Same time and place
Nayana and Arielle walked down to the training rooms again, where only eighteen others stood. They were the ones trying out for Group A, the hardest group to get into.
Next, three others walked into the area. One, a middle-aged man with brown hair, held a clipboard with the tryout's names. A green-haired male and female stood to the man's sides, both looking about the age of eighteen or nineteen. The older man wore a black suit, while the other two wore black clothes. Everything, from their shoes to the barrettes in the girl's hair was black. It amazed the others to see someone wear that much black.
"Welcome!" the middle-aged man said. "My name is Charles Denter, but you may call me Charley if you wish. You all have made it past the first part of tryouts. But now, you must undergo the second part of tryouts. These are the only two from last year that are advancing to next year: Lance Grenino and Lucille DelRosen. They are trained quite well, and I think you'll find them quite hard to beat. Right guys?"
Lance was casually staring at Arielle, who was staring at Charley, waiting to hear what was next. Lucille was spacing off, not wanting to fight any of the others.
"Ahem!" Charley yelled. Startled, the two turned their attention back to the man. "You will be hard to beat, right?"
"Of course!" they replied.
"Good. So I'm going to randomly select who will battle who, using this handy computer over here," Charley continued. The man then took a seat at the training room's central computer center. He made the room show a basic room instead of the odd green tiles. Next, he put names into the computer, and soon it had the matches on paper.
"First will be Nayana versus Lucille. Get into the training room and show me what you got!"
Nayana followed the older teenager into the room. Once inside, Nayana took a better look at the girl. Her hair was short, with black barrettes keeping it from her eyes. She wore a short loose skirt, black boots and a tank top. Her gray eyes showed her fierceness.
"You fight in that?" Nayana asked, shocked by her outfit.
"Yah, and I'm one of the best," Lucille replied. "Now forget my clothes and prepare to go down, you newb!" she yelled, pointing at Nayana.
To start off the match, Lucille inflicted much pain on Nayana's legs. If her legs were sore, she would not run and dodge as fast. Nayana knew this strategy, and knew how to counter it. Soon she reversed the pain and inflicted it on Lucille. Unfortunately for Nayana, her boots reflected any psychic powers.
"Hahaha, many people do that. It makes sense, eh? Sometimes boots like this can actually help you, not slow you down," Lucille said, pointing down to her boots.
Next, Nayana formed a sphere of psychic energy. Knowing better than to aim for the lower body, Nayana took a shot at the upper body. However, Lucille saw it coming and blocked it before it could inflict any harm to her.
"Think again!" Lucille said, sticking her tongue at the frustrated teenager. "Sometimes it's not power but strategy that wins you battles!"
"I've heard that too many times from my father," Nayana mumbled. "Like he uses much strategy."
Nayana then decided to be adventurous. Sometimes, trying new things that no one had thought of before would win a person their match. The opponent wouldn't see it coming.
The teenager then focused her power on her hands again, but in a different way. She put her hands next to each other and tried to keep her mind clear enough to imagine a beam coming out of them. Not many liked to imitate the moves of Psychic Pokémon, but sometimes, it would benefit.
Unfortunately, nothing came out of her hands. There was a purple aura around them, but nothing more. The attempt at a beam attack had failed, for her mind had not stayed clear. She had been thinking about how people would react when they saw a new move like that.
Damnit, I need to keep my imagination on the match, not on fame! … But that's so hard… Nayana thought.
"What was that?" Lucille asked, hands on her hips. "Come on, you should try to attack me, not try to be pretty with your poses."
Enraged, Nayana tried another sphere of purple energy. The girl attempted to hit the girl on the head, only to be yelled at by Charley. It was a cheap and quite illegal move, and only people like Team Rocket tried to do such moves. Nayana then blushed, thinking about how stupid she had been to even try. The anger had gotten to her head.
Next, Lucille took the offensive. The girl charged towards Nayana, creating an invisible barrier right in front of her. When Lucille was near enough, the barrier hit Nayana. It was a painful technique that felt like getting tackled in football without your equipment on. In much pain, Nayana fell to the floor. Her head hurt, which was the worst thing that could possibly happen in the match.
How am I supposed to concentrate when I have a headache? Nayana thought. Pushing the headache problem aside as best she could, the teenager got up, still determined to fight Lucille.
"What, your headache isn't that bad?" Lucille said. "You can't concentrate while your head is throbbing…" she said, evil grin on her face. Nayana could feel it more when Lucille mentioned it.
Again Nayana put her hands next to each other. She needed something magic to happen before her headache got too bad. Keeping everything aside, the girl then concentrated her power into a beam form.
The power flew out of her hands freely, so much so that Nayana flew back to the wall. Growing bigger as it got farther, the intense beam of purple energy flew at amazing speeds towards Lucille. The woman could not counter the attack, and she fell to the ground. The beam had more punch than her barrier attack could ever have.
"Owwwwwww…" Lucille said, putting her hand up to her head. "I have too much of a headache to continue. I give."
Nayana was too shocked by what she had just pulled off to care. The move had amazing power and potential. The strongest moves were always too risky to pull off, until now. The new attack had enough energy to pack a powerful punch, yet was tame enough to use in everyday battle.
"I'm a genius!" Nayana said, grinning.
"Yah yah, just get out of the room so we can continue," Lance said out of the room. Nayana could hear the toughness in his voice. She stared into his seemingly orange eyes, seeing a roughness much stronger than Lucille. Nayana then wished she had gone against him, for he had more promise of a good match than Lucille.
"Fine, fine, I'll leave," Nayana said, staring at the man. Ignoring the teenager, Lance stared at the computer, wondering what his opponent was.
There were a few matches before Arielle had to battle. She had to go against Lance instead.
"Haha, she's screwed," the others said, knowing how tough Lance was compared to Lucille. Unlike Lucille, he used brute strength to win battles, something they weren't sure that Arielle could cope with.
Arielle was extremely scared when she entered the room with the man. He was a few inches taller than her, and was slightly muscular. His eyes were shaped like he was permanently glaring at whoever happened to look at him. It creeped out Arielle.
"Ready to be stomped?" Lance asked, staring at the teenager. Gulping, Arielle nodded. She would give it her all to get in.
The match started off fast. Immediately Lance went towards the offensive with ball after ball of blue psychic energy, leaving the girl to dodge or to try to block. The girl soon found herself tiring out.
I'm dead… I'm dead… she thought to herself as dodging yet another ball of energy. The man was too much of a challenge for her, and she knew it. But soon she started thinking about how she had gotten this far, and the look on her family's face when they found out she had given up in the end without trying. It gave her the motivation to go on.
The girl then took note of how Lance was battling. Arielle was good at making strategies on top of her head. Soon she found out how she could possibly turn the match around, hopefully in her favor.
As Lance threw yet another ball at Arielle, she blocked it with a barrier. Swiftly the ball went towards him, and Lance had to dodge. Again Lance threw a ball and again Arielle blocked it. Arielle had the strength advantage, being at an amazing 8.4, while Lance was at 8.0.
So Lance threw the balls of psychic energy only to dodge them. Soon Lance knew he had to change his strategy or the match would never end. He inflicted pain throughout the girl's body.
Arielle was unused to being constricted like what Lance was doing to her. Her loud scream filled the room, and the man cringed. The girl then thought the opposite, and it came though. The pain was gone. Then she tried it on him. It took the man longer to break out, since Arielle was stronger.
"You're tougher than you look," Lance said. "You look like a prep. No matter. It ends here."
The man then charged at Arielle, hoping to just knock her to the ground. Nervous, the girl dodged to the side. Enraged, the man tried again, this time putting up a barrier. Luckily, the girl thought he might try and made a barrier of her own. The barriers crashed, making an area of psychic energy.
"STOP!" Charley yelled. "The energy will harm you both! There's too much! You're too even!"
Quickly Arielle stopped, but Lance did not. In one cheap shot, he knocked Arielle to the ground. The girl could no longer take battling the fierce competitor. She had gotten a headache.
Upset, the girl got up. Tears formed in her eyes. She had lost, and she felt that she would not get in because of it.
I lost… now what? she thought, going outside the room. Smiling, Charley handed the girl some aspirin. Gladly the girl took it, wanting to get rid of her headache.
Nayana looked at the girl. Arielle had come out of the match better than the others who had gone against Lance did. But then again, Nayana had noticed that Lance seemed to have battled differently than with the others.
"Haha, he was holding back," Lucille said, looking at Arielle. "She's not very bruised at all. He tore up the other two," she continued, pointing to the two very bruised ones that had gone up against him. Both of them were holding their heads. "So unlike him. But then again, he was looking at her earlier. That's unlike him too."
Lance glared at Lucille, silencing her.
Eventually, everyone had gone against one of the Timetravelers. Nayana was the only one to win against either of them. But Nayana had won cheaply, so it really wasn't a win in everyone else's book. Everyone else had been beaten, most quite badly.
"Not bad at all!" Charley said. "No blood this year. Someone even won, although it was by sheer luck," he said, staring at her, "and that hasn't happened yet. I think this will be one of the best years ever!"
Nayana and Arielle stared at the man. They wondered how bad it usually was, if Charley was surprised that no blood had been drawn. Arielle then imagined someone in a bloody mess, and she felt sick to her stomach. The girl was disgusted by blood.
"Why is it so tough?" Nayana asked.
"We train tough," Charley replied. "If we didn't, we'd be stomped every day by the competition. Anyway, I have the list here. I combined the scores between how long you lasted against the Timetraveler you faced and the training room time and ten with the best times are hired. Thank you all for trying out. If you didn't get in, better luck next time."
The man then posted a list. Ten other names were on it. Everyone crowded around the list, hoping that his or her name was on it.
Nayana was in no way shocked to see her name at the top of the list. She was fast in the training room, and she was the only one to defeat the Timetraveler she faced.
All right, I got in, she thought, grinning. Money! And revenge against my mother. And maybe if we can get rid of Team Rocket, we'll be famous!
Meanwhile, Arielle was biting her nails, looking for her name on the list. Swiftly she looked down on the list, getting more disappointed as she went down. The girl hadn't seen her name on the top six, or seven, or eight, or nine…
Her name was number ten on the list.
"YAY!" she yelled, startling the people around her. Arielle was quite a loud girl.
"The first meeting shall be the seventh of January in the Pokémon Center, at 7 a.m. CENTRAL TIME! Be late and face the consequences! E-mails or phone calls will be sent out on the sixth to remind you. Bring nothing. You won't need anything," Charley said. "I shall be seeing you then."
Everyone in the room then left to tell their family the news, whether good or bad.