Chapter 7
A thick blanket of fog covered over the dense forest they were in, making visibility a near zero as the pair of traveling Pokémon Trainers walked through the woods. It was hard to see their hand in front of their face, let alone the path they were walking on. The intense fog was unnerving for everyone, but moreso for Ash, who kept complaining the whole time.
"I can't see where I'm going."
"We're never gonna get to Vermilion City if this fog doesn't clear up."
"How can I even battle against other Trainers if I can't see them?"
"There's probably so many wild Pokémon just waiting for me to catch them, but I can't see any of them."
Finally, Brock had enough, and he stopped in the middle of the trail. "I think we all need a little break!" he announced, placing his backpack on the ground and rummaging through it. Opening the top pocket, he began to unpack everything from a little fold-out table to little tableware and plates for them to eat on while Ash looked on in silence. It was still so interesting to watch Brock set up for afternoon lunch and see the former Gym Leader's motherly side kick in. "Why don't I just throw a little something together. Ah!" Standing up, Brock was holding a coffee pot. "There's nothing as satisfying as a cup of one hundred percent Cerulean coffee. A kid like you is too young for this stuff, but it's really quite good." Reaching into his bag, he pulled out a purple container with a pop-tab. "How 'bout some prune juice?"
"I think I'll pass..." Ash murmured with a disgusted look on his face.
"Well, I have some tea if that's not your thing," Brock continued, not looking at Ash, but suddenly whipped around and showed him a beautiful china set with Pokémon engraved in blue on the surface of them. "Lucky for you, I brought my official Pokémon tea set." Ash stared at the tea set, flabbergasted and unsure of what to say. "Now, of course, the key to good tea and coffee is good water." Placing the tea set down on the fold-out table, he went back into his Mary Poppins bag. "And I just happen to have a generous supply of sparkling, delicious Mt. Moon spring water!" Finally pulling it from his bag, he held forward a bottle of water with a label showing Mt. Moon in all its glory like it was a trophy he had just won at a special conference. "And for 'ze special snack I 'ave for you some crepes," he said with a French accent, and immediately started to prepare it in a mixing bowl with a whisk. "Uh, by the way, I can't cook crepes and I can't boil water if I don't have a fire. You're going to have to go into the forest and carry back some firewood."
"Yeah, I'm going..." Ash moaned, knowing that it was going to come to this eventually. He let out a sigh, and dragged his feet off the path, leaving Brock behind to prepare everything for lunch as he went off to find firewood.
o 0 o
Hands folded behind his head, Ash's feet crunched over the pine needles that he could barely see, as his eyes scanned through the thick white cloud that seemed to follow all around him and preventing him from finding anything at all. He had been searching forever, though in reality it was probably only fifteen minutes, but he was still empty-handed. "Here, firewood! Here, firewood!" he called, as if it were going to come bounding up to him. "No firewood here." His arms slumped down as if something had drained all his energy, and he let out a moan. "Why do I have to do all the dirty-" Before he could continue, a light through the thick fog caught his eye up ahead. "Hm? Hey, that looks like a fire!"
Though the fog made it hard to see, it wasn't doing much for sound, and as he got closer, he could hear murmuring about Pidgey, and the whirring of a machine. But as Ash got closer, he heard a crash, and a figure fell and was thrown off from a treadmill, where it collapsed onto its knees. "I'm sorry... I forgot..."
"You forgot, huh?" another voice repeated, and Ash realized that there were five other figures standing around the treadmill, the light coming from the five figures holding candles. "And you call yourself a Pokémon Tech student? Well, we don't want to study with the likes of you."
"I'm sorry..."
"Hey, leave that kid alone!" Ash exclaimed, rushing up to the scene before it could get any worse. Skidding to a halt before them, all of their heads looked at the newcomer, and now that he was closer, Ash could see they all wore the same uniforms that was very formal looking, complete with a maroon tie hanging from their necks. "What's going on here?"
"There's nothing going on here. Mind your own business," one of the boys answered Ash. "This is a private training session."
"There's no room in our Pokémon school for losers who don't even know Pidgey's evolved stage," another one spat, glaring at the young boy still on his knees. Beside him, the treadmill was still whirring. "We have to maintain standards."
"I don't know about this school of yours," Ash said, kneeling down and helping the fallen boy to his knees. "But if it's turning out students like you, I'd have to say the standards are pretty low." Despite the harsh words, the five students all gave him menacing smirks, and there was a heavy silence that only weighed down in the fog as their faces stared at him with intimidating shadows dancing across them. Ash soon realized the error of his ways, seeing as he was now going to have to fight all five of them at once, and he raised a fist nervously at first, but then quickly put on a mask of determination and got into a defensive position.
However, the five boys snickered, and the leader spoke up. "We don't fight."
"Fighting is for cave men. This isn't the Stone Age, you know."
"And if we wasted our time having a fight with a little insect like you, it would just make Pokémon Tech look really bad."
One of the boys with swooping teal hair that fell over his face stepped closer, and despite Ash's stance and their words, the Pallet Town native flinched back, but the boy wasn't even looking at Ash and looked at the boy with the dirty blond hair next to him, getting close to the boy they had bullied. "We'll see you back at The Tech, Joe."
"Okay!" the boy replied innocently, and all of them turned their backs on the pair and started to walk away.
"Hey! Maybe you cowards are just afraid to fight someone like me!" Ash called after them, and a boy with red hair that fanned out at the sides of his head turned back with a smirk.
"The only thing we're afraid of is how badly we'd beat a little punk like you." And they all chuckled before being swallowed by the fog, their figures only visible by the bright light of the candles they were holding.
"Who do those guys think they are?"
"So those are the infamous Tech students," Brock spoke up, surprising Ash as he appeared through the fog. The former Gym Leader must have been worried about Ash and went to look for him, but it didn't stop him from continuing to make the batter for the crepes as he searched, whisking a bowl in his hands as he watched the candle light grow smaller and smaller.
"Tech students?" Ash repeated.
"Pokémon Tech. It's short for Pokémon Technical, a school for Pokémon Trainers," the boy named Joe elaborated, and reached into the inside pocket of his uniform jacket and handed a flier to Ash. It featured a picture of a large school on the front.
"A Pokémon school in the middle of nowhere?" But before Ash could read it, Brock had snatched it out of his hands and turned it around to read it.
"Let's see what it says here about this place." The bowl of batter was tucked in the crook of his arm as he read it aloud. "'Pokémon Technical Institute: a boarding school for serious Pokémon Trainer preparation. All students guaranteed to enter Pokémon League upon graduation. Pokémon Technical is the educational facility for exceptional students who want to become Pokémon Trainers in a very short time without having to travel on difficult Badge-collecting journeys.' Oh, so that's the story."
"Getting into the Pokémon League without Badges is too easy," Ash commented.
"Wait, there's more," Brock continued. "'Student entrance fees and tuition are in keeping with the highest standards set by Pokémon Technical.'"
"Oh, so it's one of those private schools that only rich kids can go to," the Pallet Town Trainer concluded, and his teeth ground together in annoyance. "Oh, that really makes me mad. Where is this place, anyway?"
"It's right over there," Joe answered, pointing straight ahead to where the boys walked off to.
"Today's special class, Fog-Battle Techniques, is now ending." As the woman over the P.A. system announced this, the fog started to quickly disappear, and straight ahead of them, a giant building that was three stories tall – aside from the entrance that had a clock tower over it – was directly in front of them. There were many add-ons and other building separate from it all around, and they seemed to be standing right in the front courtyard of the school. "Tomorrow's lesson will be Snow Competition Secrets."
Beside him, Joe let out a sigh. "Oh well. I guess tomorrow they'll make me into a snowman again."
"Do they treat you like that all the time?" Ash asked.
"My friends are just trying to help me," Joe replied quietly, his teal eyes staring down at his feet.
"You call them friends?!"
"With friends like that, who needs enemies?" Brock added.
"But they helped me learn that Pidgey evolves to Pidgeotto at level 18, it learns Whirlwind at level 21, Wing Attack at level 31, and then as its level rises, it learns various tricks. After evolving to Pidgeot, it can fly at twelve hundred meters and speeds of up to Mach 2."
"I don't get it. If you know everything about Pidgey, why didn't you just answer them before?" Ash asked with his arms crossed.
"Sometimes I make believe that I don't know all the answers, because if I do they make the questions that much harder," Joe confessed nonchalantly. "But I have to stay here at Pokémon Tech. My mother and father worked hard and saved money so they could pay to send me to school here." His eyes drifted over to a large tree in the corner of the grounds, providing shade to an older man who was sitting and reading. "You see that guy over there? He's an upperclassman. The classes are so hard here, some students are held back for many years! Everyone's too ashamed to go home without getting a diploma." Ash was shocked that the older man wasn't a teacher and instead a student – he was as old as Professor Oak. "That guy, he's in the beginner's class with me."
"You're a beginner?"
"Beginners have the same qualifications as someone with two Badges," Joe replied. "The intermediate class has the qualifications of four, and advanced students have the same as six. If you graduate, you can enter the Pokémon League without traveling around to collect the Badges." It didn't sit right with Ash, and even Brock had a frown on his face as Joe turned back to the older man. "That guy's a beginner, but he's so much older than everybody in the class, the kids don't bother to help him like they help me."
"Well, I for one think this is a violation of students' rights that must stop immediately, if not sooner!" Ash exclaimed, and stomped on the ground. "I wanna meet the student in charge of this system and I'll see that it stops!"
"Hmm, here's a picture," Joe said, rummaging through the inside jacket of his uniform once again before producing a picture. Him and Brock knelt down to look at the picture, which featured a girl with long shimmering dark brown hair that flowed down her back like a waterfall. In the picture, she was talking to other students with a smirk on her face, and there were arms and figures on the sides of the photographs, showing that it was taken in secret.
"What a girl," Ash said in awe, a blush burning his cheeks at the sight of the picture.
"She can violate my rights if-" Brock added, a similar blush on his face, but Ash quickly shook his head and snapped out of his stupor before looking back at Joe.
"If she's making your life miserable, why are you carrying her picture around?" the boy asked.
"I hate the way she treats us, but I like the way she looks," the student replied bluntly, and put the picture away. "Classes are out now, so if you want to meet her, I can take you to where she usually is."
o 0 o
Joe led them to one of the side buildings of the school. And even though it wasn't part of the main building, Ash still felt inferior in every way just walking down the recreational area. His school in Pallet Town was nothing compared to this prestigious academy they were in now. There weren't many students here, and if there were, they had their noses to books, sometimes their eyes scanning the book propped up against something while jotting down notes in an empty notebook with their hands. But for it being a recreational center, there weren't many kids enjoying themselves.
The Pokémon Tech student led them into a room at the far end of the building, and the automatic doors opened to a room full of computers that looked like arcade machines, but something told Ash that they weren't. The only sound in the room was the hums of the electronic devices, but it was so maze-like that it was hard to tell if they were the only people in there as they entered.
"Giselle always practices here by herself," Joe said as he led them inside. "Even if you beat her in a fight, it won't matter to her. At the Tech, it's your skill as a Pokémon Trainer that counts more than winning in any one battle."
"That's what I'm hoping!" Ash said with determination, and reached into the inside of his jacket. When he produced his hand again, he had the Boulder Badge and the Cascade Badge in between his fingers and held them out to Joe. "Because I've got two Badges!" Joe didn't seem impressed, and only shrugged.
"But Giselle is the top beginner here at the Tech," he argued. "That's better than even having three Badges. Even though I'm at the bottom of my class, I'm still more powerful than someone with two Badges."
Ash opened his mouth to retort, but Brock stepped forward with a hardened look on his face. "Now hold on. I didn't go to any fancy school and learned all my skill as a Pokémon Trainer at the Pewter City Gym. Badges and academic achievements isn't everything."
"Oh, Pewter. Rock Pokémon." Joe inputted something into a computer beside him and sat down. The screen came to life. Ash and Brock watched as two Pokémon appeared on the screen, one being a yellow Pokémon with green leaves on the side of its body while the other was an Onix. "I usually play them or Cerulean's Water Pokémon on the simulator. And I always beat them. See?" A bunch of leaves shot out from the foremost Pokémon, which brought down the pixel Onix's health bar to nothing and it disappeared on the screen.
"A simulation is one thing, but this is real life," Brock told him, and produced a Poké Ball from his belt. "I'll battle you to show you."
"You'll be sorry," Joe said, rising from the bench with a knowing smile on his face. Leading them to the back of the room, there was an open area with a small square arena just before screen doors which led out to a deck by the large pool area. Brock and Joe took either side of the battlefield.
"What do you two have to battle for?" Ash whined, wanting a taste of the action himself.
"This isn't just about me, Ash. It's about the reputation of the Pewter City Gym," Brock told him, and then threw his Poké Ball out onto the battlefield. "Geodude... go!" The Poké Ball hit the arena with a hollow sound before bursting open, releasing the Rock Pokémon.
"Geo!" the Rock and Ground-type grunted as it floated inches above the ground.
"Too bad your Rock Pokémon won't be able to beat my plant!" Joe smiled, and pulled out his own Poké Ball. Rearing his arm back, he called, "All right, Weepinbell; let's go!" The Poké Ball bounced and as it flew back to Joe, it released the same Pokémon that was on the simulator Joe had showed them earlier.
"Bel."
"Let's show them what we got, Geodude!" Brock commanded, pointing forward. Geodude gave a grunt and launched itself forward and drove its shoulder into Weepinbell's face. The Pokémon gave a soundless gasp as it was launched past Joe and off the arena, leaving the boy flabbergasted.
"But Weepinbell is strong against Rock Pokémon!"
Just then, a familiar looking girl walked past the fallen Grass Pokémon, appearing from behind the machines. It seemed she had been secretly watching the battle. "True, but there's one thing you didn't know." Ash and Brock looked upon her and instantly recognized her from the picture Joe showed them as Giselle. "Your opponent's from the Pewter City Gym. His Pokémon has much more experience battling. You should have known that." More students stepped out after hearing the commotion, and Ash realized it was the group of boys that had been bullying Joe when they first met. "You're an embarrassment to the whole school."
"But Giselle..." Joe stuttered.
"She's really pretty, isn't she?" Ash murmured, clapping his hands together and resting his burning cheek on them.
"Yeah, she looks just like a movie star," Brock agreed.
"I'm the top student in the beginning class of the most exclusive prep school in the world: Pokémon Tech," Giselle said, closing her eyes and the breeze from the open door running its fingers through her hair. "It's sad that others aren't blessed with my beauty, my talent, my humble attitude." She opened her eyes and smiled. "People call me a star, but I'm just Giselle!" With the introductions out of the way, Giselle folded her hands together in front of the skirt of her uniform and walked up to Joe. "I want to continue to help my classmates be the very best they can be. To teach each other, to respect each other and ensure the Pokémon of tomorrow." Suddenly, her eyebrows came together, and her brown eyes flashed with anger. "But you're a weakling!"
"Ah!" Joe gasped, but didn't have time to say anything else.
"You'd better get stronger fast, or before you know it, your fellow students will turn their backs on you. For good." As if to prove her point, Giselle stuck her nose in the air and spun around, her hair flicking Joe in the face as she went to walk towards the row of boys behind her.
"That isn't right!" Brock called, snapping out of his stupor and taking a step forward, standing beside his Geodude. "You preach all of these things for the sake of your classmates, but what I see doesn't add up with what you say! You should be helping him instead of threatening and insulting him!"
Giselle only looked at Brock with a sideways glance, and gave a chuckle. "I'm not just all words like you say," she corrected, walking up to a shelf of Poké Balls and selecting the top one in the corner. Clutching the Poké Ball in her hand, she turned around and showed him it. "Against your Geodude, I'll choose..." She stood on one leg and raised the ball above her head before throwing the Poké Ball. "Graveler. Goo!" The Poké Ball soared past Joe, and the dirty blond quickly scurried out of the way as the Poké Ball hit the ground and burst open, releasing a living boulder Pokémon with four arms, two of them tucked close to its body.
"Graveler! That's the evolved form of Geodude! Not only that, but they're both Rock-types," Brock exclaimed.
"My Pokémon are at such an advanced level, I won't have any problem with the same type match-up," she explained calmly. Her Graveler also nodded and jumped high into the air, almost hitting the ceiling before locking its beady eyes on Brock's Geodude and looking to land on it. Geodude quickly floated out of the way, and Graveler landed on both of its feet, seeming to shake the whole building.
"Geodude, Seismic Toss!" Brock ordered, but Graveler jumped backwards and spun through the air like a ball at Geodude. The larger Pokémon collided with Geodude as hard as it could, and Geodude was thrown backwards, not stopping even when it crashed through the glass window behind it and crash landed just inches away from the pool. "Geodude!" he cried, and rushed out to help his injured Pokémon. Ash and Joe followed, and as did Giselle and her posse after them.
"You can use a different Pokémon if you want," she offered with a smirk. "But keep in mind that Pokémon are only as strong as the Trainer who raises them. A Pokémon that's weaker but better trained can still win. It depends on the Trainer." Looking back at the kids in uniform, she focused on Joe among them. "I hope you're learning something from this, Joe." The boy perked up, but she continued. "A Pokémon's level of training is just as important a factor as a Pokémon's type in deciding a match. A first-class Pokémon Trainer can calculate that."
"Wait a minute!" Ash cried, tired of his friends being insulted and stepped in front of Brock. "There's more to Pokémon training than calculating levels!" Pulling out a Poké Ball, he threw it out in between him and Giselle, and in a flash of light, his Wartortle appeared. Giselle looked between him and Wartortle and frowned.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Ash Ketchum, from Pallet. And I've already got two Badges!"
Giselle failed to hold back a condescending chuckle and hid it behind a delicate hand. "In other words, you're a beginner." She sneered at him. "And how long have you been trying to become a Pokémon Trainer?"
"Mm.. about two months, I guess," Ash muttered, and Giselle gasped.
"Two whole months and you've only got two Badges?! Not only that, but I can see the fur on your Wartortle's tail is still pretty blue, meaning that it evolved fairly recently. Two whole months and your Wartortle only just evolved? Sounds like you aren't doing very hard Pokémon training."
"That isn't fair to say! Wartortle is my friend, and so is Pidgey! And we train just enough!"
"Is that all you have?" Giselle asked, and the question took Ash off-guard. "That's funny, because even new Pokémon Trainers usually have at least six Pokémon, and you've got two Badges with only two." She turned her head to ask her posse, "He sure was lucky, wasn't he?"
"Every one of mine has the power of three!"
"I wonder. With two months of Pokémon experience, your Wartortle should be at least at level 25, but seeing as it just evolved, it's probably not there, is it?" Wartortle grumbled in annoyance at the girl, knowing it was being insulted. "I suppose you didn't know very much about Pokémon since Squirtle is an easy Pokémon to raise as your first. Squirtle tend to be easy to handle. It says so in any beginning Pokémon manual." Ash only held back a grumble, and Giselle could see that she was getting to him and feigned surprise. "It completely shows! And you got two Badges?! How funny!" She let out a mocking laugh and then closed her eyes. "A Squirtle evolves into Wartortle at level 16, and then into Blastoise at level 36, which keeps its pure Water typing and gets to be about five feet, three inches tall. The Squirtle line have powerful water attacks, but most girls tend to keep it as a Wartortle for its fluffy ears and tail. But I'm sure you knew that. Didn't you?" Once again, she feigned surprise. "Really?! You didn't?! And you have two Badges?" She began to shriek with laughter, and Ash could feel the rage boiling inside him come to a head.
"Knock it off!" he yelled, and Wartortle could sense its Trainer's anger and stomped forward, resting a hand on its extended leg.
"Wartortle!" it exclaimed.
"Let's battle!"
Giselle's eyes flashed with a smirk, and she grabbed a Poké Ball and held it forward. "For your Wartortle, this should be more than a match." Posing as she did before, she threw the Poké Ball forward with elegance. "Cubone, go!" The Poké Ball hit the ground in front of Wartortle, and the Water Pokémon watched as the light from inside poured out and formed into a small brown Pokémon that wore a skull over its head like a helmet, and clutched a bone in its right arm.
"Cubone, bone Cubone, bone."
"This Wartortle is my friend, and it's different from any other Wartortle!" Ash exclaimed, and pointed forward to call out an attack to start the battle. "Water Gun!"
"War!" Leaning forward, a blast of water shot out of the back of Wartortle's throat and soared at Giselle's Pokémon. The student simply smirked, and Cubone held up its bone before twirling it around and around. The water attack hit the spinning bone and was repelled, wetting the cement they stood on everywhere but behind Cubone.
"What?!" Ash exclaimed.
"Wartor!" His Pokémon was equally as shocked that its water attack was deflected.
"Wartortle can't hit it with a weak and direct attack like that," Giselle pointed out with her hands on her hips. "Cubone, start things off with your Leer attack." Cubone gave an utter and glared at Wartortle. For a moment, everything around them became inverted, and Wartortle gave a cry of intimidation before motioning back and forth as if it were confused.
"Wartortle, stare it down!" Ash instructed, stepping up beside the Water-type and pulling at the corners of his mouth and stretching his face downward. "Like this!" Wartortle copied Ash's movements, and pulled at the corners of its mouth while sticking out its tongue. Cubone was surprised by the antic, but it seemed to annoy it more than anything. The two Pokémon slowly stepped up to each other, while Wartortle still continued making its face. When they stopped just inches away from each other, Giselle rushed up beside her Pokémon.
"Cubone, Bone Club, now!" Upon her command, Cubone raised its bone and brought it down hard on Wartortle's head. The Pokémon stumbled around from the blow, clutching its head where it had been hit as it stumbled around like a drunk.
"Hey, that's not fair!" Ash exclaimed, appearing next to Giselle and raising a fist at her, but she simply glared at him in response.
"I'm not playing around. This isn't a staring contest. This is a contest of power and skill between two Pokémon," she stated, and looked back at the Lonely Pokémon at her feet. "Cubone, it's time for the Bonemerang, now!"
"Cubone!" the Ground-type affirmed, and leapt into the air while rearing its arm back. "Cu... bone!" Similarly rearing its arm back like a Trainer would a Poké Ball, the Thick Club in its hand spiraled out of its hand and at Wartortle. The Water-type was still trying to recover from the Bone Club attack from earlier, and couldn't even react before the spinning bone knocked the Turtle Pokémon in the head and onto its back.
"Oh! Wartortle!" Ash gasped, rushing up to his Pokémon. His dark eyes shot from Wartortle to Giselle. "Throwing that bone is a cheap way to win!"
"Well that's Cubone's special attack. It's authorized by the Pokémon League and it's perfectly legal," she responded matter-of-factually with her hands balled on her hips.
"It's still a cheap trick," he argued stubbornly as Wartortle pulled itself up onto its backside. "Wartortle?" His Pokémon couldn't pull itself up onto its feet, however, as Cubone jumped into the air once again and threw its Thick Club at Wartortle once again. The bone made contact as it had before, and Wartortle let out a cry as it was thrown backwards and skidded on the ground before rolling onto its stomach. "Oh, Wartortle!"
Across from them, Cubone caught the club expertly in its hand as it came back to it, and Giselle let out a scoff. "Calling it a cheap trick simply proves your own ignorance," she told him. Ash growled, and clutched his fists as he stared at Wartortle attempting to pull itself together.
"Hang in there, Wartortle! If your opponent's attack is authorized, then fighting back is, too! Give it your best shot! C'mon, Wartortle!" Ash's words of encouragement seemed to work, and Wartortle got itself to its feet, albeit weakly, and glared at its opponent.
"Bonemerang, now!" This time, Wartortle was prepared. As Cubone reared its arm back, the Water Pokémon charged forward. As the bone left Cubone's hand and spun at it, Wartortle ducked low and skidded against the concrete with the bone spinning right over its head. Jumping back onto its feet, Wartortle used the momentum to bounce up and snatch up the front of Cubone's skull, and as it soared over Cubone, it brought the skull with it, twisting it completely around. As Cubone struggled to see and stumbled around, Giselle gasped in shock at the turn of events.
"Go on, Wartortle! Give it everything you've got!" Ash cheered.
"War!" Wartortle smirked, now that it had the advantage, and jumped forward, biting down on Cubone's tail hard. Cubone gave a loud cry of pain. Unable to see the attack, it was wide open, and flailed its arms around. Swinging Cubone around in its mouth, Wartortle switched sides with it and jumped back before taking a deep breath and blasting Cubone with a Water Gun. Without its bone, Cubone couldn't deflect the attack, and was knocked off its feet. The attack hit the Ground Pokémon so hard that its skull spun around and around, finally landing back in the normal position once again. Soaked to the bone, Cubone opened its eyes and flourished at being able to see again just in time to let out a cry of horror as its spinning bone was coming back to it like a boomerang. The Bonemerang hit it square in the forehead, and knocked it onto its back.
"Cubone!" Giselle cried in horror. As the bone clattered off onto the concrete, Cubone got back up into a sitting position and started to cry profusely.
"We did it!" Ash and Wartortle cheered, both of them jumping high into the air and raising fists of victory. As her Cubone cried, Giselle fell to her knees and looked incredibly disappointed.
"I lost..." she moaned. Trying to put a smile on her face for her Pokémon, she retrieved its Poké Ball and held it forward. "Cubone, good try. Come on back, don't cry." The recall beam brought the crying Pokémon back into the ball, and she looked at the sphere when it disappeared. "You'll be okay now." Holding the Poké Ball close to the bow on her school uniform at her chest, she looked both confused and sad. "None of the textbooks ever mention a Wartortle winning by anything other than water attacks."
"That was a once-in-a-lifetime battle," Joe said beside her in awe, and a smile curled the corners of his mouth. "It was a cool match, wasn't it?" Giselle didn't agree with him, and put away Cubone's Poké Ball while clutching her fist.
"I can't believe I lost a match..."
o 0 o
The sun was starting to set when the pair of traveling Trainers were finally prepared to leave. They had left Giselle to think about the match alone, and got the grand tour of the school by Joe. Ash's favorite part was definitely the cafeteria, and for helping him understand Pokémon better, he treated them both to dinner. Sure, they had skipped lunch because of him, but it was worth it, since the cafeteria had food that middle-class folks couldn't even dream of.
All the while, Joe told them that he had made a final decision on what he wanted to do. "I'm going to leave here and go home, and start from scratch with Weepinbell," he told them. "You've inspired me, Ash. Thank you."
"No problem! Anything to help!" Ash boasted, jabbing a thumb towards himself and sticking out his chest.
"Oh brother, now he's got a big head again..." Brock murmured, and Joe and Ash both laughed. As they stepped out onto the front courtyard, at the edge of the pool to the side, they could see Giselle sitting with her feet inches away from the water. And from the small smile on her face as she looked out at the horizon, they knew she had done her own soul searching as well.
"Excuse me for a moment," Joe said, and walked up to Giselle. The two talked quietly, but unlike their last exchange, both of them had smiles on their faces. Eventually, Giselle stood up, and stuck out her hand. Joe shook it, and she finally turned her head to Ash and Brock. With a smile on her face, she approached Ash and Brock with Joe in tow.
"So, maybe we'll battle each other again someday," she stated to them both.
"I sure hope so," Brock agreed.
"Me, too," Ash nodded.
And with that, the two traveling Trainers left the school, making sure to give one last look at Pokémon Tech and the new friends they had both made and inspired despite the hardships. Holding onto the straps of their backpacks, they walked towards the setting sun to continue on the road to Vermilion City.
-end-
Ash:
Party:
Wartortle (Poké Ball)
Moves: Tackle, Tail Whip, Water Gun, Bite
Pidgey (Poké Ball)
Moves: Gust, Sand-Attack, Whirlwind
Badges:
Boulder Badge
Cascade Badge
Brock:
Party:
Onix (Poké Ball)
Moves: Tackle, Bind, Dig
Geodude (Poké Ball)
Moves: Seismic Toss, Tackle
Zubat (Poké Ball)
Moves: Whirlwind, Supersonic
