. Weavile was hit by the first few energy crescents but used Agility to dodge the others while getting closer. With his right fist, Weavile summoned an Ice Punch while his left hand created a Metal Claw. When Weavile reached his target, who still continued to shoot Razor Wind, he gave an Ice Punch right cross and a Metal Claw left hook, which knocked Absol out.
"Absol is unable to battle! With Red Team having no more usable pokémon, Blue Team wins!" Gregory announced. Beau jumped out of his seat and started running toward Kai cheering loudly. Marco, on the other hand, chose to walk calmly to the center of the field. Beau pulled Kai into a congratulatory hug and then gave Aaron and Marco both firm handshakes.
"Awesome battle, you guys! I'll be asking for a rematch soon." Aaron grinned to his friends, "Just let me teach Absol a few new moves and you'll see." Chuckling a bit, Beau agreed sarcastically to tease the younger teen. The group of friends shared a few more laughs and taunts before being interrupted by a steady but clear clapping. They all turned around to face quite the surprise visitor.
"Mr. Steven Stone?" They all gasped in astonishment and looked to one another. After their initial shock, Kai asked the question that was all on their minds: "What are you doing here?"
"I came to deliver a message but instead found an intense and passionate match. It's nice to see that the Elite Four Boys don't go a day without training," Steven commented. "Anyway, the message was that all of you are to pack up and prepare to leave in the morning. A private plane shall be waiting for you on top of Ever Grande Tower to take you to Slateport City. From there, you'll get on a ship along with the other Trainees of the Hoenn League."
"It's that time of year again isn't it?" Marco quickly noted, "We're going to Trainer High."
"Ugh… return of teachers that are way overpaid," Beau sighed.
"Also the over-competitive classmates," Kai added annoyingly.
"Don't forget the superficial bit—" Aaron tried to include but was interrupted by Marco swiftly stepping on his right foot. Marco ignored Aaron's infuriated expression and motioned for Mr. Stone to continue. Steven explained that there have a few changes upon entering and about Trainer High. The first alteration being that they need the signatures from their respective Trainer on a document to verify that the student is their trainee. He then handed them each what looked like a school ID card. It had their names, their Trainer's name, age & birthday, a Masterball to signify their program at Trainer High, and other basic info. The card even included a photo of each of them on the top right-hand corner.
"Wait a minute," Aaron grimaced at his ID, "I don't remember taking a picture; especially wearing that!" All of them were wearing semi-formal attire in their ID photos. Aaron was wearing an annoyed expression on his face that clearly showed that someone had forced him into the outfit. The other boys didn't seem to mind and actually smiled in their respective photos.
"I mean, I think I would remember wearing a black vest and a red dress shirt. Oh god, I look like Sidney! Why do I look Sidney?" Aaron turned to the trio of boys for them to explain. Marco was trying to keep a straight face, out of politeness, while Kai and Beau were trying to suppress their snickering. Beau was the first to break and burst out laughing but was quickly followed by his best friend. Marco ended up chuckling behind his right hand, which he brought to his lips to cover his mouth.
"We took these pictures earlier in the summer but you don't quite remember it because you knocked out," Marco started to explain since the older boys were clearly in no condition to do so, "Notice how your photo's brightness is lighter than ours. Our photographer had a new Pichu and you were its first job. Although when Pichu used Flash, it was bright enough to knock you out for the rest of the day. The following morning you couldn't remember anything from the previous day and you kept knocking into things as well." Aaron scowled and rolled his eyes as if to say, "Of course it had to be me." Steven took this as the time to tell them that dinner was now being served in the dining hall. As if on cue, some of the boys' stomachs growled and they all raced to get food, all of them being excited for what was to come tomorrow.
Kai was jolted awake from his nap by the private plane shaking about, his eyes wide with fear of falling from the sky. His whole body stiffened and Kai gripped the armchairs at the thought of crashing and of what would most likely happen to him afterward. Kai looked over when he felt a hand on his arm and saw Beau giving him a worried glanced. He reminded Kai that planes want to stay in the air and that it's just a bit of turbulence. Kai nodded his head and relaxed into his seat a bit while turning to look out of his window. Unfortunately, they had already passed Kai's hometown so he wouldn't be able to see it on their flight to Slateport City, which was now coming into view.
"May all passengers please returns to their seats and fasten their seat belts. We are about to descend into Slateport Interregional Airport in around ten minutes. Thank you for joining us today on Ever Grande One." The man's voice over the intercom sounded different but still recognizable as Gregory. Aaron stuck his tongue out at the intercom as he walked back from the snack bar. He was thoroughly surprised when Gregory stated that he saw Aaron but Kai figured he just predicted his antics.
When they landed at the airport, there was a limo already waiting there for them, which Gregory took the wheel of. After they put everything in the back, they headed to Slateport Harbor with the rest of Hoenn Trainees, familiar and new. The boys were excited to see their old friends, meet the newbies, and just the whole next school year in general. A group of teenagers had gathered near the edge of the dock as they arrived. Apparently, the ship hadn't arrived just yet so it didn't matter that the boys were late.
They took their things out of the trunk and Gregory drove off but not before telling them to try not to burn down the school again. "Jeez, one time! And it was an accident! Can't people forget about it yet?" Beau thought in his head as Marco and Aaron left to search for their friends. Kai and Beau were just about to do the same when a blur of bright red hair tackled Kai to the ground.
"Oh my Arceus! Kai, I haven't seen you in forever," Cried out the teenage girl that knocked the wind out of Kai. He got them to stand up but was still being tightly hugged by his energetic friend.
"Kenna, I'm right here you know?" Beau stated in an attempt to free his best friend from the girl's vice grip. Upon hearing his voice, Kenna released Kai, straightened her white headband, and proceeded to pulled Beau into a tight hug as well. As Kai regained his strength, he stated that it had barely been two weeks since they last saw her for her birthday celebration.
"But you guys are so far away," Kenna argued as she let go of Beau, "You two are off on your little island all the way across the region!"
"Well now you get to see us for another school year," Beau explained, "Our last school year here..." Kenna's smile dampened a bit but she soon pepped right back up, stating that they had to make the most of it then.
"This year is going to be different. I can feel it burning in my soul!" Kenna shouted while staring off into the distance. The two boys raised their eyebrows at her and gave her odd stares. She noticed their expressions and Beau just stated that she's been spending way too much time with Flannery.
"Well, that's because you two are across the region!" Kenna restated while Beau thought annoyed, "Not this again." He started to drag his things to a luggage pile that the other teens made as Kenna started going off again and Kai quickly followed suit to get rid of the unwanted weight as well as to not be left alone with the ranting hot-headed girl. As they dumped their stuff, the ship that was going to take them to Trainer High finally docked. To everyone's surprised, they were all facing the S.S. Tidal.
"Wow, the Pokémon Association got us this?!" Beau heard a voice in the crowd say. It came from a dark blue-haired boy with an eye-patch and a laptop he currently had open. "This is the best ship in all of Hoenn! Although it was completed in 2003, it's actually still annually renovated..." The boy kept spouting facts to his friend but was drowned out by others starting to talk. Beau was paying attention to the staircase that descended from the ship's side. "Port. Or is it Starboard... Ugh, I hate ship talk." Beau thought to himself. The staircase ended next to a conveniently placed desk that had an attendant sitting behind it. She stated that she'd be checking their IDs before they board as it doubles as their ticket.
Beau lined up after Kenna and Kai and the attendant checked their cards as the owners announced who they were. She swiftly went through the three of them and welcomed them aboard. The trio grabbed their cards as well as the room keys and started up the stairs into the ferry. It took them awhile but they finally found the fifth floor and the correct hallway. Unfortunately, they ran into a problem immediately. Only two of the keys opened to window rooms while the last one would be an indoor room. Beau, being the one carrying the keys, grabbed a key and dropped the others while running into the nearest room.
"Haha suckers!" Beau taunted them from behind the locked door of his room. Kenna and Kai glanced at the keys on the floor and then back at each other. They both reached for the last key for the window room in a split second but ended up bonking their heads together. In the end, it was decided between a match of Rock-Paper-Scissors; "Five out of Nine!" Kenna insisted. Kai revealed to be victorious and gleefully opened his door while Kenna grumbled as she entered her indoor room. "Yup, good start to the year already," Kai said to himself as he lay down on the wave patterned mattress, "Can't wait for the rest of Trainer High."