Ch.5

Teamwork

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"Alright golden streak lets make this quick so the baby can go suck on his thumb. Use rock polish followed by rollout!" Zach shouted with pride as now he too looked upon his reflection on the gym floor.

Golden Streak flexed his muscles before a bright white light blinded Maris and the entire student body in the gym before being hit what felt like a runaway freight train.

"Ha, ya like that? From what you obviously couldn't tell is that all that polish on Golden Streak gives rock polish that extra "shine" to his coat. It's like a flash bang grenade going right off in front of your petite gerbil's eyes!" Zach smugly shouted to his surprised foe.

Maris gritted her teeth as she felt herself sailing through the air and with the discipline of a samurott, righted herself midair and pushed off the wall. Golden Streak got out of his shell in time to avoid an axe kick which shattered the floor underneath him like glass. The Megaton pokemon barely managed to turn his body sideways as he managed to see Maris prepping a kick right as she bounced off the wall and if that hit him…he didn't even want to think about it. He briefly saw Maris glowering angrily at him as jumped to the side to avoid getting in close combat with her. If it's one thing he learned from Zach, it's too never get into close-quarters combat with a fighting type pokemon.

Zach let out a small chuckle before once again speaking to his opponent across the gym.

"Okay, so what? You're shitty little twig is tougher than I thought. Well, everything has its breaking point and we're going to find out how much it can take!" Zach yelled arrogantly at Dmitri as he let his shoulders drop after what he saw Maris do.

Maris let a crazed smile come onto her facial features as she dropped into another fighting stance and waited for Dmitri's orders.

"Okay Maris, um...use meditate then when you're done with that use force palm…please," Dmitri reluctantly said to his partner.

"(Aye aye, captain,)" Maris smirked as she mimicked a naval seaman and gave a mock salute.

Maris, just like with incident all those years ago, quickly inhaled through her nose and exhaled before she felt the oh so familiar surge of power course through fiber of her being. Maris then rushed forwards with her hands on guard as she prepared to strike the still astonished Megaton pokemon.

"Golden Streak don't just let that little shit hit you! Use rock polish once more!" Zach shouted to his frightened pokemon.

Golden Streak once again covered himself with pure white light in the desperate hope that it would blind his opponent and keep her away from him. As soon as Maris saw the sheen of light on his shell, she covered her eyes and continued to rush forward.

"(That won't work twice on me!)" Maris yelled with vigor as she closed her eyes and let her other senses guide her.

If Zach and Golden Streak were disturbed before, then now they were truly trembling in fear as they saw the still oncoming Martial Arts Pokemon not even fazed by the blinding ethereal light.

Quick as flash, Maris's energy covered hand made contact on Golden Streak and sent him flying with a brilliant yellow blast from her palm. Golden Streak hit the wall behind Zach with an earth shattering thud and lay unmoving on the ground for a few, agonizing moments. Zach's eyebrows nearly flew off his face as he saw his pokemon go from being right in front of him to being launched violently in the air.

Maris apathetically looked on as she didn't expect her opponent to get up and continue fighting. Maris's eyes slightly shifted as she witnessed her opponent painfully pull himself to one knee and then agonizingly struggled to his feet.

Maris eyes shined briefly before giving a nod to her opponent and once again shifted into fighting stance, but this time more relaxed.

"You stupid friggin' excuse of a pokemon! You better not quit on me ya hear me! You'll fight whether you're near death or if you're in a body cast! You will not fail me here by losing to these disgraces known as battle rookies! Ya hear me!" Zach viciously and mercilessly roared at his barely conscious pokemon.

Maris eyes softened when she heard what Zach said and decided to end this quickly. Sprinting forward with her hand covered in a green, unstable energy she prepared to use drain punch to make this as painless as possible. When Maris's and Golden Streak's faces were mere inches away from each other, his face seemed to say "Please don't do it."

Maris would not show mercy on this day as she prepared to strike him down and just as her fist was about to make contact Dmitri's loud voice soared across the gym.

"Maris stop!" Dmitri yelled at Maris in concern for Golden Streak.

Maris stopped her attack just as it was about to make contact with the petrified pokemon and jumped back to her original position during the start of the battle glaring at Zach menacingly all the way. She wasn't about to just leave herself open to attack by the downed Megaton pokemon.

"This fight is over Zach. Take your Golem to the infirmary and have him checked for the injuries he sustained during the battle. We will not fight again until you learn to take better care of your pokemon and your already frail mentality," Dmitri said to Zach as a parent scolding a naughty child.

Maris and Delia raised their eyebrow as they never heard Dmitri talk to someone this way even when he was pissed off. He always seemed to want to resolve conflicts as soon as possible or just shy away from them altogether. Maris assumed it was the way Zach was treating his pokemon that got him all riled up.

Meanwhile

"Your son is quite the battler. Makes me wonder why he's still a battle rookie," Hope asked suspiciously to Karen.

"Dmitri is still a battle rookie because of one thing and I think you and I know why that is," Karen stated bluntly to the psychiatrist as she averted her gaze back to the gym floor from the second floor.

"He relies too much on what the books have taught instead of experience from actual pokemon battles. Books can only guide you on what you can do, not what you should do in battle. Though he is breaking out of that habit as we both saw," Hope answered back to the battle master with his voice never faltering.

Karen raised her eyebrows before chuckling a bit and stifled her laughs before speaking again.

"Y'know, when I was a battle rookie when my teacher was showing us stuff he stopped in the middle of his lesson to tell us something. He told us the techniques he was showing us were good for practice, but not for an actual battle," Karen said to Hope calmly.

His silence meant that she could continue with her story.

"Of course, I didn't take him seriously and when test day came for me to be tested on my abilities, Stephanie and I lost, and lost baaadly." Karen dragged on her sentence just to emphasis how badly she was defeated.

"I cried my eyes out before my teacher put a hand on my shoulder and led me to his classroom. He told me that I could have won if I hadn't relied too much on what I was drilled to do in sparring. I yelled at him telling him that it was all his fault that I lost, but he told me right back that it was mine and mine alone. I realized then that because I was drilled repetitively in doing something that it wasn't exactly the right thing to do during combat," Karen stated flatly.

It was Hope's turn to laugh as he ran his hands through his hair and stared at Karen, letting her continue.

"Just like Dmitri, I did what the teacher said because I thought it was the right thing to do. I realized that my teacher can only guide us, not tell us what we should do during pokemon battles," Karen said dreamily as she happily remembered that day.

Hope smiled a bit before saying something as well.

"My teacher told me something as well. We were running similar drills to yours and she told us that it's ultimately up to our creativity on what we should do during combat," Hope said happily to Karen.

"Indeed, it's up to us what we choose to do during battle, not the drills or books," Karen told Hope plainly.

Karen gazed upon her son's determined eyes before smiling warmly and staring at Hope once more.

"Well Mr. Creative, when it's time I hope you'll be able to test my son when he's ready," Karen said jokingly to the psychiatrist.

Hope smiled calmly to Karen and put his hands on his hips as two red glowing eyes materialized from the wall behind him to form a cackling shadow like creature with a Cheshire grin plastered on its face.

"You won't have to wait long then," Hope said as he wildly grinned at Karen.

Serenely Karen put her hands on her hips and got right into Hope's face.

"I know you won't disappoint when you do," Karen smugly said right back to Hope.

"Now then Mr. Creative, how bout' we get a cup of coffee in the teacher's lounge?" Karen asked sweetly to Hope.

"I would like that," Hope said as the shadow never left his side; snickering the entire way to the teacher's lounge.

Meanwhile

Delia quickly recovered from her shocked state and decided to make the result of the battle official.

"By means of knockout battle rookie Dmitri is the winner of this match," Delia shouted professionally.

Zach muttered something incomprehensible before recalling Golden Streak and stalking off; slamming the doors behind him.

The student's inside the gym where dead silent before breaking out into a chorus of cheers and applause for Dmitri. While Zach was still a crappy battle ace, they still thought that he would be too much for Dmitri and his loyal partner. They were proved wrong as Dmitri beat the odds and emerged victorious.

Delia nodded happily at Dmitri before crossing her arms over her chest.

"Had this been Dmitri from three years ago he would have lost. He would have relied too heavily on strategies from the training guide and hoped they would have worked. Not this time though as while his strategy was straightforward, it was his own. I certainly look forward to battling you Dmitri when your full potential as a trainer awakens," Delia thought as she smiled at Dmitri.

The happy mood was broken when Mr. Yamamoto walked into the room with the vein on his forehead pulsating at a tremendous speed. Dmitri was the first to speak to him as he stared wide eyed at the demolished gymnasium.

"Sir, I thought you-"

"Thought I took the money and ran? Nah, that punk is having an up close and personal talk with the principal for his childish actions of trying to bribe a teacher and starting fight with another student," Mr. Yamamoto said tiredly to Dmitri.

He looked at Dmitri for a while before continuing.

"So the reason I was gone so long is because it took me a hell of a long time just to convince the headmaster to punish the wealthiest asset this school had and even then his punishment is rather soft," Mr. Yamamoto said as he furrowed his brow, never wanting to be in that situation ever again.

Dmitri didn't bother to ask what his punishment was assuming that he was off the hook yet again for another misdeed he should have been punished more severely for. Dmitri just shrugged his shoulders and sighed before running up to Maris and catching her in a flying hug with both of them tumbling to the ground in a fit of giggles.

"You did great out there Maris, I couldn't be happier!" Dmitri exclaimed happily.

Maris's face turned tomato red when she realized how close they were before addressing her best friend.

"(First you make me fight an overgrown lizard then you make me fight some huge ass pebble with arms. What's next some sort of gigantic weasel?)" Maris asked playfully to Dmitri as she rolled him off of her.

Delia laughed at the duo before releasing her Haxorus and gently petting him on his head with Delia getting a gentle cooing in response.

"You should have seen Maris today. She's improved vastly since our last battle and I feel she could give you a decent fight for a moderate amount of time," Delia stated bluntly to the Axe Jaw Pokemon.

All she got was an irritated roar in response which entertained her to no end.

"If Dmitri continues like this, I might just have to use our ace just to stalemate him," Delia said in a matter of fact tone.

Haxorus shivered slightly at the mention of Delia's ace and couldn't even fathom Maris being able to fight her to standstill. It seemed impossible to do, but if Delia believed she could, then that means…ugh.

Maris was going to pay him back sooner or later for smashing her to the ground.