Day 2: At an advantage
Alain rubbed his head for the third time that morning. He had slept very little last night, due to Gordon snoring like thunder the whole time. Plus, he he'd been dragged to the girl's table in the cafeteria this morning by a very insistent Jacklyn.
When he had woken up this morning at five A.M., Gordon had still been asleep. He'd dressed and gone down to the cafeteria, only to find he was an hour early for breakfast, and couldn't stay there untill it started. Thus, lacking anything else to do, he had wandered the halls for an hour, thinking about Marian and that he missed her, about his upcoming battles, about anything at all. He went completely around the building four times before six o'clock came. Turned out it he wasn't the only one waiting for breakfast. Ten other people were waiting outside the cafeteria when he came around the fourth time. He had decided just to hang back and let them go in and settle before he followed.
Biggest mistake of his life.
Jacklyn had come around the corner at six on the dot. She had walked over to him and had an arm around his before he could even register what happened. "Hey there, I was hoping to bump into you this morning. You can sit with me." Thus she nearly dragged him through the breakfast line and to the table they were seated at right now. If that wasn't bad enough, Jacklyn had invited several other girls to sit with her at the table, and was holding a conversation with them about clothes and jewelry and such, none of which he cared about at all. And to top it all off, she was practically leaning against him.
Alain rubbed his head again.
"Hey, Jacklyn, how's it going?" It was Brittney. Just what he needed.
"Going good, how did you sleep?"
"Fine, I guess, my roommate keep tossing and turning and leaving the windows open."
"Oh really? Who's your roommate?"
"She's-"
"Good morning, everyone." Another girl walked up and dropped her tray on the table. Alain glanced over at her, then did a double take. He knew this girl! Apparently she knew him too, because the next words out of her mouth were, "I remember you! I battled your Mega Charizard! Your name is, hold on, Alain? Yes that was it."
"That's right," he returned, "and you said your name was Astrid."
"So what are you doing here?"
Alain looked at her skeptically. "I'm here for the Mega Evolution Seminar, same as everybody else. Isn't that why your here?"
"That really wasn't what I meant," and she smiled deviously, "I meant, why are you at the girl's table? You didn't really strike me as a ladies man."
Alain felt his face heat up slightly. "I invited him over here, and he nicely accepted," Jacklyn broke in. "Isn't he so nice?"
"Sure is," Brittney answered. Astrid didn't answer, just kept that devious smile on her face. Brittney kept talking without noticing this. "Jacklyn, how do you always get people to like you so easily?"
"It's a gift," she answered simply. Alain covered his face with one hand and groaned. Could this morning possibly get any worse?
"So," Astrid began, "are you two dating or something?"
Alain growled to himself, got up, and left taking his tray with him. As he left he heard Jacklyn say, "Don't worry about him, he'll come around. They always do." He rolled his eyes. He would never, ever let Jacklyn do that again. Never.
He chose another seat on the far side of the room to eat. Trying to block out everything and everyone was at least easier over here without anyone leaning on him as if he was their only means of support. He managed to finish his meal in peace, and as he did, Steven walked in, flanked by Zara.
"Good morning everyone, and welcome to day one of the Mega Evolution Seminar. If everyone is about done with breakfast, we'd like to move out to the courtyard."
Outside, the battle field was being leveled. "So," Steven kept taking as he walked, "we are going to have several preliminary battles before we begin the competition. These battles don't count toward the competition, they are just to help us see what your strengths and weaknesses are. You will all fight in two battles, one today, and one tomorrow. One battle will be at an advantage, the other at a disadvantage. Now we have tried to make these matchups as close to advantage or disadvantage as possible, but everyone must battle twice, so some of the battles may not be as clear cut as others. We will hand out numbers this morning so you can see when you'll battle. That's all."
"So now we get to battle," Alain said to himself.
A tall man with white hair and a black seaman's jacket stepped up beside Steven. "I'll be handing out the numbers. Don't anyone lose theirs, we don't have any replacements." Several people shiffted nervously. "So what are you waiting for? We don't have all day!" the man burst out. Alain saw, out of the corner of his eye, Zara face palming.
Everyone filed through and received a number. "Looks like our battle field is ready," Steven observed, "so let's get started. Which two people have a number one?"
Two girls stepped forward. One was rather short, had cropped brown hair, green pants, a lavender shirt, and a sweeping white vest that hung open in the front and went down past her knees. "I'm Yvette," she said. The other was taller and stockier, with dusty jeans, brown boots, an unbuttoned plaid shirt with a white tank underneath, and a brown cowboy's hat. "I'm Maxine," was her comment.
Steven turned and nodded to someone behind him. To Alain's surprise, Sidney stepped out of the shadow of a tree at the back of the courtyard. "Alright, everyone who's not battling, either leave, or head to the outer edge of the yard. You two may take your positions. I'll be the judge for this match."
Everyone moved to the edges of the courtyard, and Yvette and Maxine took their places. Alain noted that one trainer position was marked in blue paint, the other in red. "For these matches, the trainer said to have the advantage with stand in the red box, and the trainer said to have the disadvantage will stand in the blue box," Sidney explained. "Both sides will use one Pokemon each. The side with the advantage will send out their Pokemon first. Both sides must Mega Evolve at some point during the battle. The battle will be over when either side is no longer able to battle. Understood?"
A "Got it," from Maxine in the red box
A "I understand," from Yvette in the blue box.
"Then battle begin!"
"Go Steelix!" Maxine threw her pokeball hard into the middle of the field, and the Iron Snake Pokemon hit the ground with a cry of its name.
"All right Gardevior, let's do this!" And Yvette tossed her pokeball into the air, releasing the Embrace Pokemon in a flash of light.
"Do you mind if I stand here?" The question snapped Alain back to reality. In a shot of panic, he whirled to face who he thought was Jacklyn, but instead found himself face to face with Zara. "I can go somewhere where else if you want," she said, clearly alarmed at his reaction.
"No, you're fine," he replied.
"So, first thing we get to see a Mega Steelix. How cool is that?"
Alain just shrugged.
"Wonder what moves it knows? Probably all physical moves, or mostly physical at least."
"You act like you could care less about Mega Gardevior." he said.
"Well, I've actually seen several Mega Gardevior before, so it's really nothing new. It should be fairly easy for the Mega Gardevior to take on a Mega Steelix, since it is so powerful."
"We'll see," was all he said.
"Steelix, start this off strong! Iron tail!" Maxine shouted.
"Dodge it Gardevior, then use Psychic!"
Gardevior dodged, then lifted Steelix into the air, and let it drop heavily on the ground, resulting in a small amount of damage to it.
"Enough small talk, let's show them your real power," and Yvette pulled a necklace out from beneath her shirt set with a shimmering keystone. "Gardevior, Mega Evolve!"
Gardevior's Mega stone around its neck shown and releaced blue bands of light, which connected with the gold bands from Yvette's keystone. They colided and in a blast of energy, Gardevior mega evolved.
"Well, we'll follow suite. Steelix, Mega Evolve!" And Maxine touched her keystone on the brim of her large hat. Steelix's stone and her keystone reacted, and Steelix Mega Evolved. "Now use Iron tail!"
"Use Psychic."
Gardevior raised Steelix once again, and dropped it, but this time Maxine was ready. "Steelix, use Dig!" As Steelix fell to the ground, it repositioned itself, and dug into the ground.
"That's going to be hard to dodge," Zara commented.
"Gardevior use Double team."
"Or not," Zara said.
Steelix burst out of the ground, and hit one of the Gardevior, and...all the copies disappeared.
"Impressive," Zara said absentmindedly.
"Lucky hit," Alain countered.
"Are you always this negative?"
Alain shrugged again.
"Now Steelix, use Iron tail!"
"Dodge, Gardevior!" But the Embrace Pokémon just wasn't fast enough. The attack hit it squarely on the head. "Gardevior, no!"
"Steelix, Iron tail once more, finish this!"
"Gardevior, double team!" The iron tail came down on a copy, but it was the wrong one. Stellix was surrounded by Gardevior.
"Now Gardevior, use Hyper voice!" The Hyper voice made contact, and Steelix doubled over from the damage.
"That did a lot of damage," Alain said curiously.
"It's Mega Gardevior's Ability, Pixilate. Any normal type moves it knows are turned into fairy type moves, and their power is increased." Zara explained.
"How do you know that?"
"Like I said, this isn't the first Mega Gardevior I've seen."
"Hyper voice, one more time!"
"Dig!" The dig attack burst through and struck Gardevior, "now Iron tail!"
"Double team!"
"Use Aqua tail, and spin all the way around!" Maxine commanded. All the copies were wiped out and the real one buckled under Steelix's tail. "Now iron tail!"
"Dodge!" Yvette yelled in a panic. But it was too late. The Iron tail made contact, and Gardevior was thrown against the back wall. It hit the ground, fainted, and in a flash reverted to its normal form. "Gardevior! Oh, no!"
"Gardevior is unable to battle, so Steelix wins. Therefore the victory goes to Maxine!" Sidney declared.
Yvette recaled her fainted Pokemon, and whispered something Alain couldn't hear, probably praise for how well it had battled. Maxine recalled Steelix as well.
Sidney spoke up, "After we relevel the battle field, we'll have the second battle. Who's got a number two on their card?"
Zara raised her hand and stepped out of the crowd. A boy from across the courtyard stepped out as well. "I'm Zara."
"I'm Alex," he returned.
"Well good luck, Alex. May the best trainer win," Zara said as she walked out toward the field. She took her position in the red box. Alex faced her in the blue box.
"You both heard the rules already, so no need to repeat them," Sidney said. "Are you both ready?"
An, "I'm ready," from Alex in the blue box.
A "Ready," from Zara in the red box.
"Then battle begin!" Sidney shouted.
Zara immediately threw her pokeball with a shout of, "Sceptile, at the ready!" Sceptile gave a tremendous cry as it hit the ground.
"Go Swampert!" Alex yelled, and his large blue Pokemon landed on the battle field.
"Alright, Sceptile, Mega Evolve!" And Zara touched her keystone in her Mega Bracelet. It reacted with Sceptile's Mega stone, and Sceptile mega evolved. Alain suddenly realized how much Zara looked like her partner. Her clothes were the same color as Sceptile's skin, the green vest matched the leaves on her Pokemon's chest, and her hair that had five ponyta tail holders in it, all with colored beads on them, the first three yellow the fourth orange, the last red, just like the balls on her Pokemon's back. Even her eyes matched, being a golden hazel color.
"Swampert, Mega Evolve!" Alex shouted, and his Pokemon's mega stone reacted and Swampert mega evolved.
"Since we have the advantage here, we'll let you go first," Zara offered.
"OK Swampert, use Hammer arm!"
The mud fish Pokémon raced toward its opponent, it's arms glowing with energy. Zara didn't even bat an eyelash as it approached. Then at the last second, she commanded, "Dodge and use Leaf blade!"
Alain watched in interest as Sceptile dodged smoothly and sliced a Leaf blade attack up Swampert's side. Sceptile was normally a very fast Pokemon, but this was something else. Clearly her Pokemon had been raised well.
"Your Sceptile is fast! Impressive, but it'll take more than that to knock us out. Now use Muddy water!"
"Dragon pulse!" The two attacks colided and fought for dominance, but Dragon pulse won out, and Swampert was thrown back against the wall by its power.
"Now leaf blade," Zara commanded.
Sceptile closed in, but Alex wasn't giving up that easily. "Use Ice punch!"
Zara stiffened in what Alain thought was shock. She had no time to react, and the Ice punch hit Sceptile in a direct hit, knocking it back across the field. "Your Swampert is strong," she commented.
"Great job, Swampert!" Alex praised. "Now, Ice punch again!"
"Intercept with Leaf blade!" Zara shouted. The attacks colided, and the two Pokemon fell back, evenly matched. "Now Dragon pulse!"
"Dodge, Swampert!" Swampert moved but not fast enough, and the Dragon pulse threw it into the air. It fell to the ground and reverted to its normal form. "Swampert!" Alex ran onto the field and knelt beside his fainted Pokémon.
"Swampert is unable to battle, so Sceptile is the winner. Therefore the victory goes to Zara!" Sidney announced.
"Great job, Sceptile." Zara walked out to her Pokemon and rubbed it on the nose. In return it thumped her on the head affectionately. "Hey, cut that out! Sceptile, return."
Alain was impressed with her performance, though he tried not to show it as she walked back over to her place beside him. She had knocked out her opponent very quickly, even with the large advantage she'd had. This was one trainer he needed to pay more attention to. She would be a strong opponent if he had to face her later on. However, he said none of this out loud as she stood next to him. Instead he said, "So, Mega Sceptile?"
"Yeah, he's my strongest Pokemon. Also my first Pokemon."
"You fought well."
"Thanks, but we were at a big advantage. Our victory was just taking advantage of the situation."
Sure was. But she could at least take the credit for it. Alain thought.
The day went on, and several more battles took place. Jacklyn battled a trainer named Eric with a Mega Abamasnow and won. Brittney had fought the boy Jacklyn had bumped into earlier, named Wally who had a Mega Gallade, and had won. Wally had come over to Zara afterward very depressed, and she had cheered him up. It made Alain think of Marain. A Mega Salamance had faced Gordon, who owned a Mega Glalie, and had lost. Astrid had faced a Mega Hectogross and lost. He'd even seen the boy with the Mega Venasaur he'd faced a while back in there somewhere. Several other battles were fought, but Alain couldn't remember them all.
Finally it was his turn.
He was the in the last pair of the day to battle, he found out, and his battle took place late, as the sun was setting. Steven had taken Sidney's place as the judge half way through, and now he was judging Alain's battle, against a girl named Penny. Most of the trainers had cleared the courtyard to go have supper, but Zara, Wally, and Jacklyn still watched from the sidelines.
"You both understand the rules, I suppose?" Steven asked.
An "Of course," from Penny across the field in the blue box.
"I understand," Alain said.
"Then battle begin!" Steven said.
"Charizard, let's go!" Alain released the Flame Pokemon, and it landed with an energetic cry.
"Lopunny, take the stage!"
"Lopunny?!" Alain exclaimed.
The large brown and white Pokemon landed on the field with a graceful flourish. It wore a Mega Stone around one ear in a silver band of metal.
"That's not a disadvantage!" Jacklyn shouted from the side lines. "This is outrageous! I demand a redo!"
Steven glanced at Alain. After supressing yet another eyeroll, Alain said "We'll still win this. Charizard, Mega Evolve!" He touched his keystone, and Charizard Mega Evolved.
"You can try, but your not going to win. Lopunny, Mega Evolve!" Penny cried. The Rabbit Pokemon Mega Evolved and gave an energetic kick. "Start things off with High jump kick!"
Alain just let Lopunny hit his Pokemon. He wanted to see how much damage it would do. When it connected, Penny immediately ordered another High jump kick.
"Dodge!" Alain commanded. Charizard dodged the high jump kick by flying above it, letting Lopunny take the crash damage. "Now Thunder punch!"
"Lopunny, intercept with Dizzy punch!" The attacks collided, and the two Pokemon fought for control, but Charizard won out in the end, sending Lopunny spinning across the ground.
"Flamethrower!"
"Use Ice beam!" Both attacks connected and damaged their marks. But Lopunny was still down on the ground, trying to get up. Or so he thought.
"Use Dragon Claw!"
"Use Bounce!" Charizard was knocked of it's path by the Bounce attack hitting it's wing, and it fell to a crash landing on the field below.
"Alright, Charizard, use Blast burn!" Lopunny had already landed from it's Bounce, and had no time to go anywhere. The blast burn knocked it out, and it reverted to its normal form.
"Lopunny is unable to battle, so Charizard wins. Therefore the victory goes to Alain!" Steven declared.
Penny quickly recalled her partner and ran off. Alain walked out to Charizard and stroked it on the head. "You did very well, thank you. Charizard return!" He turned to leave the courtyard and finally go get something to eat, but someone had other plans for him.
"Alain! Oh, Alain, that was marvelous, just marvelous! How did you do it?" Jacklyn shouted. She crossed the field and once again had him by the arm before he could even register what had happened. "You won even without the disadvantage they said you would have! You are just marvelous! Come on now, how about we-"
"Alain!" This was Zara. "That was great!"
"Sure was!" Wally pipped up.
"Why don't you just run along, Clumsy. Can't you see we're talking here?" Jacklyn said spitfully, addressing Wally.
Wally backed off and looked ready to run for it, but Zara didn't scare so easily.
"What do you mean calling him Clumsy? In case you don't remember, you bumped into him." She said evenly.
"Like I said yesterday, your not worth having an argument with. I'm going to eat, are you coming Alain?"
Alain just gave her a glare.
"Well, feel free to come whenever you want. I'll save you a chair!" And she left with a cheery wave.
"She's so mean." Wally said. "Thanks again Zara, I don't know what I'd do without you."
"She was getting on my nerves." Zara replied. "Well, we should probably go eat too." Turning to Alain, she asked, "Want to come sit with us?"
"Alright."
They filed through the line and chose a table to themselves. "So Wally how was your first day of Mega Evolution training?" Zara asked after taking a bite of hamburger.
"Fine I guess. I lost the first battle I was in, so that wasn't great."
"Don't feel bad, after all, none of this counts toward the competition, and you were at a big disadvantage."
"So?"
"So, you couldn't use two of your Gallade's moves, plus the ones you could use weren't very effective on that Mega Baynette. And to tell you the truth, Brittney just had luck on her side today."
"I don't think I'm ever going to be strong enough to give you that rematch I wanted."
"I'm guessing you two know each other well," Alain interjected.
"You bet we do!" Wally exclaimed. "Zara was the one who caught me my first Pokemon, a Ralts."
Zara smiled thoughtfully. "That was a while back, wasn't it? Back when Sceptile was still a Grovile. And we've been friends ever since, haven't we?"
"Sure have. Even though you've helped me a lot on my journey, you really are a lot stronger Zara."
"I don't know about a lot stronger, but maybe a little bit."
"Don't try and spare my feelings, I k-know it's true! Even my dad said so!"
"Who is your dad?" Alain interjected again.
"He's businessman from Petalburg City. He's a great dad, but he can be a little overprotective at times. But I still love him."
"And what about your family, Zara?" Alain asked
"Not really much to tell, except they're from Fourtree City, or they were," she said shortly. After a moment of Wally still staring at her waiting for a better answer, she said, "I'm going to get seconds. Anyone else? No?" And she got up and went back to the supper line.
"She n-never answers that question," Wally said disappointedly.
"Why not?"
"I have no idea. Everytime I ask her, though, she clamperls up like that, and won't tell me anything else. Zara's the best friend I have, but she never v tells me anything about her family. Sometimes I think she must be ashamed of them or something like that. But, I can't complain. She different than all the rest of the people here."
"Different how?"
"For starters, she treats me like a normal person and not a little kid. I am twelve afterall, and sometimes my parents still treat me like a kid. But Zara treats me like an equal. She's nice. Sometimes I worry about her though. She's always doing something that even I don't think is safe. Like climbing trees all the way to the top branches. Sometimes I think she'd rather live in a tree than on the ground. Or climbing on the roof of this place. She did that last night. But, everyone is weird in one way or another, I suppose."
"Why are you telling me all this? Won't she mind?" Alain asked.
"You're her friend, aren't you?"
"... Not exactly."
"Oh," Wally said bluntly. "W-Well, she's sticking around you, so I guess she doesn't dislike you. Wait, that c-came out wrong. Anyway, I was g-going to say that any friend of Zara's is a friend of mine."
"Thanks, I think."
"So, what's your home like?"
"And I'm back," Zara said and set her tray down on the table. "What did I miss?"
"Alain was just about to tell me what his home is like."
"Not very interesting." Alain said. When Wally gave him a disappointed look that reminded him so much of Marian, he added, "I used to work as the Professor's assistant in the Kalos region."
"Really? Did you like it?" Zara asked.
They talked for a long time, untill Wally yawned, and they decided to call it a night. Alain went to his room, showered, and when he got out Gordon was in his bed, snoring his head off again. I'm never going to get any sleep he thought. He lay in bed for a while, but Gordon's snoring was too loud, and kept him awake. He finally got up and opened the window, thinking the fresh air might help him.
A moment after he had opened the window, he heard someone singing. But not from three stories below, from above his head. Who would be on the roof? he wondered, but then he remembered what Wally had said at supper:
"I saw her climbing on the roof of this place last night."
"Zara?" he called out.
Nothing.
Then, suddenly, a head came over the edge of the roof. "I thought that was you. How did you know it was me?"
"Wally said you were on the roof before," he said surprised.
Silence fell for several moments. Then she asked, " Do you want to come up?"
"How did you even get up there?" he asked in bewilderment.
Another moment of silence. "The fire escape?" She said, clearly embarrassed. "So are you coming up or not?"
A minute later he stood beside her on the roof gazing at the beautiful view it provided of the Hoenn region.
"This is the best view Hoenn has to offer," Zara said, "unless you want to climb Mt. Chiminey. Then you can see all the way to Mossdeep."
"Do you come up here often?" Alain asked.
"Everyday. This is the only place that I can relax and let Sceptile out without worrying about people bothering me."
"Sceptile!" Said Pokemon came closer to its trainer, and rubbed it's head against her.
"Char," Alain's Charizard growled low in its throat. The two Pokemon had been at odds with each other since they'd been let out of their pokeballs.
Zara say down on the roof with Sceptile behind her, her leaning against her Pokemon. Alain sat down with Charizard behind him.
"So I'm not bothering you?" Alain asked.
"No, I don't mind. You can come up here whenever you want. Most people don't want to come up, they're afraid of falling." After a moment she added, "You were really good today. In your battle, I mean."
"Thanks, were honored by your words of praise," he answered, scratching Charzard's neck.
"Your Charizard is really strong."
"So is your Sceptile."
"Thanks, but you might not be saying that tomorrow when we face our disadvantage battle." After a pause, she went on, "You have many friends at home in the Kalos region?"
Alain suppressed a sigh. "One."
"Yeah, same here really."
Alain shrugged. Silence fell for several minutes. Zara stared out at the forest. Finally, she broke the silence. "I probably need to get to bed. I'll see you tomorrow. Sceptile return."
She turned and was about to jump over the edge of the roof to the fire escape below, but stopped herself, and turning back to him said, "Maybe the Champion was right about you."
"What do you mean?"
"He said he thought you would be a good friend for me to make, since he knows I don't have many. 'Night." And with that, she jumped over the edge of the roof.
Alain stared at the spot she'd been standing in for a long time thinking about what she had said. He eventually went back down the fire escape and to his room. Gordon was still snoring when he got there, but somehow it didn't bother him as much. He fell asleep soon after he laid down.
Xxxxxx
Sorry for the long update on this, but I hope it was worth the wait.
