Salutations people. I have to say I actually really enjoyed writing this chapter. It was short and straightforward, not too many side details like the last two chapters and I hope that future chapters will be more like this
Released: 11/4/2017
Updated:12/3/2017
The three friend's joined Odella's local tournament yesterday with Zack winning an electric-gem. Today is a different day however. The trio arrive at a battle facility in Odella Town hosting the examinations for the Pokémon Academy in Holon City. What test awaits the three today?
"So this is the place." Zack looked at the battle facility with Pichu on his shoulder.
It was one of the larger buildings in town, one of white marble similar to the research lab. They saw lines of kids waiting to be tested, many of them with their Pokémon standing next to them, on their shoulders, and even a few tiny ones on top of their heads. The three were surprised how many people came to the facility today.
"It looks like the entire town showed up!" Opal was astonished at the size of the lines.
"Man. We should've came early. The lines are long!" Zack did not like the looks of this.
"Should've gotten in line at least 30 minutes early." A girl with short chest-nut hair, sporting a black shirt with "Roxie!" in purple, blue jeans, and plastic dog tags around her neck, spoke. Right next to the girl was a blue penguin.
"Piplup!" The Penguin proudly crossed its arms.
"It's so cute!" Opal noticed the little Penguin. She quickly got out her Pokedex, scanning it.
"Scanning…" The Pokedex lit up. "Piplup. The Penguin Pokémon. A water-type. Piplup are normally found living along the shores of northern countries. A skilled swimmer, it dives for over 10 minutes to hunt. However on land, it is a quick walker that often trips itself. Despite it's somewhat clumsy nature, Piplup's strong pride make it's chest puff up without a care for others."
"Pi?" The curious Pichu hopped down from Zack's shoulder to examine the Piplup.
"Piplup!" Piplup moved forward, tapping its feet to the ground marking its boundaries.
"Piplup. Don't do that." Riley sighed.
"Pip." Pip proudly turned its head away, arms crossed.
"Chu?" Pichu wondering what its deal is.
"Roxie?" Benny noticed the shirt. "You a fan of the Unova rock star too?"
"Sure I am. Names Riley by the way. You here for the exams?"
"Pretty much. Is there any way to get in and out faster?" Zack said.
"Tough luck. It wouldn't be fair with the other people in line if you did managed to find a way." She sighed. "Plus, it's not like you're in an emergency or anything.
"Yeah… I guess so." Zack sighed looking onto the size of the line. "Well. I guess the sooner we get in line, the sooner we get in."
The three waited in line as the sky turned orange.
"Finally." Zack was sweating non-stop from the heat, laying his hands on the counter inside.
"Okay little man." A 6-foot tall mustachio man, sporting a sweat suit, saw the kid. The mustachio man spoke in a rather strong foreign dialect. "Is anyone tagging along with you?"
"Me, Opal, and Benny."
"Hmm… okay." The man got some papers. "Just sign this paper work here and we can start the computer examinations."
"Computer examinations? I thought it was done through a battle."
"You must've missed details. First is computer exam than battle exam. It's quite easy. It's a toned-down version of the exams for the Pokémon league meant for new trainers like you." He said.
"Well… okay." Zack looked at the paper work.
EXAM ROUND 1 DING! DING!
"Okay little boys and little girls." The mustachio man from the counter spoke. He stood before rows of desks, each with two kids behind a desk, some with their Pokémon hanging about, sitting behind computers. "It is simple test. This is a easier version of the Pokémon League exams, the same exams for veteran trainers who don't feel the need to battle all eight gym leaders to get in the league. The first part will be your knowledge and identification of Pokémon through these computers and the second part is to test your knowledge through battle. Understood? Good! The exam starts… now!"
Zack looked at the first question on the computer.
"What is this Pokémon?" The computer revealed a silhouette of a ball. "Type in the answer."
"A Voltorb?" Zack typed his answer.
"It's got to be an Electrode." Benny typed his answer.
"Hmm… maybe its Sandshrew curled up?" Opal typed her answer. "Or maybe it really is an Electrode or Voltorb. The test wouldn't trick us right?
"The answer is… a Sandshrew curled up." The computer revealed the answer.
"What?!" Zack said.
"My mind is blown." Benny said.
"Thank you." Opal felt relieved.
"Next question." The computer went on. "This is the Pokémon Klingklang."
An image revealed a Pokémon made up of large gears appeared.
"How many sounds does a Klingklang kling to another Klingklang klang that a Klingklang's klingklang-like sound klang and kling make."
"Um… what?" Zack was confused by the question.
"Maybe 18?" Benny said.
"17." Opal typed.
"The answer is… 17." The computer revealed the answer.
"Whoa." Benny was surprised. "Almost had it."
"Next question." Zack felt disappointing in himself for not knowing this.
"This is a pink jewel. What Pokémon does this jewel belong too." The computer revealed a round pinkish jewel embedded to a Pokémon.
"A Slowking?" Zack recalled Slowking had a pink jewel on its fish-like crown.
"Maybe one of those jewels on the back of a Sableye?" Benny thought.
"An Espeon! That's got to be it!" Opal smiled as she typed her answer.
"Wrong." The computer responded to all three answers. "The answer to what Pokémon does this jewel belong too is… Palkia, the Legendary Ruler of Space and Dimensions that could easily destroy all of reality as we know it." Revealing a large draconic legendary Pokémon with two pearls embedded into its shoulders.
"Are… are you kidding me?" Zack wondered if this test was against him.
"Wow. That never occurred to me." Benny was puzzled by this reveal.
"A legendary Pokémon? Never expected that to be in the test." Opal too was puzzled.
EXAM ROUND 2 DING! DING!
"Oh finally." Zack sighed in relief.
Zack found himself outside of the facility at the back where the battle examinations were taking place. There he saw eight sets of battlefields being used for Pokémon battles. He turned to see his friends watching the battles from bleachers, until they noticed him.
"What took you so long?" Opal saw her old childhood friend looking like he had a headache.
"Oh you know. A test that seems to go against me in every turn. No biggie." Zack sighed in depression at all those wrong answers. "That and there was some issues with my test and they had to re-test me again. Pichu here is pretty sleepy."
Opal and Benny noticed Pichu somehow able to sleep on his shoulder without falling off.
"Luckily for me, I'm here for the battle exams. How are you guys?"
"We already completed our exams Zack." Benny said.
"Really?"
"Yup. Me and Benny lost to the examiners but we still manage to get in the academy. It's a simple 1 vs 3 exam. You can use as many Pokemon as you want but the examiner uses an even stronger Pokémon in return, not too strong though." Opal smiled. "However, I hope you still get your match. It looks like the exams are closing up."
"What?! No. No." Zack looked a little worried. "The foreign guy said I could still take the exam… I think."
"Well I hope he's right. Until you came, Trace over there looked like the last guy taking the test." Benny pointed to the kid from before.
"Trace?" Zack noticed Trace, the last student on one of the eight fields, battling a much older student.
Trace looked pretty frustrated as Cyndaquil was thrown into the air and to the ground. Trace returned the fainted Cyndaquil as the display board nearby showed Cyndaqul's portrait blacked out of three blank protraits.
"Useless!" Trace felt bitterly angry about Cyndaquil's defeat. He picked a different pokeball. "Go! Taillow!"
Out came a jet-blue bird, one that look a lot similar to the Swellow Zack saw during his time in the forest. The display board's blank portrait suddenly filled in with a picture of Taillow's head.
"What kind of Pokémon is that?" Zack scanned the Pokémon
"Scanning…" The Pokedex lit up. "Taillow. The Tiny Swallow Pokémon. A normal-flying type. Taillow are known to be quite courageous. It will take on a larger Skarmory, even after bitter defeat, on equal footing. It is known to cry loudly when hungry."
Zack than turned the Pokedex to the opponent's Pokémon. It was some kind of ghostly cyclops, with two legs onto the ground and hands with no arms. What a bizarre looking Pokémon Zack thought, scanning the ghostly cyclops.
"Scanning…" The Pokedex switched to the ghostly cyclops. "Dusclops. The Beckon Pokémon. A ghost type. Dusclops' entire body is completely hollow. Is it said its body is like a black hole, able to absorb anything, no matter how large the object may be. This Pokémon hypnotizes its foe by waving its hand in a macabre manner and by bringing its single eye to bear. The hypnotized foe is made to do Dusclop's bidding."
"Creepy." Zack commented on Dusclops's entry.
"A Taillow?" The examiner said "Against my Dusclops? No matter! Dusclops! Use substitute!"
The Dusclops plopped into a toy-like dinosaur figure to some people's surprise. Trace wasn't surprised by this familiar tactic.
"Taillow!" Trace ordered. "Use boomburst!"
"Boomburst!? So your Taillow has access to such an extremely powerful move!" The examiner said. "But normal-types aren't effective against ghost-types!"
"That would be the case if my Taillow didn't had scrappy!" Trace said. "Scrappy allows my Taillow to hit any ghost-type Pokémon with any normal-type move!"
"What?!" The examiner looked surprised.
"Not only that. Substitute's negation of attacks has no effect on boomburst, going right past your shield!"
The Taillow puffed its chest up, letting out an extremely massive burst of sound towards the Dusclops. The audience had to hold tightly to their smaller Pokémon to keep them from being blown away by such a strong attack. Dusclops substitute couldn't take it, the doll-like form broke, sending Dusclop flying to the ground. Dusclops lied there knocked out before a victorious Taillow.
"Good job!" The Examiner returned Dusclops. "Welcome to Earl's Academy."
"Thanks." Trace returned Taillow.
Zack looked surprised at that move Trace used. "I didn't know there were moves that can bypass substitute."
"Yeah. Many of the kids here look tough." Benny noticed an array of different trainers from different backgrounds with different Pokemon, including some noticeable large ones.
"Excuse me Eldes sir." The mustachio man from before approached to the man wearing sunglasses sitting on the bleachers. The rather tall red-haired man wore a lab coat and brown trousers as he was reviewing the battle exams on his computer.
"Yes?" Eldes spoke.
"There's one more student and I promised him he could get a chance at the battle exams. He was a little late because some errors with his computer exam." The mustachio man said.
"Cooper!" Eldes shouted a name.
A young skinny boy, wearing glasses, a white T-shirt, and black trousers hurried to the man. "Yes sir?"
"I want you to take part in a battle against… I'm sorry what's the kid's name?" He turned to the mustachio man.
"Zack Forrester. I believe he was the same kid who beat Rex Lascher, the top Pokémon trainer in the eastern part of the Holon region." The mustachio man said.
"That Zack Forrester?" He said. "Well now. That's something you don't hear a lot."
"Um… There was something you wanted me to do?" Cooper reminded Eldes.
"Uh… yes. Could you take part in a battle against Zack Forrester?" He said.
"Can I use my personal Pokémon?" He smiled.
"Sure. He's a tough trainer after all, I bet he'll do fine." Eldes smiled.
Zack found himself in one of the battlefields as many of the students chatted and sat on the bleachers noticed the young boy.
"Would you look at that? There's one last trainer still." A trainer noticed the only trainer on the field, just waiting for his match. "Hey Hector. You think he's any good?"
"I hope so." Hector sighed. He had messy spiky red hair, wore a black vest, underneath it an orange shirt, with a pair of brown shorts. "Everyone's either using overrated Pokémon or using cheap tactics to win. It's so boring."
On another section of the bleachers, one of the girls recognized his face. "Hey? Isn't that the guy that beat your brother, Elise?" A female trainer took a good look at Zack's face.
"What!" A raven-haired girl, in a pink top and blue shorts, eyed the trainer angrily as a little green dragon snored on her lap.
"Still a little angry that your brother lost to some ten year old?" One of the girls teased.
"There's no way my big bro could lose to some newbie trainer." She crossed her arms.
"I don't know man. Your brother looked pretty depressed after that defeat."
"Just… let's just stop talking about it and watch"
On another set of bleachers, Riley sat alongside some friends and noticed the kid from before. Beside her was a vigilant Piplup carefully watching the competition.
"Oh it's that kid from before." Riley noticed Zack, the only trainer left on the field. "You think he'll win or lose?"
"Win of course! Don't you know who he won against?" One of Riley's friends said.
"Nope." Riley replied.
"Rex Lascher!"
"Who?" Riley never heard of that.
"Are… are you serious! Aren't you from a family of battlers?"
"Yup. Doesn't mean I care to look at this kind of stuff all the time." Riley sighed. "I'm guessing he's a pretty strong trainer than by the sound of your tone."
"Definitely! He used a Chesnaught to defeat a Garchomp with one hit!" Her friend spoke in excitement.
"Huh… that's neat." Riley looked bored out of her mind.
"What! Neat? Neat!? That's all you have to say!" Her friends were a little surprised.
Meanwhile Opal and Benny found some space on the bleacher to sit to take a break from the exams.
"I wonder who will be Zack's opponent." Opal said.
"His opponent is some whiz kid named Cooper." A familiar face showed up.
"Hey! You're Trace from the tournament from before!" Benny looked a little annoyed that he just goes and walks here like nothing.
"Yeah. So what?" Trace said.
"You demeaned a lot of trainers yesterday, calling them weak and useless, including my friend Opal here." Benny said.
"Who's Opal?"
"What!? Why you…" Benny sprung up from the bleachers, raising his fist.
"It's alright Benny!" Opal stopped Benny from raising his fist. She noticed Trace didn't looked so scared from Benny's threat. "So… who's Cooper?"
"Like I said. A whiz kid. From what I heard, he mange to raise a Pokémon with no weakness." Trace said.
"No weakness?" Opal said.
"There's a Pokémon like that exists?" Benny said.
"Yup. Watch and see." Trace sat on the bleachers right next to them.
"So… you're just going to sit next to us like nothing happened?" Benny said.
Trace didn't replied, ignoring him as he only focused his eyes on the field.
"Okay than." Benny sat back on the bleachers uncomfortably next to Trace.
Zack and Pichu stood at one opposite end of the battlefield as he was waiting for his opponent.
"I wonder when we will get this started." Zack looked bored.
"Hi!" Cooper walked up to the opposite end of the map from one of the nearby bleachers.
"Oh! Uh… Hello! My name is Zack. What's yours?" Zack greeted the young kid.
"The name's Cooper. I'll be your examiner, you ready to do this?" Cooper smiled, holding a poke ball.
"Sure I am!" Zack smiled.
"Good." Cooper raised his Pokeball forward and threw it into the field. "Go! Eeleektross!"
The Pokeball opened, revealing a monstrously-sized green eel covering its body in waves of electricity.
"TROOOOOSS!" The Eeleektross roared frenzily across the field.
"I've never seen that kind of Pokémon!" Zack aimed his Pokedex at the electric eel.
"Scanning." The Pokedex scanned the Pokémon. "Eeleektross. The Elefish Pokémon. An electric type. Eeleektross crawls out of the ocean using their arms. They will attack their prey on shore and drag their catch to the ocean. With their sucker mouths, they, use there fangs to electrocute their prey."
"That's interesting. Okay! I'll choose you! Pichu!" Zack called out his Pichu.
Pichu ran from his shoulder and excitedly onto the field.
"Uh… what's he doing? Is he using a Pichu against an Eeleektross!?" Hector wondered what the heck he was doing.
"He's using Pichu!?" Riley was shocked alongside his friends. She smiled, "It's so adorable!"
"Pip!?" Piplup eyes widened in jealousy. The Piplup crossed his arms in frustration.
"What are you doing!? A Pichu against an Eeleektross?!" Elise looked at him odd.
"Axew?" The little green dragon woke up on her lap, yawning.
"Eee?!" Eeleektross wasn't sure why his opponent was a tiny mouse.
"Uh… Pichu?" Cooper wasn't sure of his decision. "Where's your Chesnaught!? Or you're…"
"Oh that?" Zack said. "That's my mother's team, this is my team."
Cooper looked a little astonished. He heard he was some kind of ace trainer and here he was battling instead a baby Pokémon.
"Well that doesn't matter." Cooper grinned. "My Eeleektross has virtually no weaknesses! Thanks to its levitation ability! Eeleektross's one weakness, ground-types, are negated completely!"
"That's good and all but I don't have any ground-type moves." Zack said.
"Um… kay." Cooper's grin was cut short as the levitation ability didn't seem to matter much here.
"Hey. So… are we going to battle or what?" Zack said.
"Right! Eeleektross!" Cooper decided to just go with it. "Use coil!"
"Eeleek!" Eeleektross covered itself temporarily in purple ooze. Zack noticed Eeleektross glowed red three times.
"What's that!" Zack said.
"That was the effect of Coil. It boosted Eeleektross's attack, defense, and accuracy all at the same time." Cooper grinned.
"Wow!" Zack smiled.
"I'm sorry?" Cooper noticed that Zack wasn't worried at all. Just smiling. He gladly smiled back with pride, "Okay! Eeleektross! Use wild charge!"
The giant eel leaped from the ground towards the Pichu.
"PIchu! Use tackle!" Zack ordered
The little mouse tackled the giant eel but to almost no avail. The Eeleektross stood there strong, with its skin hardened from the coil before.
"Eeleektross finish this!" Cooper shouted.
Eeleektross went in for the finish move, charging itself with electricity as it proceeded to tackle the Pichu. To Cooper's surprise, it seem to have no effect on Pichu. The wild charge towards Pichu immediately stopped as the electricity Eeleektross charged itself instantly vanished. The dumbfounded Eeleektross found itself hitting the ground instead, confused.
Everyone looked a little shocked that Pichu took the attack like it was nothing
"Eeleektross! Umm…" Cooper wasn't sure what happened. "Use thunder!"
"TROSS!" Eeleektross sent out a monstrous thunder to the Pichu. To everyone' surprised. The little mouse smiled, taking it like nothing.
Cooper noticed no damage at all on the Pichu. "Uh… Zack was it? I think there's something wrong with your Pichu. That baby Pokemon isn't taking any damage at all. The display board doesn't show him losing any health at all!"
"Nope. That's just Pichu's hidden ability." Zack smiled.
"Oh okay… What!?"
"Yup! Pichu's hidden ability is called Lightingrod!" Zack smiled. "Whenever electric attacks are around, Pichu attracts and absorbs it and all that electricity is transformed into a strong special attack boost! Since you attacked twice, that's two special attack boosts!"
The red-haired man sitting on the bleachers stopped looking at his laptop for a second, and eyed the battle upon hearing this revelation.
"Oh man." Cooper looked worriedly at his Eeleektross.
"What? Surely you have some non-electric moves for that Eeleektro…" He looked at Cooper worrisome looked. "Eeleektross doesn't have any non-electric type moves does he?"
"Sadly no… he's just recently evolved." Cooper sighed.
"Okay! Well I guess it's my little Pichu's turn to finish this!" Zack said. "Pichu's item activates!"
"Item?!"
"Yup! Pichu's electric gem!"
Cooper looked closely at the Pichu and noticed a necklace holding a yellow gem hidden among its yellow fur.
"For a single attack, it boosts Pichu's electric attack to 30%." Zack said. "Pichu! Use thundershock!"
The Pichu gave a determined grin to the Eeleektross and launched out a massively boosted thundershock, striking the electric eel. Everyone's eyes focused closely to the match as the dust scattered across the battlefield.
Zack smiled shattered as he still saw Eeleektross standing strong. "That's a strong Eeleektross!
"Yup!" Cooper smiled. "Even though it's just recently evolved, it's still quite a sturdy powerhouse!"
"Oh man!" Zack looked worried. "I don't think my Pichu has enough power to beat that thing! Pichu! Use…"
"I give up!" Cooper returned the Eeleektross to its Pokeball.
"Wait? Just like that!"
"This battle is over the moment that you sent out that Pichu. My Eeleektross is pretty useless in this battle with him only having electric-type moves against your lightning rod Pichu." Cooper explained. "Your Pichu, a young immature Pokemon, could just boringly chip away the rest of Eeleektross's health and win. It would be a very long boring battle, like a Nidoran trying to take on a Lv. 100 Metapod with it's only move being harden. It's pretty obvious I can't do anything. You win."
"So I pass?"
"Huh… oh yeah. Welcome to Earl's Academy!" Cooper reached out his hand.
Zack went forward as Pichu watched, shaking the examiner's hand. "Thanks!"
"Hey! Zack!" Zack heard a familiar voice. It was Opal and behind her was Benny. "How'd you know Pichu has lightning rod?"
"Just a hunch." Zack smiled, recalling the day that mysterious Pokémon sent crashing a monstrous roar of lighting towards Pichu, who took it like nothing.
"We should celebrate!" Benny said. "Let's get some pizza."
"That's great. I've been in the mood for Pizza." Zack said.
The three left the battlegrounds as other kids followed. Eldes watched many of the trainers leave the facility.
"It seems we have many promising trainers." The mustachio man next to him spoke.
"Yes. Yes we do." Eldes smiled, rising up from the bleachers.
Night skies loomed over the town of Odella. Zack, Opal, and Benny were all sleeping in their beds. Zack's mother smiled as she was preparing the rest of her young boy's needed things for his departure from Odella Town to the much wider region of Holon, starting with the Pokémon Academy.
"My little guy is growing so fast." Zack's mother smiled as she wrote down information in a small book near some stacked laundry and organized supplies. She yawned tiredly. "I need some sleep."
Trainer Page/Themed Pokémon Teams
Cooper - A bright young man who's known to use nearly-invincible Pokemon.
Team: Near Invincibility - Uses Pokemon that covers and makes up for weaknesses.
Eeleektross/?/?/?/?/?
Trace - A trainer that sets out to be a strong Pokemon trainer. No one knows what's his deal is other than the fact he has a simple view of Pokemon that are strong reign at the top and Pokemon that are weak are useless.
Team: ? - The theme of his team won't be revealed for now. I believe it might give away the rest of Trace's team.
Cyndaquil/Taillow/?/?/?/?
Did you know facts?
Did you know this chapter was heavily inspired by one particular Pokemon episode where Ash and friends takes this exam. I thought it was pretty funny and ridiculous.
Did you know that Earl's Pokemon Academty is actually a real location in Pokemon Gold and Silver, a school in Violet city, and a location in Pokemon Stadium 2. Among all the tutors and teachers, besides Roxanne and Cheren of the Gym Leaders, I thought Earl was the most recognizable due to having a huge role in Pokemon Satdium 2. This isn't the main Pokemon Academy but rather a branch stretching all the way from the Johto region.
Did you know Eldes is a character from Pokemon XD Gale of Darkness. To sum it up, no spoilers, he is one of the strongest Pokemon trainers the player can fight.