Inside Block T, the classroom lined with eager students, hoping to acquire new information about Pokémon battles. A man of near thirty, Professor Clover pushed his thick-rimmed glasses back on his nose with his thumb.
"Effective types to use in high-stress environments…" the professor began.
"...Tameka, can you tell me the type to use versus a grass-type?" he asked while focusing his attention on the student
Tameka paused in thought, then sheepishly answered.
"Uh...ground types?"
"Good guess, but no," the professor responded.
Another student raised their hand.
"Yes, Zack?"
"Fire types," Zack answered.
"Exactly," the professor said.
"Now, can you tell me what other types of Pokémon are effective on Grass Pokémon?"
Zack pondered. He began to recall information that was taught to him by another member of staff.
"If my memory is right..." Zack began. "Flying, Poison, Ice and Bug types are also effective."
"That's right," the young professor exclaimed. "Good work."
Suddenly, the classroom door sprung open, Professor Clover and the gathering of students immediately stared at the entrance to see Louis, out of breath.
"I'm...sorry I'm late," he panted.
The class whispered amongst themselves as Professor Clover scanned the documents.
"You must be Louis...Serrano?" he said.
"Yeah, that's me," the young adult answered.
The presenter smiled.
"Excellent."
He then stepped toward Louis and reached out his hand.
"I'm Professor Clover, an expert on the different types of Pokémon, a pleasure to meet you."
Louis grabbed the man's hand and shook it, gently.
"Same to you," he replied.
The young adult found the nearest empty desk and sat down. As he relaxed, Louis decided to let the rest of the class answer the professor's questions, unless asked himself.
New, fresh faces now sat the lessons he once had, and for a second he wondered;
'Were we ever that young?'
Some were as nervous as he once was, and a couple he thought he recognized.
Across the classroom, Zack stared at the newcomer.
'Louis Serrano?' he thought. 'I've heard that name somewhere."
Zack gazed down at his desk. The defining trait about his desk was that the name 'Simon' was scratched deep into the surface.
That seemed to have switched on the gears controlling his memories. Zack took another look at Louis, without him noticing. Then, it all came back. He recalled the memory of Simon being punched in the face by said boy years ago.
"No way..." he whispered.
Time went on as Louis remained focused on the class notes and jotted them down on a sheet of paper. Before long, the bell rang. One by one, the classmates inside the room exited. Louis stood up, grabbed his bag and walked through the portal. Zack followed.
"Hey man…!" Zack joked. "...knock anyone out lately?"
Louis halted. He twisted his body to face the approaching student.
"I'm sorry?" he said.
Zack simply passed by Louis and chuckled to himself. The young adult raised an eyebrow as Zack went further away. But that didn't matter, Louis was more focused on grabbing some food.
It wasn't long before the young adult reached the cafeteria. The line to be served seemed to be very long when Louis saw it, and with each step, his hunger grew. Louis lined up and waited to be served. Eventually, he made it to the front of the line and retrieved some food. He decided to grab some curry, onigiri and Jasmine Tea. Louis walked past a group of students as they began to chuckle.
"Enjoy that donut," a student called.
Again, Louis stopped.
"What was that?" he questioned.
"Nothing," another replied, before going back to chuckling.
Louis shrugged and continued on his way, a bit confused. Before exiting, Zack appeared beside the young adult, with a bag of food in hand.
"It's a joke everyone does here," he revealed.
"What do you mean?" asked Louis.
"Well, someone said that while in Kanto, he overheard somebody call rice balls a jelly-filled donut."
Louis blinked twice.
"...you have got to be joking," he said.
"Nope," replied Zack.
As Louis was on his way to the field, a question appeared in his train of thought.
"Actually, how do you know me?" asked Louis.
"I faced Suzuki in the qualifiers for the tournament years ago," said Zack. "The year you won, remember?"
Thinking back to his first time on campus, Louis recalled the battle he witnessed between Suzuki and Zack.
"Oh yeah...Yeah! I remember," proclaimed Louis.
"Zack, was it?" he added.
"That's me," replied Zack.
Before taking off, Zack had a question for Louis himself.
"We haven't seen you at the academy for years..." he started. "What made you come back?"
"A few things," answered Louis, still unsure of what information to share.
Before Louis could continue, someone in the distance called out to Zack.
"Yo! Zack!"
Zack spun around, spotting his friends and Pokémon friends in the distance.
"Oh, there are my buddies!" said Zack. "Excuse me!"
The boy dashed over to his companions. Louis grinned and continued his way to the field.
Louis continued to smile, as memories of his friends, and time together flooded back at the interruption. The genuine surprise and happiness of his well-bonded group, the warmth of their smiles and their way with words.
He'd missed this.
He'd missed them.
After some time, Louis spotted his team of Pokémon underneath the sakura tree. The flashbacks of him and his party sitting happily under the tree flooded his subconscious as he stepped toward his friends.
Then, the party spotted the young adult.
"Ah, here he comes," said Staraptor.
Louis sat down with his Pokémon, placing his food and drink to the side.
"Sorry I'm late, guys," he apologised. "Had a chat with someone who took on Suzuki years ago."
"That's alright, Louis," replied Braixen.
Louis opened up his backpack, brought out a large bag of Pokémon food and placed it on the ground.
"I brought this from home, in case you guys are hungry."
As the group dug into their lunch, many questions and thoughts rushed through Louis' head. There were so many things he needed answers to, but he couldn't decide on what to do.
"Hey, Louis?" said Braixen, interrupting the young adult's train of thought.
"Mm-hmm?" he replied, with a mouthful of food.
"You remember the Pokémon gym from years ago?"
Louis swallowed his food.
"Of course I do," answered Louis. "It was where we won the tournament. Why?"
"Well, the academy made plans to build a new one, so..." Braixen paused.
"...they're gonna be tearing the current one down soon," finished Lucario.
Louis' eyelids shot up, with his eyebrows raising.
"What?!" he exclaimed.
"Uh-huh," said Incineroar. "Why do you think I was training outdoors earlier?"
The Pokémon gave the young adult a moment to process this new information.
"Wait a second..." said Louis.
The young adult thought back to his last moment inside the gym years ago. Suddenly he remembered that there was something he had left inside that building.
Something...important.
"Our trophy!" yelped Louis. "It's still in there!"
"That's right," replied Braixen. "So, I thought of something we could do later."
"What?" asked Marowak.
"I was thinking that later tonight, we could go in and get that trophy out."
Louis lifted his hand.
"Hold on," he began. "You're suggesting that we go into the gym, at night, and get the trophy out of the locker?"
Braixen nodded her head. Louis' eyes shifted from side-to-side.
"Are...you sure that's a good idea?" worried Louis.
"Come on, it's not like anyone is gonna see us," answered Braixen.
"Please don't say that..." whimpered Louis.
Later that day, after classes had finished for the day, the sun began to dip into the horizon. Suzuki, however, was currently busy helping a Garchomp master some attacks, with assistance from Coach.
"Never thought you'd want to train one of Simon's old Pokémon," said Coach.
"Hey, somebody has to," replied Suzuki. "Besides, just because Garchomp was on Simon's team doesn't mean that it's a bad Pokémon. I learned that from Louis"
Coach nodded.
Then, the pair began to pick up on the sound of someone walking over. They shifted their attention to see Louis walking toward them.
"He-hey, speak of the devil," said Coach.
Louis waved to the pair.
"What's up, guys?" he called.
Garchomp hovered to the ground after spotting the young adult. Louis, in turn, recognised it as Simon's former Pokémon.
"Hey, I recognise you," said Garchomp. "You're the guy that decked Simon."
Louis rubbed the back of his head.
"Hehe, yeah. That was me," he replied.
Both staff members walked past Garchomp and stepped toward Louis.
"I was beginning to wonder when you were coming back," said Coach.
"I know," replied Louis. "I've had a lot on my plate."
All three men chuckled.
Louis turned his attention to his old friend, Suzuki.
"Hey, Suzuki?" he began. "I need your help with something."
"Sure, what is it?" inquired Suzuki.
Louis took in a deep breath before answering;
"I need to go into the old gym."
Suzuki and Coach raised an eyebrow.
"The old gym?" said Coach. "Why do you want to go in there? It's set to be torn down in a few days."
"Well, there's something important to my team in there," answered Louis. "Something...from years ago."
Soon, unforgettable memories began to playback in Suzuki's subconscious. Important moments from his last year as a student at the academy.
"You mean your trophy?" he inquired.
Louis nodded.
During this time, inside the old gym, with its lighting disconnected, stands taken down and walls left to crack and rot, a stealthy pair of blue feet passed by many pillars with calculated movement.
No sound was projected from the mysterious figure, with only the presence of water dripping echoing throughout the old structure.
The shadow dashed behind another pillar, moving closer to the gym's locker room. As it got closer, the mysterious figure crept toward the portal leading to the room full of metal lockers. It pushed the door open and moved inward.
The shadow took small steps into the room, inching closer to a particular locker. It reached over to the metal box and attempted to open it. However, it was locked. So, the mysterious figure began a one-on-one struggle with the locked door. After a small amount of time, the shadowy figure pulled the locker door open with all its strength, breaking the lock mechanism.
Inside the locker was the trophy that Louis and Team Venus had won in the National Pokémon Academy tournament years ago.
"Hmpf," the figure grunted.
Later that night, Louis and his Pokémon followed close by Suzuki as they made their way to the old gym. Louis was aware that this moment would be bittersweet, as this would be his last time inside the structure.
"You alright, Louis?" asked Lucario.
"Yeah," sighed Louis. "I...just didn't think my final visit here would be under these circumstances"
"My thoughts exactly," said Incineroar.
"Um...why are we doing this at night, again?" asked Marowak.
"Ask Braixen," replied Staraptor. "She's the one who came up with this idea."
"If we did it during the daytime, it would've given us unwanted attention," Braixen explained.
"That...didn't answer my question," said Marowak.
Eventually, the entire party arrived at the old structure. Before Suzuki could go and unlock the door, he turned to Louis and company.
"Ok, you can't take too long inside there," he began.
"Just go in, get your trophy out of the locker, and then come straight out. Got it?" Suzuki finished.
"Got it," answered Louis.
"I'm sorry," apologised Suzuki. "It's just that being a member of staff now, I have to enforce some rules."
"Don't worry, I understand."
Suzuki took small steps toward the old gym's locked doors. However, before he could put the key in the keyhole, he spotted something on the doors.
"Hang on..." he said.
"Braix Brai-xen?" said Braixen.
"Braixen said...'What's the matter?'" Louis translated.
Suzuki ran his fingers across the structure of the door. He felt that something was off.
"There are some strange marks on here," he said. "...and a few scratches."
"So?" asked Louis.
Suzuki paused. A flurry of possible scenarios played out as to what could be occurring. Eventually, he turned to the group and spoke, quietly.
"It's recent, these were made today."
Suzuki cautiously placed the key inside the keyhole, however, as he pushed it in, the door suddenly opened ajar.
"What the-..." Suzuki gasped.
As it swung open, deep scratches and splintered wood across the lock area appeared to the rest of the group.
"The-...the lock is busted," muttered Suzuki.
"I think someone's here..."
Uh-oh. Whatever is, or was, in the old gym better not be hostile. Or else Louis and his Pokémon are in big trouble.
Anyway, thanks for reading. Is there something you enjoyed? Can you guess what happens next? Or...what do you hope to see in future chapters? If so, go ahead and leave a review explaining any of these reasons. (Please don't leave hurtful reviews)
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