CHAPTER 4-THE TRIALS, PART I
"Eevee, Spoink, Chinchou, come out!" ordered Joseph quietly. When they all appeared, he spoke. "Hey there, are you guys all right?" he asked. The three pokemon responded happily. Indeed, Eevee and Spoink were jumping (or in Spoink's case, bouncing) around Joseph.
"Well, we're up against Mrs. Kawulsh first. Remember her? She teaches Pokemon P.E." he told them. "Her pokemon will be quick, so be prepared." He continued. "She has Delcatty, Ponyta and Delibird, okay? Right then. It's almost time for our big match. Eevee, you'll go first, so warm up. Chinchou, Spoink, have a good rest, because you'll need it for the battle. Let's go guys!" he said before returning Spoink and Chinchou to their pokeballs.
With that, he walked out of the locker room and headed for arena five. But, unbeknownst to him, there was a figure watching him from the darkness. "Well, thought Mark, "it's time to see what he can do." And so Mark quickly headed up the stairs to the rooftop taking three steps at a time. When he finally got to the top, Mark was temporarily blinded from the bright rays of the sun after standing in the darkness for so long.
As Joseph was walking to his battle arena with eevee by his side, he heard a lot of cheerful well-wishing directed at him by many pupils, and when he finally arrived at the arena, many friends and even a few teachers were there watching, like there had been for Mark, although it was probable that Mark never even noticed it. He saw that Mrs. Kawulsh was already there waiting for him. She had reddish-orange coloured hair and sharp, spooky grey eyes. She was thin and short, and wore a tracksuit and jogging shoes. She was also a kind and suave woman.
"Ah," she said in her sharp, crisp tone, "so you've arrived. Well? Are you ready? She asked. "You'd better be, because I ain't giving up without a battle! Prepare youself!" she cried.
"I'm as ready as I'll ever be!" replied Joseph. "Let's do this already!" he continued excitedly. He looked down at his Eevee. "Hey Eevee, old buddy. Are you ready to battle? Remember our opponents will be quick so you'll need to be alert. Alright?" he asked. He smiled when he heard it call loudly. "Good. Then let's beat them!" he shouted.
"This is a three on three pokemon battle with no time limit between Joseph Maros and Mrs. Kawulsh," said the referee in a loud and clear voice. "Begin!" he called, and both competitors immediately complied, Mrs. Kawulsh throwing her pokeball, and Joseph commanding Eevee to go forward.
"Let's get started Eevee!" he cried. With a tremendous leap for a being of that size, it landed near the middle of the arena and stared ferociously at the shape just beginning to appear from the pokeball. Eevee usually looked quite cute, all soft and furry, with its long ears and bushy tail, yet it was also a tough and persistent fighter, and very enigmatic too.
"Go, Ponyta!" yelled Mrs. Kawulsh. Now Eevee may have been cute, but man, this Ponyta was simply GORGEOUS! Many girls, boys and teachers alike looked on in amazement as Ponyta neighed loudly and proudly into the sky. The girls wanted to pet and kiss it (the fact that it was flaming hot seemed to have slipped their minds); the teachers wanted to write about and draw it, and the boys, well, the boys all wished that all of their girlfriends were that beautiful. So anyway, Ponyta had beautiful silky-looking skin and beautiful bright burning flames all down its back, and a group of flames gathered at the back formed what seemed to be a tail. It also had an arrangement of flames where a human's hair would be, as well as dark hooves which everyone present knew were stronger and harder than a diamond, the hardest gem on Earth, which could crush almost anything.
"Well, I guess I'll start things off!" said Mrs. Kawulsh confidently. "Ponyta, let's go, stomp attack!" she commanded. Ponyta immediately trotted off to one of the corners of the arena, and then turned, before gathering speed and was soon quickly galloping towards Eevee.
"Eevee!" shouted Joseph quickly. "Dodge that attack, or you'll be history! You know how strong a Ponyta's hoofs are!" he ordered. Being small and agile, Eevee managed to comfortably stay ahead of, and predict, Ponyta's attacks and thus was able to dodge all of its attempted charges by estimating where Ponyta would go and niftily jumping out of the way. "Good job, Eevee!" encouraged Joseph. Now, on Ponyta's next charge, stop for a moment and throw some sand at Ponyta's eyes!" he ordered. Thus, on Ponyta's next malicious attack, Eevee quickly scooped up some sand and flicked it up towards Ponyta as it was charging, before deftly jumping out of the way. Although Eevee was not able to throw the sand far, the speed at which Ponyta was galloping meant that Ponyta ran into the sand, rather than the sand hitting Ponyta.
Greatly enthused by this success, he shouted eagerly "Great, Eevee! Now tackle it before it recovers again!" he ordered. Eevee poised its muscles, and then tackled the Ponyta with cracking force, especially for something its size, before landing safely on top of Ponyta. The magnificent Ponyta fell, and it took a while to get it standing again. But, when it did, despite having a few bruises, the flames all over its body grew, as though it was reacting to Ponyta's anger for falling into such a trap. Probably a sign of its frustration, Ponyta let out a huge cry which surprised everyone, except, of course, for Mrs. Kawulsh, who was smiling.
But Joseph was not keen on seeing what this anger could do to power up its attacks, so he shouted to Eevee "Hurry, before it attacks in anger, use your charm!" Eevee complied, and jumped around cutely, before blowing some kisses to the unsuspecting Ponyta. Ponyta reacted immediately by stopping its furious cries. Another thing that disappeared then was Mrs. Kawulsh's smile. Joseph knew that although Ponyta would probably still follow its master's orders and attack, it would be a bit unwilling, and would probably hold back, and so Eevee would escape bearing the brunt of Ponyta's attacks.
"Ponyta!" cried Mrs. Kawulsh desperately. "Do your best and try to hit Eevee with a Flame Wheel attack!" she ordered. Ponyta stopped where it was and squinted around for a few seconds, as there was still some sand in its eyes and finally let loose a circle of flames, which, thanks to great eyesight and careful targeting, headed straight for Eevee.
Joseph knew Eevee could not avoid Flame Wheel as the attack was spread out over a small distance. Thinking on his feet, he yelled "Eevee! Quickly burrow underground!" Eevee did so immediately, and was given a few valuable seconds to do so, as Ponyta searched for it and took aim. Although Eevee got most of its body underground, when the attack finally reached him, it still managed to scorch its tail, although it did not do too much damage because of the earlier charm. Outside, everyone heard a small cry of pain before Eevee's slightly blackened tail disappeared from view completely. Joseph waited for a few seconds so that Eevee could burrow some way towards Ponyta. Then, shouting with all his might, for he knew it would be hard for Eevee to hear orders while underground, he yelled "Eevee! Eevee! Get underneath Ponyta and use Doubleslap, but do it quickly or Ponyta might trample you!" he yelled. Everyone waited, most holding their breaths. Suddenly, without any warning at all, Eevee burst into the light from directly underneath and, while still in the air, gave Ponyta a powerful doubleslap with its tail.
And then, it fell. Ponyta sounded a cry of pain before toppling to the ground. "No!" cried Mrs. Kawulsh. "You did extremely well, Ponyta," she said, quietly. "Return." And Ponyta gave a soft neigh before being engulfed by the red energy. "So, Joseph, I see I've underestimated you. Looking at your pokemon during my classes, I should have known that your Eevee would be quicker than most. Congratulations. But, this battle ain't over yet, so I'll skip the rest. Now, are you ready? Let's get going, Delcatty!" she cried in her powerful yet high-pitched voice.
Meanwhile, from the nearby rooftop, Mark Witsinski was shaking its head in disgust. "Pathetic!" he thought. "Look at his pokemon! They all have weak attacks. What's the use of sand attack? Or doubleslap? Or tackle, for that matter? They were al weak and worthless moves, moves only weak trainers and their dumb pokemon heading down the road to Loserville had those moves" he continued viscously in his head. Yet, in a small part of his mind, he felt uncomfortable at these thoughts, especially since they were directed at his ex-best friend. But frowning at this thought, for in his mind he thought it made him look weak, he pushed this thought as far back into his mind as he could. What he did not understand, could not grasp, was that rather than making him look weak, it made him look human.
So anyway, from the pokeball appeared a pokemon with about the same basic physical appearance as Eevee, although it was in fact about three times larger, Joseph knew. Joseph also knew that this was a fairly new normal- type pokemon to be discovered in the land of Hoenn, so it contained many mysteries to humans. Eevee knew this too, and in fact knew most of the things Joseph knew, for Joseph had always been gradually teaching almost everything he learned to his pokemon after school, so that one day, when the need arose, all of his pokemon could act without Joseph and his orders and guidance, to think for themselves, and also so they could help Joseph outside the battle arena.
"Eevee!" shouted Joseph. "Quickly, charm it first!" And so once again Eevee smiled charmingly at Delcatty and blew some kisses. Then, it ran up to Delcatty and rubbed Delcatty, before springing away quickly and dropping its smile. It then sat there as it watched Delcatty, who was dreamily standing there, no doubt in its own imagination and pokemon heaven.
"Oh no! Not again!" complained Mrs. Kawulsh. "Man I hate that move. Ummmm.. Now let's see, how can I beat that Eevee? That's right!" she exclaimed, suddenly brightening up. "Delcatty!" she yelled at the top of her voice. "Snap out of it!" and indeed, Delcatty stopped its daydreaming immediately, but was obviously still infatuated. However, it was of no surprise to anyone that Delcatty was roused, as Mrs. Kawulsh's yelling at the top of her voice hurt everyone's ears, students and teachers alike, and even Eevee's ears hurt. "Now, sing attack!" she cried, again making everyone's ears hurt.
Although usually amongst the politest of young men, Joseph couldn't help but think and laugh at the thought that Mrs. Kawulsh would be the pokemon ever-her screech would make any pokemon refuse to battle! With reluctance, dwelling on that thought for just another split-second, he finally pulled his mind away back to the pokemon battle. As a result of his tireless research into all the teachers' pokemon (for they did not know who they would be fighting, and so he looked up all of them, being the person that he is), he was expecting this, and pulled out some giant headphones to block out the song. Looking across the arena, he saw Mrs. Kawulsh doing the same thing, but smiling at the same time. However, headphones were of course frowned upon as cheating, and since he had yet to come up with a plan to combat this without an item, he was at a loss to do.
Meanwhile, Delcatty looked at its trainer once more, reluctant to attack Eevee, for it was still under the influence of infatuation. Seeing the stern look of its trainer, Delcatty reluctantly broke into its mystical and mysterious song. Eevee stood its ground, but soon succumbed to the song, beckoning to the lair of dreams, and rest. With a sigh, for it was tired by the battle, it slumped to the ground, sound asleep. Delcatty looked at Eevee sorrowfully at what it had to do.
"Eevee!" shouted Joseph trying to wake Eevee up, for although usually it would be to no avail, Joseph was very intuitive and had a knack for noticing tiny details, and thus he had seen not only the hesitation of Delcatty, but had also seen that which no-one else, not the teachers nor boys or girls, had seen-Delcatty had been holding back during the singing. Joseph was relying on this fact to wake Eevee up earlier than someone usually could after experiencing a Sing attack.
"It's no use, Joseph! Eevee won't wake! Will you give up this round?" she asked, pausing for his answer. But, at the stern shake of his head, she said "Very well. Delcatty, doubleslap now!" she yelled. Slowly, again hesitating with reluctance, it moved towards Eevee, and, raising its tail, prepared to use doubleslap. But again, it looked at its master, who was by now very annoyed but still patient nonetheless. "Come on, Delcatty. Please, just attack Eevee," she said, somewhat slyly. And so, Delcatty turned back to Eevee and did a doubleslap attack, which by no means was a weak attack; indeed, the force of the two slaps made Eevee roll about, before Delcatty ceased its onslaught.
"Eevee!" Joseph shouted, still confident of his theory. "Get up! I know you can!" yelled Joseph. Suddenly, amongst all the talk around the arena, the sound of the wind and pidgey calling out, one muscle in one of Eevee's legs twitched. Slowly, the word spread, and everyone hushed. The wind stopped its constant ripping and tearing at the branches of the school's deciduous trees. Even the lock pidgey suddenly took flight for no apparent reason. Joseph, Mrs. Kawulsh and Delcatty had all noticed the movements of Eevee from the start, and were all amazed. The big difference, however, was that Joseph and Delcatty were happy that Eevee was okay, but on the other hand, Mrs. Kawulsh was extremely annoyed and surprised, for most beings took a few hours to wake up after hearing the soothing song. Eevee yawned, rolled over, and opened its eyes, the quickly jumped up as it noticed it was in an unusual environment. When it finally realised where it was, what it was doing and what had just transpired, it immediately went into battle stance.
"Great to have you back, Eevee!" called Joseph ardently. "I was beginning to think I was wrong. That charm attack really payed off, didn't it?" he asked. Eevee nodded energetically, even though Eevee was slightly hurt from the last attack. "Great to have you back Eevee!" said Joseph, looking down at Eevee. He looked back up again. "Well, let's finish this round, Eevee. Tackle attack!" he ordered. Eevee readied itself, and then charged towards Delcatty, who was still smiling coyly towards Eevee, until Eevee slammed into Delcatty with great force. Delcatty, who of course did not try and avoid the impact or try to block it, was knocked back a fairly long way, and finally stopped. It did not get up again.
"Delcatty, no!" yelled Mrs. Kawulsh. "No," she repeated, much quieter this time, before silently returning the fainted Delcatty to its pokeball. "Yup, Joseph Maros, you're definitely better than I thought. I guess I should congratulate you. You used your abilities, combined with your pokemon's abilities to great effect. Now, go, Delibird!" she said, throwing her pokeball with less excitement than she might have at the start of the battle, but nevertheless with energy. "Do your best, Delibird. Make me proud." She said to it quietly.
"Deli, Deli!" it cried, definitely with more zeal than Mrs. Kawulsh at the moment. Delibird had a red Santa Claus type body, and white fur pretty much everywhere else on its body. It also had a white bill, stubby white wings (or arms, whatever you want to call them), and of course its trademark item, the sack of presents. It hopped around cheerfully, even waving at Eevee.
"Okay, Delibird! Fly up high so that Eevee can't charm you again!" yelled Mrs. Kawulsh. With a cry, Delibird quickly flew up, so that from the ground, all they could see was a small round shape. "Now, Delibird, pepper that Eevee with presents!" she ordered. Delibird reached into its sack with its short arms, grabbing four glowing, multicoloured presents at a time. Then it started throwing them as quickly as it could down towards the ground, and Eevee. However, since Delibird had to fly so high up in the first place, although no attacks could be made against it, it could not effectively use attacks against Eevee either, because of Eevee's wondrous speed and agility. This presents landed left and right of Eevee, but none hit it. But, Mrs. Kawulsh had a plan. "Delibird!" she yelled at it. "Remember our discussion earlier, execute pattern B!" she cried.
At this, everyone fell silent, waiting to see what pattern B was. Delibird called an affirmative from high above, and started resuming presents. At first, everyone thought it was a bluff on the part of Mrs. Kawulsh. Yet Joseph couldn't shake the feeling that something was up. Gradually, after about twenty seconds of constant bombing by Delibird and twenty seconds of dodging by Eevee, Joseph noticed that Eevee was no longer where he was at the start of the bombardment; in fact, Eevee, he finally noticed, was only about two metres from the posts separating the arena from the crowd, and Eevee was, with every dodge he made, jumping one more step towards being trapped in the corner.
"You have to admire the strategy!" thought Joseph. "But the only problem is it's so good it's pretty much impossible to prevent from a basic pokemon on the ground which relied on physical attacks. And so Eevee kept on backing up without really intending to, but only realised the mistake it had made and the cleverness of the Delibird when it had touched the corner post.
"Great, Delibird!" called Mrs. Kawulsh. "Now, just keep up the aerial bombardment and we can finish Eevee," she continued.
"No, wait!" shouted Joseph from the other side. "I know I can't win this. Return, Eevee. You win that round!" he said, returning the trapped Eevee to its pokeball. Looking down at the pokeball, he said "Wow, you did great Eevee. You took out two of her pokemon." And with that, he returned the pokeball to his belt. "Now, who to chose?" thought Joseph to himself. "Okay, let's finish where we started, come on out, Spoink!" he yelled out loud. From his pokeball again burst a small shape, which immediately started bouncing. Spoink was also a pokemon from Hoenn that his father had caught on a business trip for him.
Spoink was a strange pokemon. It had a pink ball of some sort on top of its head, and had a large, round face with a similar nose. It also had tiny ears, which an unobservant traveller might miss. But most strangely of all, was that it had a spring rather than a body and legs, much like a tail. In fact, it was taught that by bouncing, it made its heart beat-and if it ever stopped bouncing, Spoink would die. "Now, Spoink!" cried Joseph. "Confuse Ray attack!" he ordered. For Delibird, everything went black. Then, suddenly, an eerie ray appeared, focusing on Delibird. Then for Delibird, for a moment all was forgotten. When the darkness left, it suddenly felt extremely giddy, in fact, more giddy than it had a right to be in a pokemon battle. Indeed, for no apparent reason, it started lobbing presents into the sky above it! Unfortunately, because it stayed still, and because it threw the presents straight up into the air, Delibird was hit by about six of its own presents! With that, it gave a cry, for the confusion had worn off, but getting hit by so many presents had taken its toll, and it hit the ground hard. But, amazingly, miraculously, it started slowly and tiredly getting up.
"We can't let it recover, Spoink!" he shouted to his bouncing pokemon. "Use psychic attack now!" he cried. Spoink nodded and retreated inside itself, preparing to use its psychic powers. Then, with fury, it attacked Delibird's mind. No-one at the PTS knew what was happening to Delibird, save that it was being attacked. It thrashed about for about ten seconds, before succumbing to the attack, and finally collapsing. This time, it stayed there.
"The match goes to Joseph Maros!" cried the referee. All of the students cheered, and Joseph waved, along with Spoink, before returning the little thing to its pokeball, and heading back to the lockers.
"Delibird!" cried Mrs. Kawulsh. "Well, you took out that infernal Eevee! I'm proud of you," she said gently. Then, she returned the fainted Delibird into its pokeball and in turn the pokeball to her belt. "You're much better than I thought, Joseph. Congratulations! You'll do very well in the Johto Pokemon League if you continue like this, very well indeed," she told him, before turning and walking back towards her office.
Of course, up on the rooftop, Mark was shaking his head disdainfully. "I don't get it!" he thought furiously. "My pokemon were much better than his, my battles were more amazing, more impressive, yet all the kids didn't cheer for me at all!" Of course, being the person that he is, he was absolutely fuming. "I'll show them!" he thought, a thought interrupted by the sound of his stomach grumbling. "I'll show them all right.. Right after I get some lunch!" And finishing with that thought, he hungrily ran downstairs towards the canteen.
"Eevee, Spoink, Chinchou, come out!" ordered Joseph quietly. When they all appeared, he spoke. "Hey there, are you guys all right?" he asked. The three pokemon responded happily. Indeed, Eevee and Spoink were jumping (or in Spoink's case, bouncing) around Joseph.
"Well, we're up against Mrs. Kawulsh first. Remember her? She teaches Pokemon P.E." he told them. "Her pokemon will be quick, so be prepared." He continued. "She has Delcatty, Ponyta and Delibird, okay? Right then. It's almost time for our big match. Eevee, you'll go first, so warm up. Chinchou, Spoink, have a good rest, because you'll need it for the battle. Let's go guys!" he said before returning Spoink and Chinchou to their pokeballs.
With that, he walked out of the locker room and headed for arena five. But, unbeknownst to him, there was a figure watching him from the darkness. "Well, thought Mark, "it's time to see what he can do." And so Mark quickly headed up the stairs to the rooftop taking three steps at a time. When he finally got to the top, Mark was temporarily blinded from the bright rays of the sun after standing in the darkness for so long.
As Joseph was walking to his battle arena with eevee by his side, he heard a lot of cheerful well-wishing directed at him by many pupils, and when he finally arrived at the arena, many friends and even a few teachers were there watching, like there had been for Mark, although it was probable that Mark never even noticed it. He saw that Mrs. Kawulsh was already there waiting for him. She had reddish-orange coloured hair and sharp, spooky grey eyes. She was thin and short, and wore a tracksuit and jogging shoes. She was also a kind and suave woman.
"Ah," she said in her sharp, crisp tone, "so you've arrived. Well? Are you ready? She asked. "You'd better be, because I ain't giving up without a battle! Prepare youself!" she cried.
"I'm as ready as I'll ever be!" replied Joseph. "Let's do this already!" he continued excitedly. He looked down at his Eevee. "Hey Eevee, old buddy. Are you ready to battle? Remember our opponents will be quick so you'll need to be alert. Alright?" he asked. He smiled when he heard it call loudly. "Good. Then let's beat them!" he shouted.
"This is a three on three pokemon battle with no time limit between Joseph Maros and Mrs. Kawulsh," said the referee in a loud and clear voice. "Begin!" he called, and both competitors immediately complied, Mrs. Kawulsh throwing her pokeball, and Joseph commanding Eevee to go forward.
"Let's get started Eevee!" he cried. With a tremendous leap for a being of that size, it landed near the middle of the arena and stared ferociously at the shape just beginning to appear from the pokeball. Eevee usually looked quite cute, all soft and furry, with its long ears and bushy tail, yet it was also a tough and persistent fighter, and very enigmatic too.
"Go, Ponyta!" yelled Mrs. Kawulsh. Now Eevee may have been cute, but man, this Ponyta was simply GORGEOUS! Many girls, boys and teachers alike looked on in amazement as Ponyta neighed loudly and proudly into the sky. The girls wanted to pet and kiss it (the fact that it was flaming hot seemed to have slipped their minds); the teachers wanted to write about and draw it, and the boys, well, the boys all wished that all of their girlfriends were that beautiful. So anyway, Ponyta had beautiful silky-looking skin and beautiful bright burning flames all down its back, and a group of flames gathered at the back formed what seemed to be a tail. It also had an arrangement of flames where a human's hair would be, as well as dark hooves which everyone present knew were stronger and harder than a diamond, the hardest gem on Earth, which could crush almost anything.
"Well, I guess I'll start things off!" said Mrs. Kawulsh confidently. "Ponyta, let's go, stomp attack!" she commanded. Ponyta immediately trotted off to one of the corners of the arena, and then turned, before gathering speed and was soon quickly galloping towards Eevee.
"Eevee!" shouted Joseph quickly. "Dodge that attack, or you'll be history! You know how strong a Ponyta's hoofs are!" he ordered. Being small and agile, Eevee managed to comfortably stay ahead of, and predict, Ponyta's attacks and thus was able to dodge all of its attempted charges by estimating where Ponyta would go and niftily jumping out of the way. "Good job, Eevee!" encouraged Joseph. Now, on Ponyta's next charge, stop for a moment and throw some sand at Ponyta's eyes!" he ordered. Thus, on Ponyta's next malicious attack, Eevee quickly scooped up some sand and flicked it up towards Ponyta as it was charging, before deftly jumping out of the way. Although Eevee was not able to throw the sand far, the speed at which Ponyta was galloping meant that Ponyta ran into the sand, rather than the sand hitting Ponyta.
Greatly enthused by this success, he shouted eagerly "Great, Eevee! Now tackle it before it recovers again!" he ordered. Eevee poised its muscles, and then tackled the Ponyta with cracking force, especially for something its size, before landing safely on top of Ponyta. The magnificent Ponyta fell, and it took a while to get it standing again. But, when it did, despite having a few bruises, the flames all over its body grew, as though it was reacting to Ponyta's anger for falling into such a trap. Probably a sign of its frustration, Ponyta let out a huge cry which surprised everyone, except, of course, for Mrs. Kawulsh, who was smiling.
But Joseph was not keen on seeing what this anger could do to power up its attacks, so he shouted to Eevee "Hurry, before it attacks in anger, use your charm!" Eevee complied, and jumped around cutely, before blowing some kisses to the unsuspecting Ponyta. Ponyta reacted immediately by stopping its furious cries. Another thing that disappeared then was Mrs. Kawulsh's smile. Joseph knew that although Ponyta would probably still follow its master's orders and attack, it would be a bit unwilling, and would probably hold back, and so Eevee would escape bearing the brunt of Ponyta's attacks.
"Ponyta!" cried Mrs. Kawulsh desperately. "Do your best and try to hit Eevee with a Flame Wheel attack!" she ordered. Ponyta stopped where it was and squinted around for a few seconds, as there was still some sand in its eyes and finally let loose a circle of flames, which, thanks to great eyesight and careful targeting, headed straight for Eevee.
Joseph knew Eevee could not avoid Flame Wheel as the attack was spread out over a small distance. Thinking on his feet, he yelled "Eevee! Quickly burrow underground!" Eevee did so immediately, and was given a few valuable seconds to do so, as Ponyta searched for it and took aim. Although Eevee got most of its body underground, when the attack finally reached him, it still managed to scorch its tail, although it did not do too much damage because of the earlier charm. Outside, everyone heard a small cry of pain before Eevee's slightly blackened tail disappeared from view completely. Joseph waited for a few seconds so that Eevee could burrow some way towards Ponyta. Then, shouting with all his might, for he knew it would be hard for Eevee to hear orders while underground, he yelled "Eevee! Eevee! Get underneath Ponyta and use Doubleslap, but do it quickly or Ponyta might trample you!" he yelled. Everyone waited, most holding their breaths. Suddenly, without any warning at all, Eevee burst into the light from directly underneath and, while still in the air, gave Ponyta a powerful doubleslap with its tail.
And then, it fell. Ponyta sounded a cry of pain before toppling to the ground. "No!" cried Mrs. Kawulsh. "You did extremely well, Ponyta," she said, quietly. "Return." And Ponyta gave a soft neigh before being engulfed by the red energy. "So, Joseph, I see I've underestimated you. Looking at your pokemon during my classes, I should have known that your Eevee would be quicker than most. Congratulations. But, this battle ain't over yet, so I'll skip the rest. Now, are you ready? Let's get going, Delcatty!" she cried in her powerful yet high-pitched voice.
Meanwhile, from the nearby rooftop, Mark Witsinski was shaking its head in disgust. "Pathetic!" he thought. "Look at his pokemon! They all have weak attacks. What's the use of sand attack? Or doubleslap? Or tackle, for that matter? They were al weak and worthless moves, moves only weak trainers and their dumb pokemon heading down the road to Loserville had those moves" he continued viscously in his head. Yet, in a small part of his mind, he felt uncomfortable at these thoughts, especially since they were directed at his ex-best friend. But frowning at this thought, for in his mind he thought it made him look weak, he pushed this thought as far back into his mind as he could. What he did not understand, could not grasp, was that rather than making him look weak, it made him look human.
So anyway, from the pokeball appeared a pokemon with about the same basic physical appearance as Eevee, although it was in fact about three times larger, Joseph knew. Joseph also knew that this was a fairly new normal- type pokemon to be discovered in the land of Hoenn, so it contained many mysteries to humans. Eevee knew this too, and in fact knew most of the things Joseph knew, for Joseph had always been gradually teaching almost everything he learned to his pokemon after school, so that one day, when the need arose, all of his pokemon could act without Joseph and his orders and guidance, to think for themselves, and also so they could help Joseph outside the battle arena.
"Eevee!" shouted Joseph. "Quickly, charm it first!" And so once again Eevee smiled charmingly at Delcatty and blew some kisses. Then, it ran up to Delcatty and rubbed Delcatty, before springing away quickly and dropping its smile. It then sat there as it watched Delcatty, who was dreamily standing there, no doubt in its own imagination and pokemon heaven.
"Oh no! Not again!" complained Mrs. Kawulsh. "Man I hate that move. Ummmm.. Now let's see, how can I beat that Eevee? That's right!" she exclaimed, suddenly brightening up. "Delcatty!" she yelled at the top of her voice. "Snap out of it!" and indeed, Delcatty stopped its daydreaming immediately, but was obviously still infatuated. However, it was of no surprise to anyone that Delcatty was roused, as Mrs. Kawulsh's yelling at the top of her voice hurt everyone's ears, students and teachers alike, and even Eevee's ears hurt. "Now, sing attack!" she cried, again making everyone's ears hurt.
Although usually amongst the politest of young men, Joseph couldn't help but think and laugh at the thought that Mrs. Kawulsh would be the pokemon ever-her screech would make any pokemon refuse to battle! With reluctance, dwelling on that thought for just another split-second, he finally pulled his mind away back to the pokemon battle. As a result of his tireless research into all the teachers' pokemon (for they did not know who they would be fighting, and so he looked up all of them, being the person that he is), he was expecting this, and pulled out some giant headphones to block out the song. Looking across the arena, he saw Mrs. Kawulsh doing the same thing, but smiling at the same time. However, headphones were of course frowned upon as cheating, and since he had yet to come up with a plan to combat this without an item, he was at a loss to do.
Meanwhile, Delcatty looked at its trainer once more, reluctant to attack Eevee, for it was still under the influence of infatuation. Seeing the stern look of its trainer, Delcatty reluctantly broke into its mystical and mysterious song. Eevee stood its ground, but soon succumbed to the song, beckoning to the lair of dreams, and rest. With a sigh, for it was tired by the battle, it slumped to the ground, sound asleep. Delcatty looked at Eevee sorrowfully at what it had to do.
"Eevee!" shouted Joseph trying to wake Eevee up, for although usually it would be to no avail, Joseph was very intuitive and had a knack for noticing tiny details, and thus he had seen not only the hesitation of Delcatty, but had also seen that which no-one else, not the teachers nor boys or girls, had seen-Delcatty had been holding back during the singing. Joseph was relying on this fact to wake Eevee up earlier than someone usually could after experiencing a Sing attack.
"It's no use, Joseph! Eevee won't wake! Will you give up this round?" she asked, pausing for his answer. But, at the stern shake of his head, she said "Very well. Delcatty, doubleslap now!" she yelled. Slowly, again hesitating with reluctance, it moved towards Eevee, and, raising its tail, prepared to use doubleslap. But again, it looked at its master, who was by now very annoyed but still patient nonetheless. "Come on, Delcatty. Please, just attack Eevee," she said, somewhat slyly. And so, Delcatty turned back to Eevee and did a doubleslap attack, which by no means was a weak attack; indeed, the force of the two slaps made Eevee roll about, before Delcatty ceased its onslaught.
"Eevee!" Joseph shouted, still confident of his theory. "Get up! I know you can!" yelled Joseph. Suddenly, amongst all the talk around the arena, the sound of the wind and pidgey calling out, one muscle in one of Eevee's legs twitched. Slowly, the word spread, and everyone hushed. The wind stopped its constant ripping and tearing at the branches of the school's deciduous trees. Even the lock pidgey suddenly took flight for no apparent reason. Joseph, Mrs. Kawulsh and Delcatty had all noticed the movements of Eevee from the start, and were all amazed. The big difference, however, was that Joseph and Delcatty were happy that Eevee was okay, but on the other hand, Mrs. Kawulsh was extremely annoyed and surprised, for most beings took a few hours to wake up after hearing the soothing song. Eevee yawned, rolled over, and opened its eyes, the quickly jumped up as it noticed it was in an unusual environment. When it finally realised where it was, what it was doing and what had just transpired, it immediately went into battle stance.
"Great to have you back, Eevee!" called Joseph ardently. "I was beginning to think I was wrong. That charm attack really payed off, didn't it?" he asked. Eevee nodded energetically, even though Eevee was slightly hurt from the last attack. "Great to have you back Eevee!" said Joseph, looking down at Eevee. He looked back up again. "Well, let's finish this round, Eevee. Tackle attack!" he ordered. Eevee readied itself, and then charged towards Delcatty, who was still smiling coyly towards Eevee, until Eevee slammed into Delcatty with great force. Delcatty, who of course did not try and avoid the impact or try to block it, was knocked back a fairly long way, and finally stopped. It did not get up again.
"Delcatty, no!" yelled Mrs. Kawulsh. "No," she repeated, much quieter this time, before silently returning the fainted Delcatty to its pokeball. "Yup, Joseph Maros, you're definitely better than I thought. I guess I should congratulate you. You used your abilities, combined with your pokemon's abilities to great effect. Now, go, Delibird!" she said, throwing her pokeball with less excitement than she might have at the start of the battle, but nevertheless with energy. "Do your best, Delibird. Make me proud." She said to it quietly.
"Deli, Deli!" it cried, definitely with more zeal than Mrs. Kawulsh at the moment. Delibird had a red Santa Claus type body, and white fur pretty much everywhere else on its body. It also had a white bill, stubby white wings (or arms, whatever you want to call them), and of course its trademark item, the sack of presents. It hopped around cheerfully, even waving at Eevee.
"Okay, Delibird! Fly up high so that Eevee can't charm you again!" yelled Mrs. Kawulsh. With a cry, Delibird quickly flew up, so that from the ground, all they could see was a small round shape. "Now, Delibird, pepper that Eevee with presents!" she ordered. Delibird reached into its sack with its short arms, grabbing four glowing, multicoloured presents at a time. Then it started throwing them as quickly as it could down towards the ground, and Eevee. However, since Delibird had to fly so high up in the first place, although no attacks could be made against it, it could not effectively use attacks against Eevee either, because of Eevee's wondrous speed and agility. This presents landed left and right of Eevee, but none hit it. But, Mrs. Kawulsh had a plan. "Delibird!" she yelled at it. "Remember our discussion earlier, execute pattern B!" she cried.
At this, everyone fell silent, waiting to see what pattern B was. Delibird called an affirmative from high above, and started resuming presents. At first, everyone thought it was a bluff on the part of Mrs. Kawulsh. Yet Joseph couldn't shake the feeling that something was up. Gradually, after about twenty seconds of constant bombing by Delibird and twenty seconds of dodging by Eevee, Joseph noticed that Eevee was no longer where he was at the start of the bombardment; in fact, Eevee, he finally noticed, was only about two metres from the posts separating the arena from the crowd, and Eevee was, with every dodge he made, jumping one more step towards being trapped in the corner.
"You have to admire the strategy!" thought Joseph. "But the only problem is it's so good it's pretty much impossible to prevent from a basic pokemon on the ground which relied on physical attacks. And so Eevee kept on backing up without really intending to, but only realised the mistake it had made and the cleverness of the Delibird when it had touched the corner post.
"Great, Delibird!" called Mrs. Kawulsh. "Now, just keep up the aerial bombardment and we can finish Eevee," she continued.
"No, wait!" shouted Joseph from the other side. "I know I can't win this. Return, Eevee. You win that round!" he said, returning the trapped Eevee to its pokeball. Looking down at the pokeball, he said "Wow, you did great Eevee. You took out two of her pokemon." And with that, he returned the pokeball to his belt. "Now, who to chose?" thought Joseph to himself. "Okay, let's finish where we started, come on out, Spoink!" he yelled out loud. From his pokeball again burst a small shape, which immediately started bouncing. Spoink was also a pokemon from Hoenn that his father had caught on a business trip for him.
Spoink was a strange pokemon. It had a pink ball of some sort on top of its head, and had a large, round face with a similar nose. It also had tiny ears, which an unobservant traveller might miss. But most strangely of all, was that it had a spring rather than a body and legs, much like a tail. In fact, it was taught that by bouncing, it made its heart beat-and if it ever stopped bouncing, Spoink would die. "Now, Spoink!" cried Joseph. "Confuse Ray attack!" he ordered. For Delibird, everything went black. Then, suddenly, an eerie ray appeared, focusing on Delibird. Then for Delibird, for a moment all was forgotten. When the darkness left, it suddenly felt extremely giddy, in fact, more giddy than it had a right to be in a pokemon battle. Indeed, for no apparent reason, it started lobbing presents into the sky above it! Unfortunately, because it stayed still, and because it threw the presents straight up into the air, Delibird was hit by about six of its own presents! With that, it gave a cry, for the confusion had worn off, but getting hit by so many presents had taken its toll, and it hit the ground hard. But, amazingly, miraculously, it started slowly and tiredly getting up.
"We can't let it recover, Spoink!" he shouted to his bouncing pokemon. "Use psychic attack now!" he cried. Spoink nodded and retreated inside itself, preparing to use its psychic powers. Then, with fury, it attacked Delibird's mind. No-one at the PTS knew what was happening to Delibird, save that it was being attacked. It thrashed about for about ten seconds, before succumbing to the attack, and finally collapsing. This time, it stayed there.
"The match goes to Joseph Maros!" cried the referee. All of the students cheered, and Joseph waved, along with Spoink, before returning the little thing to its pokeball, and heading back to the lockers.
"Delibird!" cried Mrs. Kawulsh. "Well, you took out that infernal Eevee! I'm proud of you," she said gently. Then, she returned the fainted Delibird into its pokeball and in turn the pokeball to her belt. "You're much better than I thought, Joseph. Congratulations! You'll do very well in the Johto Pokemon League if you continue like this, very well indeed," she told him, before turning and walking back towards her office.
Of course, up on the rooftop, Mark was shaking his head disdainfully. "I don't get it!" he thought furiously. "My pokemon were much better than his, my battles were more amazing, more impressive, yet all the kids didn't cheer for me at all!" Of course, being the person that he is, he was absolutely fuming. "I'll show them!" he thought, a thought interrupted by the sound of his stomach grumbling. "I'll show them all right.. Right after I get some lunch!" And finishing with that thought, he hungrily ran downstairs towards the canteen.