Pokémon Trainer Hero

Chapter 44: The Sports Festival part. 16-The Recreational Games. Part 2.

'Please don't be a Flying Type. Please don't be a Flying Type. Please don't be a Flying Type. Please don't be a Flying Type. Please don't be a Flying Type.', everyone in 1-A chanted in their heads while crossing their fingers.

Their question was suddenly answered as another Gar, wearing an orange scarf, popped out from behind the original with an aloof and toothy smile!

"Pretty freaky, right?", Gar stated nonchalantly as he leaned his back against his double.

A collective gasp and panicked talking exploded amongst all who watched! Gar almost couldn't hold back his laughter, and neither could his clone, as they both leaned their backs against one another in a 'cool' fashion while trying to maintain their composure.

Letting the joke go on for long enough, Gar waved his hands down to the crowd to calm them and stated, "Now calm down everyone, calm down. This is nothing more than an illusion by a very tricky fox pokémon."

Although the crowd had simmered down somewhat at his words, they all went dead silent as the double suddenly leaped into the air and illuminated before falling back down in the form of a very large fox looking pokemon with an unsettling grin.

"Behold everyone! Zoroark!", Gar exclaimed as he motioned to the pokemon who struck an impish pose beside him while grinning like a trickster.

Zoroark is a bipedal, gray-brown, fox-like Pokémon with crimson and black accents. It has a pointed snout and ears with red insides. It also has some red rimming its eyes and mouth. Zoroark has a large, red, voluminous mane with black tips, which somewhat resembles a ponytail, as a teal bangle down its length separates a mass of the mane from the lower portion. It has a black ruff on its upper body, pointed at the shoulders from which its arms extend. Its upper arms are thin, whereas its lower arms, while still slim, are bulkier. The arms have spiky extensions of fur at the elbows, and it has red claws on its hands and feet. Zoroark's eyes are red-rimmed with light blue irises. Around its neck it wore the same orange scarf.

"Who's that pokemon?", a person in the crowd of teenagers asked aloud.

Doing exactly as his programming says, or just on impulse, Rotom came alive on the jumbo screen and read off Zoroark's pokedex entry. "Zoroark, the Illusion Fox pokemon. Dex # 571, a Dark Type and the evolved form of Zorua. It doesn't just transform itself—it also has the power to make hundreds of people see its illusions. This Pokémon cares deeply about others of its kind, and it will conjure terrifying illusions to keep its den and pack safe. Seeking to ease the burden of solitude, lonely Trainers tell Zoroark to show illusions to them.", Rotom emphasized the last part a bit too obviously.

A few eyes from the residence of class 1-A all fell on the older teen who was now trying to inconspicuously hide his face further into his hood. A feeling of confusion and melancholy hit all of them as the teen seemed to retract into his shell, looking as if a great secret had been exposed.

"Thank you Rotom. For that…..anyhow.", Gar tried to keep on track while keeping his composure and not letting his tone of voice slip. "Like its previous evolution, it too can transform but with far more precision. It's your job to distinguish the real one from the other participants and grab the scarf…..if you can." "Now for those who are willing to take the chance, please step into the arena!", with that over a few dozen people entered the ring, with many more going back to the stands out of fear or self disappointment.

Gar nodded at seeing the people who still remained and told them, "Those of you who are here, the ground rules are simple. First to get the scarf from the pokemon wins. You can use your quirks, but not to harm anyone else or Zoroark. This will lead to disqualification. If you leave the arena circle, you're out! Any other questions?", no one raised a hand much to Gars pleasure. And without a second of hesitation he announced, "Good, then BEGIN!"

The large fox pokemon immediately jumped into the center of the ring from its spot new to Gar and began to run about on all fours as every student present tried to grab it! But to no avail as the pokemon always seemed to know exactly when and where a person was going to try and lunge at him! Always seeming one step ahead or was just that skilled.

Even Iida, with his superior speed could catch up due to all the opposing players getting in his way and the fact that Zoroark was much more nimble and agile in comparison. Not even Momo or Todoroki could grab it. The pokemon simply outmaneuvered whatever Momo popped out of her body to capture it, and every time Todoroki freeze a part of it, the pokemon used flamethrower to melt it!

After a time it almost seems like the pokemon was simply playing or dancing around the teens as they painstakingly tried to either keep pace or attempt to snatch him. The pokemon even went so far as to tease the children; blowing raspberries, making degrading faces and gestures, and even purposefully slowing down enough only to burst forth at the last second to watch piles of teens face plant into the dirt! He would even just run ahead, wait, the take off!

Somehow the group of disjointed teens finally managed to pull themselves together and form a mock plan of simply surrounding the pokemon from all sides in a huge ring. The pokemon who stood on its hind legs, surveying the group of adolescents around him, and gave its trademark trickers smile. The teens slowly and surely closed in on the pokemon still smiling pokemon. And just before they could rush it, darkness coiled around Zoroark's arms and it threw down a Dark Pulse attack at the ground which kicked up a huge explosion of dirt and dust!

The teens were blinded and immediately scrambled around trying to search for the pokemon in the dust until the cloud disputed some and a person suddenly shouted out their victory.

"I won! I won! I did it!", called a voice in the translucent cloud of dust and people.

Gar didn't even have to try and guess or squint his eyes to see whose voice that belonged to. When the area cleared enough; their at the corner of the ring was none other than Momona holding down a struggling Zoroark by his face while sitting on its body to keep him pinned! The Zoroark was trying to pull off the teens hand holding his face, while the teens other hand held up the orange scarf like a trophy!

Momona laughed as he proclaimed in victory, "Take that you 1-A dimwits! Class 1-B has officially served you at your own game! This day goes to 1-B!"

"Get off me you idiot! I'm not the pokemon!", screamed the Zoroark from beneath him in a surprisingly female voice as it ripped his hand from its face, much to everyone's surprise and shock at seeing a talking pokemon!

Momona also looked shocked, but shook it off as he stated back with a snide tone in his voice, "Nice try foxy, but changing your voice isn't going to help you today! For I have triumphed over you!", he proclaimed while holding the pokemon down by its chest!

After that, three things immediately happened. First, Momona noticed that the Zoroark's chest felt a lot different then what he was expecting, the Zoroark froze with a look of shock on its face, and then the Zoroark swiftly and forcefully nailed Momona in his crotch! A look of ungodly pain spread across Momona's face and he fell over to the side while grabbing his private area with tears streaming down his face and a low gurgling sound escaping from his throat!

The Zoroark, with fury painted on its long muzzle, jumped to its feet and yelled at the grounded teen, "What the hell is wrong with you, you pervert!"

Momona looked up from its painfilled view and saw as if the Zoroark was suddenly being smeared away from the ground to where it stood, revealing a very angry looking Kendo looking to smash him in the tenders again!

With confusion adding to his pain and euphoria, he asked in a low and squeaking voice, "Kendo? If you weren't the pokemon then what-?", Momona began to ask as he held out the hand still holding the scarf, until it vanished before his eyes. "What? But, it felt so real."

The few people who were close enough to look and see what happened were about to start questioning it until Gar gave them their answer. "Well it looks like someone fell for one of Zoroark's illusions. Did you all really forget he could do that? Rotom did spell it out for you.", Gar somewhat patronized the teens. "But don't think you can simply pick out the pokemon from the scarf it's wearing. I'd look at your fellow competitors on their sense of fashion."

The teens did as he said and all of them immediately noticed that nearly all of them were wearing an identical orange scarf! And many more did not seem to realize they were wearing one. All the teens looked panicked as they couldn't tell which one was real and which was just a trick of the eye.

Gar giggled at their predicament and added on, "Oh and don't think you all can check each other in a game of 'Match-em-Up'. Zoroark have nearly perfect photographic memories. That's how they transform with such flawlessness. They can take different aspects of people they remember and mix and match them to make something new. Zoroark can become its own human sona.", Gar sang with a wicked and malicious melody in his tone.

Everyone began to panic and scramble around as they all tried to painstakingly pick out the real from the fake. But no one could tell a new unseen face from a previous one. For all they knew, Zoroark was probably hiding in an illusion that made him invisible to the naked eye or was constantly turning into different people every time someone came close or realized there was a different face in the somewhat sparse crowd.

Izuku knew this best of all. He knew that there was no way he was gonna be able to make out a Zoroark in a crowd of this many people; less so when they were all in a frenzy and constantly moving about! He had to think with his head and not his strength this time. Even if he did manage to find a way to lure out Zoroark, then was still the fact of keeping it in the open long enough for him to try and grab. That and Zoroark were known for being tricky….but not clever. Even trickers and actors dropped their act from time to time. And Izuku just thought out a way to exploit this.

So while everyone was scrambling around, he searched for a victim to put his plan into motion. He saw Iida, running around and checking every face available, and knew he had his target. He felt bad for what he was about to do, but there was a time limit and it was already halfway gone. Eventually he saw his friend stop for a breather and sprang into action! The non chanty walked near Iida and once he was sure no one was looking in his direction, he cupped one hand into his mouth and blew hard to make a fake fart noise!

A few people nearby, including Iida heard the noise and looked around for the source out of curiosity, thinking it was the Zoroark. But that thought was dashed as Izuku made a scene of holding his nose and stating, "PU Iida-san! Was that your engine or you!?"

Iida's face went bright red and stiffened up as even more people turned their eyes to the engine legged teen, thinking he had passed gas! He turned his head around quickly as more and more eyes fell on him, only adding more fuel to the embarrassment fire! Iida tried to convey his innocence on the gaseous eruption that didn't come from his ports; only to have his own body betray him as his engine backfired in a nearly synchronized display of gaseous eruption from several of the leg openings. All of which were comically loud.

Iida stood frozen again as the last gas backup tooted out silently and all the teens in the area all started at the gassy glasses teen in utter silence. There was nothing but the quiet, the sound of the crowds talking, and Izuku hating himself for putting his friend up like bait! Then all at once the entirety of the teen began to bust out in laughter! Iida, who was more than embarrassed by this point, practically sank down and covered his face in shame.

While everyone was laughing their butts off, Izuku took a moment to look around and view the crowd of other teens. He took note that all of them that were wearing the orange scarf seemed to be flickering on and off. He knew that Zoroark was laughing at the high jinks and was having trouble holding up its illusion. So he scanned the crowd and saw one person he hadn't seen before and had at the same time. Since they had his face, but Uraraka's hair and Todorki's eyes. The image of the person also seems to flicker every now and again as they caught with an unmistakable snicker and grin. This was definitely Zoroark!

So Izuku made his way as carefully and inconspicuously as he could towards the disguised pokemon. He was just about there when he saw the pokemon look up at him! Izuku nearly panicked but managed to hold his composure as he pretended to laugh along with everyone else, despite how forced it sounded. Even so, it worked enough to fool the pokemon in diverging its attention back to the embarrassed teen. Once it was distracted, Izuku lunged on top of the pokemon and wrapped himself around its body while trying to grab at the scarf!

Zoroark roared loudly, diverting everyone's attention back to it, and the pokemon lunged from its hiding spot and illusion form while trying to shake Izuku off! And it almost did manage it if Izuku hadn't managed to snag the end of its ponytail as it blitzed off into the more open parts of the arena like a bolt of lightning! Izuku screamed as he was whipped around violently by the pokémons sudden and erratic jerking movements, bucking, and even far jumps! But Izuku continued to hold on for dear life even while still screaming on the verge of tears and vomit! The pokemon continued to thrash around widely as the other teens attempted to chase down and grab the revealed pokemon.

Izuku finally got a hold of himself in his screaming fit and slowly began to climb his way up the pokémons voluptuous mane of hair towards its head. Zoroark on the other hand did not like having its hair pulled or climbed on by just a heavyweight! No matter what he did, Izuku just couldn't be shaken off, and now he was mere inches from being able to grab the scarf!

Then the pokemon got an idea and quickly ran to the far end of the ring. He looked out and saw a heard off teen trying to catch up, but Zoroark knew what to do. In a flash, the pokemon spewed out a Flamethrower and formed a large opening to form in the herd. Zoroark took its chance and dashed forward with every ounce of speed he had! Zoroark ran and ran until he almost came to the end of the ring, then with all he had, the pokemon forced itself to stop as short as possible! The conflicting forces caused Izuku to be flung right off the pokémons back and out of the ring! Normally this would call for an immediate disqualification, much to Zoroark's pleasure, until Zoroark noticed something aria.

Another student managed to sneak up and bounce on the unsuspecting and gloating pokemon! But when they tried to grab for the scarf, they only grabbed the fur around the pokemon neck! Zoroark also noticed this and looked around to see it had dropped nearby! But then its mind traced back to the green teen it had thrown out of the bounty line. The pokemon, along with everyone else, watched as the young teen stood up from the dirt and raised the orange scarf above his head and the crowd exploded in a roar of cheers!

Gar laughed through the mic as the cheers and sounds of congratulation echoed through the stadium, while Izuku stood erect with the scarf still raised above his head with tears of joy and exhaustion running down his face! After a short time, the timer on the jumbo screen was stopped and the crowds cheering simmered down as Gar called Izuku to join him on his pedestal. Alongside Zoroark who ran to his side, his body half curled around him like a loyal and cool looking war pet.

Gar looked down with pride at the green teen, whose eyes were still watering with relief and joy, he smiled at him kindly and said, "Well well well. Three for three! I'm very impressed with you Izuku. I should have foresaw that someone with your strength and intellect would exceed in this challenge. Then again, I also foresaw you being unable to use both as most people do.", Gar put a mischievous look on his face while he held his chin, but he quickly waved it aside as he continued, "But enough of that! You are our winner of the final grand mystery prize!", Gar was about to magically pull out the last covered mysterious prize until a voice called out from the crowd of gathered tennis.

"HEY! That's not fair! He wins every last event and the obstacle course race of hell!? I call it favoritism!", the mysterious voice yelled.

Seeing as he did have a point, some of the other students took their side and nodded or began to voice their own complaints about Izuku's win streak. Gar only rolled his eyes in response as the crowds of teens and even some people within the huge crowd also began to voice disapprovement. With a sharp hand he held it up in a stop motion, making the growing voice count lower down to just a few.

Once there was enough quiet for him to speak, he told the voice in the crowd, "On another occasion, you'd be right. But not this time! No matter my feelings towards others, I did not in any way make any event intentionally easy for anyone here! Everyone was given an equal chance to fail miserably. Izuku here merely has the skill and fortitude to succeed in every challenge laid before him, something you clearly lack.", a silence fell over the crowd at his first statement until the last one where a rush of ooo's at Gar's come back echoed throughout the sea of teenagers. But Gar quickly halted the jostling with another sharp stop, and then continued saying, "So instead of crying and whining about it like a baby; suck it up and learn from it in order to overcome it! The world of heroes is a big wide boiling soup pot that will melt you down if you're not thick enough to withstand the heat! So if I were you, I would start preparing to not get evaporated.", he told off the voice and all the other teens in a strict tone.

Gar coughed to calm himself down to his normal attitude and with his more friendly side showing he turned back to Izuku and told him, "And as for you! Here is your final grade mystery prize!"

Gar then manifested the last covered item, ripped off the cloth, and showed it to be a glass case with a vest bottom that held a weird looking pokeball.

Izuku's eyes widened with excitement as he exclaimed, "WOW!...what is it? It looks like a yellow pokeball?", he immediately degraded to confused disappointment as he realized what it really was.

"It's not just a yellow pokeball! It's a pokeball completely crafted out of gold!", Gar exclaimed like it was the biggest thing ever! "Or at least some of it is? Anyway, it's an extremely rare collectors edition item in the world of ball collecting.", Gar explained as a few chuckles broke out in the teens and crowds of watchers.

Gar looked around at the crowds of giggling people and asked genuinely confused, "What's so funny? All I said was ball collecting. It's extremely popular in my world. Gotta grab em all.", after that the whole entire crowd of people began to explode with rounds of laughter! Gar looked around at everyone with a strange look to their sudden humor, then took a moment to reflect on what he had said and immediately went deadpan as he stated, "Oh. Ha Ha. Very mature everyone. Veeeeeeeeery mature!"

After the laughter had died down some, Gar continued from where he left off and said to Izuku, "But! That's not the only thing! This specific pokeball is signed by every and all previous champions of every region I have been to. Including yours truly, who's the champion of every said region. If you were to sell this in my world, you'd be well off for a looooooong time. As for this world…...you got me? But the gold would sell for a good price or you can just keep it for bragging rights and collecting dust. I know I have before.", Gar then took the cased pokeball and placed it into Izuku's hands while saying, "It's a symbol of true golden strength and world wide intelligence to not only stick out, but be viewed as one of a kind."

"Gold is actually a really soft metal.", Iida's voice carried out from within the crowds of teens.

But before he could continue on with his smart guy blabby blab stuff, Gar, who was pretty pissed for being inputted twice, cut him off as he exclaimed with obvious irritation in his tone, "It's a metaphor. Don't ruin the MOMENT, IIDA!"

Everything went silent for a moment as everyone watched in stuck awe of his sudden temper change. Gar quickly shook himself out of his angered state and with an awkward cough he stated, "AHEM! Anyhow, I hope you all thoroughly enjoyed this year's recreational games! And I hope you all thoroughly enjoy the Battle Tournament ahead of you all! Plus Ultra!"