Chapter 2: It had to be that Pokémon
I glanced down at the exam that had been placed in front of me, my heart was beating so fast that it felt like it was humming. I gazed at my three friends around me, Zoey was still smiling whilst twirling her pencil around her fingers, Alex looked completely uninterested in what was happening and I all I could see off Clark was his huge back, as if knowing I was staring at him he slyly turned around and gave me a thumbs up. I felt myself calming down a little after seeing my friends so calm and collected.
"Alright ladies and gentlemen it is now eleven 'o clock, you have four hours to complete the exam, as you already know the first third of your test is a personality exam, the rest of your paper is the actual exam that I hope you have all prepared for" Professor Elm explained as he looked around the room at all of us. "If you require more paper to write on please raise your hand and wait for assistance, if you finish early please raise your hand so we can collect your paper from you, you may then proceed to leave, however please be reminded that you must be back here at four 'o clock for your practical exam. That is all I have to say good luck"
The room came alive with sounds of papers rustling and pens scraping against pages as everyone turned over their exam and begun answering the questions. Alright question 1 if you were a fruit what fruit would you be and why? I don't know probably a coconut cause I'm small and tough on the outside and on the inside.
Question 35, what is the strength of Blastoise cannons? Easy it's 90000 PSI.
Question 58, what is the name of the world in which the legendary Pokémon Giratina resides? Ahhhhhh I can't remember, I think it started with a d, dis something, what was it? I think it was distortion world, I'm just going to write distortion world.
A while later….
Finally I'm done. I looked around to see most of the room had already emptied. Wow I didn't notice anyone leaving. I looked to my left to see Bloom and Gloom had already left the venue. Clark was still seated in front of me. I raised my hand in the air and waited for my paper to be collected as I waited I glanced at the clock, the hands were positioned at half past two.
When my paper was collected I quietly got up and walked out of Elm's lab. As I exited the building I saw teens sprawled out everywhere as if they had been through war, everyone looked exhausted. I searched through the crowd for Bloom and Gloom, I eventually found them under the shade of a large oak tree occupying an old withered picnic bench.
As I walked closer I saw that Gloom was lying across the table of the picnic bench sleeping and Bloom who was usually so full of energy was laying on one of the benches with her right arm across her eyes.
"What did you ladies think?" I asked taking a similar positen to Bloom on the opposite bench of the picnic bench. Bloom let out a moan while Gloom raised her one hand and moved it from side to side in an okay gesture. "Fuck I know right, those math questions were so hard and those Pokémon mythology questions killed me. I mean why do we even need to know Pokémon mythology? I can make my peace with calculating how long it would take mega Charizard x's flamethrower to strike a target ten meters away, because that kind of stuff is helpful in a Pokémon contests and battle situations, but how is Pokémon lore suppose to help?" I complained massaging my temples with my hands.
Bloom let out a moan which I assumed was her way of agreeing with me and Gloom just gave me a thumbs up. We sat in silence for a few minutes listing to the chirps of Pidgeys in the tree above us.
"There you guys are," Clark greeted us as he leaned against the dark trunk of the oak tree.
"Man that exam was tough" Clark said not sounding exhausted at all.
I used all of my energy to pick up my head and look at Clark "How do you still sound and look so energetic? Aren't you at ll tired from that exam a?" I questioned Clark
"I don't know, I guess a good work out mental or physical always gets me pumped up and ready for action. I feel like I could run a marathon or get a quick session done at the gym a human gym not a Pokémon gym," he explained as he shadow boxed the trunk of the tree.
I let my head fall back onto the bench with an audible thud "Owww" I muttered as I heard Gloom giggling enjoying my pain.
"Oh by the way guys what did you put for the what fruit would you be question? Clark asked as he begun doing push-ups.
"I said a coconut cause I'm tough on the outside and inside" I answered.
"I said a peach cause I'm cuddly and soft and everybody loves me" Bloom answered in her usual chirpy voice not using moans to communicate anymore.
"I said a tomato because I don't fit in" Gloom answered emotionlessly.
"Wow that's genius, that description fits you perfectly," I said.
"I know Harv that's why I wrote it" she replied.
"What about my fruit doesn't it fit me perfectly?" Bloom whined
I couldn't see her face but I knew she was pouting and making those puppy Poochyena eyes "Yes yes your fruit also fits you perfectly" I quickly replied trying to placate her. "What did you say Clark?" I asked Clark.
"I said a banana cause I'm tough on the outside and filled with energy" he replied proudly as he now took up the sit up position and begun doing sit-ups.
"Dude please stop you're making me tired by just watching you" I complained
Clark continued his routine "Tough, maybe if you joined me when I worked out you'd be filled of energy like me" he replied.
"I'm not in that bad shape I mean I do come and work out with you like twice a week" I said trying to justify my lack of exercising.
He turned over and took up the plank position "If you want to look like me you should be excersising every day like me" He replied as he lifted his body off the ground to start the plank.
"Ladies, ladies you're both beautiful know can you both shut up I need to rest before the practical" Alex scolded us giving us a murderous look.
"Sorry" we both muttered in unison.
"You guys take a nap I'll wake you guys up ten minutes before we need to get back" Clark said as he started doing squats.
"Thanks" I said as I let out a huge yawn and dozed off.
Where am I now? Just like my last dream it was pitch black but this time it was freezing cold causing me to shiver. I was taking long deep breaths as it was getting very hard to breath. "Hello, weird voice creature thing are you there?" I called out to the dark void.
In response all I heard was a deep rumble it sounded like the voice was snickering.
"Harvey wake up! Harvey wake up! HARVEY!" yelled a voice pulling me out of my dream.
"I'm up," I said startled, my vision cleared and I saw Clark in front of me.
"You alright man?" he asked his one hand on my shoulder.
"Yeah I'm good" I said as I rubbed my eyes and got off the bench. I turned to see Bloom and Gloom were already up and ready to go.
"Well now that everyone is up shall we go?" Bloom suggested with her bright smile.
We all nodded in agreement and took off for Elm's Lab.
"Hey I've been wondering why do we even need to take a personality test? I mean surely it has nothing to do with being a good trainer?" Clark asked as we walked back to Elm's.
"Actually it does" I said "the personality test determines if you're mentally strong enough to deal with the pressures of being a trainer"
"And to make sure that no psychopaths become trainers" Gloom deadpanned.
"So aren't you worried they won't allow you to become a trainer than?" I said to Gloom.
Her only response was giving me the middle finger.
"I love you to Alex" I said sweetly.
"Harvey I swear to god I will kill you" Gloom said with a murderous glare in her eyes.
"Yes you are clearly demonstrating a non psychopathic behavior" I said as I continued to tease her.
"That's it!" she said as she smoothly bended down picked up a stone with her one hand and with one smooth movement flung the stone at me, hitting me squarely in-between my eyes,
"OWW!" I whined as I rubbed the spot where the rock hit me.
Bloom shook her head in disappointment "Why must you poke the Ursaring Harvey?" Bloom asked.
I shrugged my shoulders. This actually was normal for us, Clark or I would get Alex worked up and then she would make us feel immense pain. It's especially hilarious to see Clark cowering from a girl half his size.
We arrived at the Elm's lab shortly and returned to our assigned seats.
"Hello once again ladies and gentlemen" Professor Elm greeted us "I hope you are all ready for the next part of the examination, the practical" there was a murmur of excitement from the crowd. "You will each be divided into five groups of ten, each group will then be escorted to different parts of the town where a battling area has been set up for you. You will be given a Pokémon to battle with and you will then be scored accordingly to your battle. Remember just cause you lose does not mean you fail we are more looking at the strategies you employ and how you handle pressure in a Pokémon battle winning the battle just means you will score extra points, incidentally the same goes for winning, winning does not guarantee you a pass. The battles will be scored by the person that escorts you to your designated area. The examiners are myself and these four gentlemen to my left here" Professor Elm said raising his hand to indicate four people to his left strangely each one wore a number around their neck starting from two and going down to five.
"They are officials from the Pokémon league and have been doing this for years. Now if you'll look at your desks you will find a brown envelope in the envelope you will find a number from one to five, this number indicates which group you are in. Group one will be escorted and scored by yours truly the others will be escorted and marked by one of these four gentlemen just follow the gentlemen who's number corresponds with the number you have. You may now open you're envelope we'll be waiting for you outside we leave in five minutes good luck to everyone" Elm concluded as he and the four other men exited the building.
I opened my envelope to find the number one inside. I looked at my friends and showed them what number I was holding, to my complete surprise the four of them were holding up identical numbers to mine. "What are the odds?" I said.
"Oh my god this is so awesome we're all together" Bloom chimed in.
"Yay" Gloom deadpanned.
"Ok let me do a quick head count one, two….nine. Where's the tenth person?" Professor Elm asked.
"Right here Prof" came a voice from underneath a tree.
"No not him why did it have to be him?" Clark asked looking up at the sky.
I just shook my head in response to finding out the identity of the tenth member of our group.
"Ah Mr. Steel could you be so kind as to join us?" Professor Elm asked.
From the shadow of the tree emerged Luke, "Off cause Prof as future champion I wouldn't dream of missing this."
"Alright now that we are all here let's go" Professor Elm said leading the ten of us to our designated area.
Luke immediately dropped to the back off the group walking just in front of the four of us. "So Zoey you and me tonight movies at my place, what do you say?" he asked Zoey as he ran his fingers threw his bright red hair.
"Umm…..Thanks Luke but no thanks I have plans with my friends tonight" Bloom replied.
"Come on Zoe why hang out with these losers when you can hang out with the future champion of Kanto and Jhoto. I'll show you a good time" he said suggestively.
His comment made Zoey turn a bright shade of red "umm….Like I said before….. I have plans and even if I didn't I'd still say no" she replied nervously.
"Are you sure," he said as he attempted to put his arm around Zoey.
"Ok that's enough she said no now leave her alone" I said as I grabbed the hand he was trying to put around Zoey.
"Or what huh? What are you going to do to a guy who is twice your size, wuss?" he said shaking pulling his arm out of my grip.
"I'll… ummm….or I'll" I stuttered
"He'll punch you square in the face and then when he's done I'll pummel you into the ground" Clark said intervening and saving me in the progress.
"Whoa what's with all the violence I was just kidding "Luke said raising his hands in defense. He looked terrified at the thought of having to go toe to toe with Clark.
"Is there a problem back there?" asked professor Elm who had just noticed the commotion.
"No prof, there's no problem back here" he said backing away slowly from us and made his way to the front of the group.
"Thanks guys" Bloom said looking relieved.
"You're welcome Zoe" I said.
"Lucky you guys stepped in or else I would off castrated him right there" Alex said without a hint of emotion in her voice.
"I can't tell if she's joking" I whispered to Clark.
"We'll have to wait for the results of her personality test to know for sure" he replied whispering
"Hey thanks for stepping in and saving me there" I said still whispering.
"No problem I'll always have your back bro"
What's wrong with me? Why do I always freeze up in situations like that? I acted like such a wuss I thought to myself remembering that same word Luke used earlier. It actually wasn't the first time he called me a wuss, but it was the first time I actually considered that he might be right. What would I have done if Clark wasn't there to help dig me out of that hole? I thought glancing at my friend.
"Here we are" Professor Elm announced pulling me out of my thoughts. Professor Elm had brought us to the edge of town where a Pokémon battling ground had been set up. In each box where a trainer has to stand in during a Pokémon battle a pc had been set up. Already standing in one of the trainer boxes was a man dressed in a black suit and red tie. "Your opponent will be that man over there" he said pointing to the man in the suit. "He is also an official from the Pokémon league. When you are called you will approach the pc and click random, the pc will then select a random Pokémon for you to use in the battle. The Pokémon you will be using to battle have all been approved to be used by beginners. Your opponent will also be using a random Pokémon in each battle, once the pc has chosen your Pokémon you will then have five minutes to analyze your Pokémon's move set and familiarize yourself with it. Once five minutes are up your battle will begin"
"As this is still an exam those of you who are not battling must wait in that tent over there until you are called upon. Does everyone understand" he asked. No one said a word so professor Elm continued "Good, once you have completed your battle you must return to my lab to await your results of the examination. The first person to take on the practical is Miss Queen, the rest of you could you please head to the tent and wait for me to call you" he said.
"I'll see you guys in a bit" Alex said following Professor Elm.
"Wait!" Zoey yelled latching herself onto the less than pleased Alex "Good luck Lex, I believe in you" she said.
"Yeah whatever…..good luck to you to Zoe I guess since I won't see you before your battle" she replied trying to pry Bloom of her "And good luck to you two also, you better not lose or else" she said giving Clark and I a deadly stare.
"Good Luck Lex" Clark said
"Yeah Good luck, see you on the other side" I said as Alex walked away giving us a wave.
"Come on let's go to the tent" I suggested.
The next hour went by in a blur as people were called up to battle and the number of people in the tent got smaller and smaller. We entertained ourselves by making idle chit chat waiting our turn. Zoey was the fifth person called to battle, Luke was the sixth eventually it was just me and Clark left in the tent.
"Ahh I feel like I'm going to throw up" I complained to Clark.
"It's just the nerves you'll be fine" Clark replied as he continued to do his squat jumps.
"I will never understand how you can just working out in situations like this" I said watching Clark doing his squat jumps. This was actually Clark's sixth exercise he'd done since being in the tent. He just shrugged his shoulders and smiled as he continued his work out.
"So which sponsor would you want if you could choose?" I asked trying to distract myself from the upcoming battle.
Clark stopped his work out "Honestly there's only two that I'd love to be sponsored by"
"Which two"
"I'd love to be sponsored by Stone Enterprises or the Chaos Control Corporation" he said.
"Chaos Control I could of guessed since everyone wants to join them but I would have never guessed Stone Enterprises" I said.
"Yeah you know how I love Steven Stone why would I pass on the opportunity to work for him or possibly with him" he said with stars in his eyes.
I laughed feeling all my nerves leave.
"Harvey Reus we're ready for you" Professor Elm said his head poking through the entrance of the tent.
"I'll be there in a sec Professor Elm" I said he nodded his head and left the tent.
"Well I guess I'm up. Good luck for your battle" I said holding out my hand to Clark.
He grasped my hand said "Good luck I'll see you back at the lab and don't lose or else Gloom will kill you" he said as we both chuckled.
As I walked to the battle ground I tried to psych myself up Alright I've come this far all I have to do is win this Pokémon battle, that's all then I can start my journey to become the champion I walked into the trainer box and stood next to the pc. Let's do this!
I clicked random on the pc and watched my opponent do the same. Please be a good Pokémon I prayed. NO! NO! WHY? Of all the Pokémon! WHY! The gods must be playing some sick joke on me.
"Are you okay Mr. Reus?" asked Professor Elm looking at me with concern.
"I'm fine Professor" I replied as I looked back at the Pokémon the pc had chosen for me. On the screen was the one Pokémon I did not want, a Rattata. Oh my god! Just why did they give me one of the worst Pokémon in the world. Okay Harvey calm down you've got to do this. Alright let's see what this thing can do. I clicked on to the picture of Rattata to see his move set. Alright you have the ability guts and can perform the moves tail whip, double edge, quick attack, hyper fang and focus energy. I pressed the button on the pc to transfer the Rattata to me. The pokéball materialized in front of me and I released the Rattata from his pokéball. "Alright Rattata" I said bending down on one knee" I can't believe I'm saying this but I need your help, in order for me to become a professional trainer I need to beat that guy" I said pointing at my opponent "Can you please help me achieve my dream?" I asked extending my hand to him.
The Rattata looked at me curiously and tilted his head to the side after a few seconds he turned his back on me. My heart dropped as the Rattata turned his back on me, I was about to take my hand back when I realized that the Rattata was offering me his tail, I smiled and shook his tail with my hand and returned him to his pokéball.
"Are you ready?" asked Professor Elm. I nodded at him "Alright battle number nine may no commence, competitors may now send out their Pokémon"
"Let's go Rattata!" I yelled throwing my pokéball releasing Rattata.
"Rattata!"
"Go Oddish" my opponent said releasing an Oddish.
"Oddish!"
"Harvey as the challenger you may have the first move" Professor Elm said.
"Rattata use Focus energy" I commanded, Rattata took a deep breath and a purple aura surrounded his body.
"Oddish use Lucky chant" my opponent commanded, Oddish begun chanting to the sky and a strange energy begun to appear around it.
"Quick Rattata use quick attack and stop Oddish from completing its chant."
Bright white energy surrounded Rattata as he ran at an incredible speed at Oddish. Just before Rattata could strike Oddish deep green tentacles made of aura appeared from Oddish's body and stopped the quick attack from hitting.
"Oddish use poison powder"
"Rattata get out of there now"
It was too late Oddish released its poison powder from close range causing Rattata to become poisoned.
Shit what do I do now? As long as that lucky chant is active I can't touch Oddish and in the meantime Rattata will slowly lose health.
"Rattata get as far away as you can from Oddish"
"Not so fast! Oddish use giga drain to stop Rattata from escaping,"
Three green tendrils made of energy came out of Oddish's head and wrapped around Rattata holding him down, preventing him from escaping.
What do I do? I thought as I watched helplessly as Rattata health was drained by giga drain and more health was lost through poison. There's nothing I can do. I've lost, my dream is over before its even started I felt tears welling up in my eyes.
Are you just going to give up like that? Luke was right you are a wuss giving up before you've really tried said a familiar voice in my head.
No that's not true I'm not a wuss I'm going to be a future champion and no one is going to stop me I yelled in my mind. All of a sudden I felt something strange time seemed to slow down around me and then as if something in my mind snapped reality returned to normal time and everything became clearer.
"Rattata use hyper fang on those tendrils around you!" I yelled with new conviction in my voice.
"Rat" he replied as his fangs grew in size as he bit into the tendrils freeing himself.
"Now Rattata use tail whip on Oddish"
My opponent smiled and nodded in approval at my plan.
"Oddish use giga drain and stop Rattata"
"Rattata use quick attack to dodge giga drain and then use tail whip"
Rattata surrounded itself in the bright white energy from before but now the edges were tainted with red indicating that his ability, guts, had kicked in. His speed tripled as he bobbed and weaved through the giga drain tendrils trying to grab him eventually reaching Oddish and hit her with his tail.
The lucky chant tendrils didn't move to stop Rattata's attack. Yes just as I thought. Those lucky chant tendrils wouldn't react to tail whip as it lowered a Pokémon's defense and did no damage.
"Rattata I know you're tired but you need to keep up your attack and wait till lucky chant wears out"
"Rattata" he responded with what was I believe a grin. He kept up the combination of tail whip and quick attack, Rattata's natural speed combined with quick attack was too much for Oddish to handle as it was unable to keep up with his blazing speed.
I noticed that Rattata was getting really tired the poison was really eating his health up "Keep up the great work Rattata you can do it, luck chant should wear off any second now" as if on cue the lucky chant tendrils disappeared from Oddish leaving it defenseless. "Now's our chance use double edge and finish this with one hit," Bright yellow energy surrounded Rattata as he took off running with all his might at Oddish.
"Quickly Oddish set up another lucky chant" my opponent yelled worry written all over his face.
"Hurry Rattata finish this before Oddish can complete its luck chant"
"RATTATA!" he yelled and somehow found the energy to move even faster. I just hope that all those tail whips combined with guts will be enough to finish Oddish in one hit.
"Oddish try and dodge it"
Oddish jumped into the air trying to dodge the double-edge but Rattata jumped after it and landed the hit in the sky. Oddish was sent flying to the other side of the battling area skidding across the ground. Rattata landed on the ground and winced feeling the recoil damage from double-edge.
I watched with bated breath to see if Oddish would return to its feet, Oddish did not return to its feet.
"Oddish is unable to battle the winner is Harvey and Rattata" Professor Elm announced.
"I DID IT! I WON MY FIRST POKEMON BATTLE" I yelled in excitement grabbing Rattata and giving him a hug. "You did awesome Rattata you've got to be the strongest Rattata ever," Rattata seemed to blush at the complement before feinting from the effects of poison.
I returned Rattata to his pokéball "Thank you Rattata I'll never forget what you did for me" I said as I returned him to the pc.
Author's Note:
First Pokémon battle I've ever written, what did you guys think? Originally I was going to start the next chapter with the battle but it didn't feel right ending it before the battle started so I moved it to this chapter.
If you want to submit an oc the form is up on my profile page.
I'd like to thank my first two followers for this story, thank you so much you guys rock btw you are also my first followers ever since this is my first story.
So Harvey has completed his examination, but has he done enough to pass? Has anyone done enough to pass in the group? Find out next time.
And as always thank you for reading my story.
