Sorry for being so late on this chapter, I was a little busy with quite a bit of stuff.

I'd like to thank everyone who submitted a character, and everyone who reviewed! Thanks to some constructive criticism I got to know of all the mistakes I made in the first chapter. Constructive criticism is welcome, because I need to improve with every chapter.

And so here's chapter 2!

AN: 'this' is Eren thinking

The principal's office was in another building, much shorter in height than the dorms but considerably wide. It was a part of the main student office, the headquarters of the school, or at least that's what the sign outside the building said. Eren walked behind the man who had arrived on the scene a few minutes ago to prevent a fight between him and the tall boy, who was silently walking alongside him.

The boy walked with his gaze fixed on the ground, his face was expressionless and Eren couldn't tell what he was thinking. He didn't seem scared or nervous about meeting the principal less than a day into the school year. Not that Eren was nervous, he had no reason to be.

'Huh, maybe this isn't the first time she's done something like this." Eren mused.

The boy had certainly surprised Eren, asking for a battle and then going as far as to attack his friends just to make him call out his pokemon. He seemed restless and aggressive. Eren hated to admit it, but he was a bit judgmental of people at first glance. So to Eren the dark haired boy seemed like a delinquent. He didn't have any visible tattoos or piercings, but that was only being stereotypical. He was quiet, which meant that there was the possibility of him being a loner.

Eren looked back at the boy. He had quite a bit of muscle on him on top of being tall, which mingled with his blank face making him look slightly intimidating. He was wearing a pendant of some kind, but the object at the end was hidden inside his black hoodie. There was nothing else about him that really stuck out.

"Over here, follow me," the man instructed.

They walked into the building and went straight to the end of the hall. The interior and ceiling was similar to the underground tunnel, mostly made of marble. The ceiling was upheld by tall cylindrical pillars of thick glass. There were a few people moving around, with files in their hands and talking with hasty tones on the phone. It looked like the other staff members were handling the students across the campus.

The man grunted. "Causing problems the minute you set foot on the island, you've got guts, or maybe you're just stupid."

Eren bit back a retort. No use in making things worse. Even the boy didn't say anything.

The man led them to a wooden door, which was bigger than any door in the building as far as Eren had seen.

"Wait here," he said, and he opened the door and walked in.

Eren and the boy stood in silence without saying a word to each other.

A minute later, he popped his head out the door. "Come in."

Eren and the boy walked in and stood in front of Clara Autumns, who was sitting behind her desk.

She was writing something on paper, and there was a stamp pad next to her arm. Without looking up, she spoke.

"So Mr. Benson here tells me that the both of you created a scene and had your pokemon out, and were just about to get into a serious battle, not to mention damaging school property, just before he arrived. Care to explain what happened?"

Eren knew the boy wouldn't say anything, since it was his fault. So he told the principal what had happened, starting from when he was walking with Reyna and Adelaide, up till the moment Mr. Benson arrived. Autumns looked at Eren with observing eyes, paying attention to everything he said without saying a word herself. Her intense gaze took in everything he said, but her face remained stoic.

"Then Mr. Benson came and told us that he was going to take us to you." Eren finished.

Autumns remained silent for a few seconds, then addressed the tall boy.

"Is there anything you want to say in your defense…Derek Raymond?"

Derek looked surprised that the principal knew his name, but he shook his head in reply

"No ma'am, it's my fault."

Eren was taken aback by the respectful way he replied. He had expected him to be ignorant or stubborn.

"Refrain from acting like that again Mr. Raymond, or you'll have to face the consequences," Autumns warned. Derek nodded silently.

"I'm also talking to you Mr. Fenrir," she then said to Eren.

"But I'm not at fault here Mrs. Autumns," Eren said, confused as to why he was also being scolded.

"While it's true that you didn't do anything wrong, just think about the situation. You dodged the lightning well enough. Don't you think your friends could have done the same? From the way you told me the situation, it doesn't sound like they're incapable. You became agitated too quickly with the situation and out of desperation called out your pokemon. The way you handled it is commendable, no doubt, but this could have been prevented had you taken everything into account."

Eren stood speechless. She was right. Reyna could have definitely dodged it, and would have pulled Adelaide to the side with her, and then he wouldn't have been in this situation.

Autumns held up her hand. "In my opinion, you did good Mr. Fenrir, I'm impressed. And don't take what I said too hard. After all, you've come here to learn and be prepared for anything. You learn through mistakes."

"Thank you Mrs. Autumns, I'll keep what you said in mind so that I can take a better decision next time," Eren said, straightening up.

"Same here," Derek mumbled.

Autumns brought her wrist up and checked her watch. "Looks like it's already time for the orientation."

She got up from her desk and passed both the students, only stopping at the door to say, "You might want to get to the stadium as quick as possible, I'll be saying some important stuff there, and you'll need to listen to it. Both of you are the first freshman of this year that I've met, and both of you seem promising in your own unique ways. Work hard and show me just how good you are."

She finished with a smile and closed the door as she left.

Mr. Benson hadn't said a word during the time in which Autumns was present in the room. He faced the two first years with a scowl on his face. "You got lucky this time. Stay out of trouble or I'll bring you back here, and then we'll see if you get away with it," he threatened. Eren was unimpressed, but he found it funny honestly. He opened the door and stormed out, leaving Eren and Derek alone in the room.

"What a stingy guy," Derek growled.

"I'll agree with you on that," Eren commented.

The two boys looked at each other. A few moments of silence passed before Derek spoke up.

"Look here, I'm not going to apologize for anything, so don't even say ask me to. I'm not really even sorry just so you know."

'And for a minute here I though this guy was decent.' Eren thought.

He shook his head. "I didn't expect you to be either. But apologize to my friends if you can, you could at least do that much."

Derek thrust his hands into his pocket and turned around.

I'll think about it," he muttered.

He turned to leave, taking a few steps before Eren called out, "I'll battle you."

Derek turned around, an unreadable expression on his features. "Huh? I didn't get you."

Eren sighed. "I'll say it again then. When classes start and we're allowed to, I'll battle you. So keep your shit together till then and don't attack random people."

Derek grunted.

"Whatever, don't chicken out when the time comes," he remarked, heading to the door.

Eren grinned as he caught a faint smile play on the corner of Derek's lips.

"Yeah sure, in your dreams."

By the time Eren exited the main office, Derek was gone.

"The hell? He's already gone," Eren said to himself, swinging his head around to see if he could see Derek's tall figure in the distance.

He couldn't see the boy anywhere, but he could see the stadium, which was situated not too far from where he was. He adjusted the chest strap of his backpack and tightened it, making sure it was tight enough to feel comfortable and perform its job of not letting the bag slip. He stretched a little before getting into a running pose.

"Gotta get there in time. Come on Fenrir, 3..2..1..Go!"

He dashed off at after the word 'go'. Technically the directions were unknown to him, but seeing as the stadium was in sight he just made a beeline for it. The wind felt cool on his face as he bolted through the campus. He passed and darted through students who were in the way, having a few close calls but not bumping into anyone.

Eren loved to run. It was refreshing and he always felt more energetic after a nice run. He didn't get tired much as it was a habit of his to run a little each day. After all, there should be at least some physical activity every day.

Eren spared a quick glance at his watch. Surprisingly, half an hour had passed since the whole incident with Derek and Autumns had occurred and it was nearly six o'clock. The sun wasn't setting anytime soon since it was only September. Fall hadn't even set in completely, so breezes were the only thing besides good weather.

When he neared the stadium he saw that it was huge, as huge as the professional stadiums shown on TV. He saw a small number of students heading through an entrance on his left. He made a sharp turn and sprinted there. He didn't slow down there and swerved carefully through the people up the stairs.

He stopped once he reached the end of the stairs and in the seating area. He unbuckled his chest strap and looked around for Adelaide and Reyna, moving to the side where he wouldn't block the other first years that were coming up. He raked his tousled hair back its original style, a rebellious lock of dark chestnut loosely hanging above his left brow nonetheless.

Eren saw that the stadium most certainly wasn't filled completely. He took a wild guess that there were about three hundred students present at that moment. Quite a number of first years.

"Eren!"

He searched to see who had called him. The voice had come from his left and he turned to see Reyna waving at him from the benches, Adelaide beside her. He jogged his way to them, jumping around the benches.

"Yo! When did you get here?" he asked, flopping down on the bench.

"It's been a while, but never mind that! What happened with the principal?" Adelaide prompted.

"Nothing really, she let him off with a warning and me with some advice. And she said she expected good things from us as freshmen. She gave me some good advice honestly, she's experienced and knows her stuff," he said, taking his backpack off and placing it near his feet.

Reyna shifted next to him and Adelaide sat next to Reyna.

"She let him off after what he did to you?' she said with an edge to her voice.

Eren laughed. "Chill Reyna, nothing happened, so no worries!"

He put his arms behind his head.

"I promised that gu-Derek. I promised Derek a battle once classes start. It's better than him going around pestering everyone for a battle," Eren said.

Adelaide relaxed into her seat. "Well everything got sorted out in the end, so we're good. Oh and look! Autumns is here!"

Both Reyna and Eren directed their attention to the main field, where a small podium had been arranged in the center. There were two men, probably teachers Eren guessed, standing on either side of the podium. Both of them were tall, the one on the right more than the other. The man on right was very muscular, with thick and burly arms. His hair was grey, nearing white, and of neck length. He seemed to have tied it in a small ponytail at the base of his skull. He was wearing a black muscle shirt (which definitely accentuated his muscles) and khaki cargo pants. A necklace hung from his strong neck, displaying something that looked awfully close to teeth. He was scanning the crowd of students. Eren saw an eager expression on his face as if he were waiting for something to happen sometime soon.

The other teacher looked normal compared to him. He stood a few inches shorter and had brown hair that reached his shoulders. His skin was sickly pale in color and he had a slightly sharp jaw. He was dressed in beige slacks and a navy blue button-up shirt with an ivory tie to match.

Autumns was making her way to the center with another lady, who walked behind her. Maybe a secretary or something like that. The other students hadn't noticed her and were still chattering amongst themselves.

Autumns stepped on the podium and adjusted the mic. The other lady stood behind the podium, the three people surrounding it making a triangle. Autumns cleared her throat into the mic to get everyone's attention.

It effectively worked, and all the students settled down, silence hanging over them.

Autumns spoke loud and clear.

"Hello students, and welcome to Affinitive Academy! My name is Clara Autumns and I'm your principal. It's a pleasure to see you all reach Quake Island safe and sound. As you know, this will be your home for the upcoming three years. In these three years, you will learn many things, things that you may never even have heard of. This is a place for you to hone your skills and achieve greatness."

She took a pause to look around. Applause resonated throughout the stadium.

"All the teachers here strive to help you all reach your respective goals, and they will devote their time in making sure you're ready for anything. If you have any problems don't hesitate to meet a teacher or me. Now, there are certain rules that we have in the academy which are to be followed. First of all, no battling inside the school premises unless you have a permit from a teacher or some authority is overlooking it. Second, curfew is at midnight. Any student seen outside after that time should know that he or she will face the consequences. Third, if any student is caught using any kind of drugs or alcohol on the campus, then that student will be expelled without a doubt."

She took another pause, this time no one making so much as a sound. The two supposed teachers stood unmoving on either side of the podium, a steadfast gaze set on the students.

"That's all for the main rules, you'll get to know more soon as your teachers tell you."

Autumns beckoned the lady behind her, speaking a few words into her ear. The woman nodded, and scurried back to where they had entered from.

"Another thing to keep in mind is that various events are carried throughout the year and active participation is encouraged. This is the place to shine and show your efforts and talents. There are three semesters and examinations will be held at the end of each semester. Other subjective tests are the decision of the teachers." She put her hands on her hips and beamed at the first years. "That's the gist of it! Now this wasn't mentioned in your letters so think of it as another greeting, although this happens every year, no freshman ever gets to know of this tradition beforehand. We present to you, an exhibition battle between our top battle students who have just entered their third year!"

There was a series of collective gasps from the freshmen, which then turned into cheers.

"Whoa!"

"This is awesome!"

Eren himself was surprised and an a little excited on the inside. A battle between the top battle students of the academy? COOL.

Autumns held up her hand. "Hold on a second. First things first, the earlier announcement for the other students to return to their dorms was done mistakenly, and they have the permission to view the exhibition battle too. Make room for your upperclassmen everybody, and get to know them!"

She stepped down and the man wearing the button-up shirt dragged the podium away. The grey-haired man went into a conversation with Autumns, both of them deep into it. Eren was curious to who the man was. He wanted to know. Something about that man just seemed really…cool.

Adelaide was trying to contain her piqued emotions, but wasn't doing so well with it. She was jumping up and down on her seat.

"We're actually going to see a battle between the top battle students!? That's so AWESOME!" she squealed.

"Aye, calm down," Eren said, chuckling at her antics.

"I'm more excited to see the pokemon that they have, just how strong do you think they'll be?" Reyna wondered out loud.

Since Reyna aspired to be a pokemon breeder, it was a little obvious that she would think more about other peoples' pokemon. How strong they were, how healthy they actually were and many other factors were the things she always observed regarding about every pokemon she would meet or interact with. And since she had helped run the daycare alongside her parents, she had met plenty of pokemon and mingled with them.

It wasn't long before the upperclassmen started to pour in and were quick to fill up the rest of the stadium. Eren was surprised by the sheer number of students, hardly any seat was spared. He doubted even half of the second and third years were here to witness the exhibition battle. Being the top battle students of the school definitely meant that they were popular to a great extent, which is why the other students would come to watch their battle.

Maybe he could become the top battle student someday, then he would be really popular and strong. All the students would come to see his battles, and maybe someone would make a fan club for him. Eren laughed to himself. What a joke. That was just dreaming big, being the top battle student would take a lot of hard work and effort. But what if….

"Hey there! Mind if my friends and I take these seats?"

Eren was snapped out of his thoughts when someone addressed him.

His head whipped up to look at a towering figure standing next to him. Well, towering was an overstatement, since Eren wasn't exactly short. The boy seemed to be only a few inches taller than him. His spiky ginger hair caught the setting sun's rays, and it seemingly blazed like a flame. His bright green eyes were like orbs which shone just as bright as his hair. It was a little difficult to see due to the sun being behind the boy, but his face was dotted with freckles and there was a wide grin plastered on his face.

"Not at all, go ahead," Eren replied.

"Thanks. I'm Calloway Fullbright." He sat down next to Eren, while his two friends sat next to him. "I'm a second year student. These are my friends."

He gestured towards the girl and the boy next to him.

The girl, who was quite short, probably just barely touching five feet, gave a friendly wave. She was thin but her limbs were long. She had a heart-shaped face and child-like cheeks, above which were icy blue eyes. Her blonde hair reached her shoulders in smooth waves. She looked very similar to Adelaide in Eren's opinion. She even dressed as fashionable as the blonde first year. Her attire consisted of a soft sea green tunic over white leggings. A sleeveless shimmering gold cardigan was draped over her tunic and reached her knees.

"Hi there. I'm Lillianna Crownfate." The girl introduced herself politely.

"And thaaattt over there is Ves!" Calloway pointed to the boy beside Lillianna.

The boy waved at him. He was only just shorter than Eren, and had dark brown hair on the verge of green, which was combed in short bangs. He had a pair of goggles hanging around his neck for some reason.

"I'm Vesper Greyhound, but I guess you can call me Ves too," he said with an indifferent shrug.

Adelaide and Reyna had heard the three introductions and they introduced themselves too.

"So you're second years right? Who are the top battle students?" Eren asked.

Everyone besides Reyna seem surprised at the question he put forward.

Vesper literally looked at him like he was from a different planet, while Calloway just quirked an eyebrow, his blazing hair blinding Eren momentarily. Lillianna took up the job of telling him who they were.

"It's not really surprising that you wouldn't know actually, so don't mind that. The top battle students of the academy are Zac and Jake. Both of them are from Kanto and are childhood friends and rivals. They've been the top since the end of their first year."

"Oh cool they're from Kanto too!" Reyna exclaimed.

Eren was impressed once again by something on the island.

"Since their first year? Wow that's pretty cool," Eren said.

Calloway joined the conversation at that point.

"They're the idols of a lot of the battle students in the academy. Not to mention their other childhood friend Lily is quite fine too…"

He trailed off as he put a finger on his chin and had the same grin plastered on his face from before, just a bit wider.

"Stupid idiot," Lilianna muttered.

Eren and his two companions chuckled lightly at the older boy's words. He was starting to like these people already. The gates to the stadium had been closed, and the seats full. Down on the field, a couple of people were running to each end and edge, most likely checking for any problems. Autumns could be seen at a corner where there was a small gate, the tall grey haired man still beside her.

Adelaide suddenly jumped up. "Look look! They're here!" She pointed towards the corner where Autumns stood.

Eren saw two boys emerge from the corner entrance, one with a huge smile on his face and the other a calm look. The crowd of students went wild. They were jumping out of their seats and cheering as if they would never get to cheer again. Even Vesper, who had been silent not too long back, was cheering at the top of his voice similar to Adelaide.

Eren whistled. "Hot damn."

Calloway laughed at Eren's comment. "They're great crowd-raisers, that's for sure. But wait till you see them battle."

Zac, the one with the big smile on his face enthusiastically waved to the crowd from the center of the field while Jake, just stood next to him with his arms crossed. He looked kind of cool doing that actually. Autumns walked up to the two third years with a mic in her hand, and addressed the students.

"Looks like there's no need to tell you all to welcome our top battle students, right?"

The cheering only intensified. Reyna covered her ears with the palms of her hand, but had a smile on her face. She looked at Eren.

"Isn't this cool Eren?" she shouted over the commotion. Eren nodded in reply.

Autumns spoke up again and the cheering slowly faded.

"So, for those of you who don't know, these are our top battle students Zac and Jake and they'll show you just what it means to be strong trainers. This will be a one-on-one single battle, are you ready?"

She smiled as the students collectively yelled a 'Yeah!'

Zac lightly punched his friend's shoulder and said something to him. Jake smirked and said something back to which Zac laughed. They turned around and went to opposite ends of the field. Autumns went to the same corner she was in before.

The crowd was silent, eagerly anticipating the start of the battle. Reyna dug into her bag and fished for something. Four pairs of eyes looked at her inquisitively, Eren's not one of them.

She pulled a tripod out and quickly set it up in front of her feet. Her hand went back to her bag and this time she pulled out a DSLR. She mounted it onto the stand and turned it on.

"What are you doing?" Adelaide asked curiously.

"I like photography, and recording battles too. I use it for reference purposes, to usually draw ideas from different battling styles," Reyna answered as she tuned the video settings.

"That's a good thing to do, it could come in handy someday," Calloway commented, his blazing hair blinding Eren momentarily, again.

"Turn it on Reyna, they're about to get started," Lillianna said, drawing the groups eyes to the field.

Zac was talking to the pokeball in his hand while Jake just looked at Zac from the other side.

Autumns cleared her throat, her voice spreading over the area.

"And so, let the battle begin!" she shouted.

"Go Kong!"

"Let's do this King!"

The crowd went wild once again as Zac and Jake tossed their pokeballs in the air. There were two bright flashes and two huge pokemon dropped down, literally cracking the ground beneath them.

"It's Kong! Zac's totally got this in the bag!"

"King is going to wipe the floor with Kong!"

Students were already taking the sides of their idols. Reyna had already started recording and all eyes were on the field. Eren was excited to see how this would turn out.

Jake's machamp, King, flexed his four arms and roared. Contrary to King, Zac's slaking, Kong, just yawned and rubbed its head lazily. Both of them looked strong to Eren. King had the advantage type-wise, but something like type advantages wouldn't decide the battle for such strong trainers. He wondered how this would go down.

Jake decided to take the initiative.

"King, use bulk up!" he shouted. King took a stance and yelled 'Champ!'

He became surrounded with a magenta aura and his muscles suddenly bulked up. It looked like he was going for the stat raisers first.

"Hmm, that's a nice start. Increasing his attack and defense at the start so he can weaken Kong from the start," Eren said.

Calloway and Lillianna nodded in agreement.

Instead of taking a countermeasure, Zac only called out to Kong.

"Don't sweat it Kong, let him come to you. And don't laze around please, I'll give you a lot of bananas if you fight well!"

Kong heard what his trainer said, but didn't respond to it any way.

Jake took to opportunity to try and land a hit.

"King get in close and use cross chop!"

King moved surprisingly fast for such a big pokemon, and he took long and strong strides towards Kong. A few feet before reaching Kong, King leaped into the air. He crossed his arms midair and was poised to land on the big ape.

"Machamp!" King yelled and he landed the hit on Kong. The slaking only brought its huge arms to defend itself. It was a direct hit and Kong's arms took the brunt of the attack. He skidded back, kicking up bits of dust as he struggled to stay firm, but was soon overpowered in an unfavorable position and was thrown back.

The crowd gasped, before cheering again.

"You see that! King struck the first blow!"

"Kong is down!"

"That was a really strong hit, not to mention powered up by bulk up," Adelaide commented.

Vesper nodded. "Jake usually starts his battles with stat based moves to gain the upper hand, and for the majority, they're quite effective."

Eren thought that Jake had a good idea for a solid start in a battle. Eren looked at Kong, who was just getting up, shaking the dirt off of his body. He was shocked to see that the cross chop had barely done anything, and Kong was standing scratching his head as if nothing had happened at all.

Zac smirked. "Kong, use slack off!"

"Slaaaa," Kong said, relaxing his body. He hadn't seemed affected by the cross chop but there were bruises on his arms, indicating that the attack really had been strong. A green aura surrounded his body, and slowly the bruises disappeared and Kong was back to full health.

"Looks like it's back to square one," Lilianna said.

Eren wondered how Jake was going to overcome the 'slack off' strategy. It would be quite annoying if Zac used that frequently. Reyna adjusted the camera for a better view.

"Let's go Kong, use hammer arm!" Zac yelled.

Kong began moving towards King, slowly increasing his pace as he got closer. Abruptly, similar to King he jumped, quite high too. His arm began glowing and he prepared to bring it down.

"Don't let him touch you King, intercept with dynamic punch!" Jake called out.

With two of his four arms glowing, King met Kong's hammer arm with his dynamic punch. The two attacks connected fiercely and an explosion of pure brawn occurred, creating an obscuring haze around the two pokemon. Wind and dust from the explosion battered Zac and Jake across the length of the field and they had to plant their feet in order not to get blown away, along with covering their faces with their arms.

There was a series of 'whoa' and 'amazing!' from the students, who were jumping out of their seats again, pumping their fists in the air.

"Holy shit that was awesome," Eren breathed. He was awestruck by the power the two pokemon packed.

'So this is what it means to be top battler,' he thought.

Calloway and Lillianna both calmly watched, while Vesper and Adelaide were on the edge of their seats. Reyna seemed to be enjoying the battle too.

"Getting everything on tape?" he whispered as leaned towards her. She flashed him a thumbs up.

"Yep, everything."

Meanwhile, the smoke had almost cleared up. Zac and Jake gazed intensely through the haze at their pokemon. King and Kong were both standing not too far from each other, but this time both of them were visibly injured and panting.

"They're so strong!"

"This is what you call a battle!"

Eren had to agree with the surrounding students. This was a battle. Even though he wasn't the one battling, he could feel the rush.

Zac was the first to call out an attack this time.

"Use double team Kong and surround King!"

Suddenly there were copies of Kong enclosing King in the circle. King looked around, unable to readily distinguish which one was the real Kong.

"Now follow it up with yawn!"

Kong and his copies all yawned widely. Seeing them somehow made Eren feel a little drowsy too.

But for some reason, King didn't even try to dodge and he just stood still.

"Huh? Why didn't Jake tell King to jump out of the way?" Adelaide asked, confused by Jake not taking any action.

"I think I have a good idea why." Eren looked at Adelaide. "Let's keep on watching, to see if I'm right."

Adelaide pouted, not happy with the suspense, but didn't say a word.

"Alright King, use stone edge to get rid of the copies."

Jake was still calm, further supporting Eren's theory of what he thought Jake was going for.

King was surrounded by two blue rings and he aimed his four arms out wide. Rocks appeared from the rings and shot out at the copies, making each one disappear. The real Kong only moved to side to avoid the attack.

Before anyone could call out something else, King fell onto one knee, one of his arms on his head.

"So yawn's effects are kicking in pretty quickly," Lillianna noted.

Within moments, King fell back in a sitting position and was instantly asleep.

The crowd gasped.

"What's going to happen now?"

"It's over, it's Zac's win already."

Eren scoffed at the comments. They were so quick to decide things.

"Alright this is our chance Kong, use full power repeated scratch attacks!"

Eren nearly laughed at his choice of an attack, before seeing what Kong did. Kong's scratches were vicious, each one creating gashes on King's body.

Eren shuddered. That was honestly one scary scratch attack.

King didn't awaken even due to the scratches, but there was a faint reddish aura, barely visible, but it was there.

Eren smiled to himself. He had been right. So that was what Jake had been going for all along, but how was he going to use it to his advantage if King was asleep?

"Things aren't looking too good for King," Calloway said, eyes fixed on the two pokemon.

Suddenly Jake cried out.

"Sleep talk King, do it!"

Still asleep, King abruptly stood up, unbalancing Kong. He lashed with his left arm and punched Kong straight in the gut, twisting his fist for some extra power. Kong's face contorted in pain and astonishment as his breath was knocked out of him. All eyes in the stadium went wide open at the sight in front of them.

"Genius!" Eren cried out, a huge grin on his face. He had been right, but he hadn't expected this to happen.

Vesper whirled to look at him. "Come on, spill the beans. What were you thinking of?" Adelaide nodded too, unable to keep up with the suspense any longer.

Eren held up a finger.

"It's pretty easy to notice actually. First Jake lets King get hit by yawn. It made him sleep. Now that's not really a good thing, but Jake used it to his advantage, how?"

Lillianna's mouth fell open. "Guts!" she exclaimed.

"Bingo!" Eren remarked.

"Guts is an ability that increases attack when inflicted with some kind of a status like poison or a burn, you know that. The only problem was how to use guts' power if King was asleep. So Jake used sleep talk, a gamble actually. It could have been any attack, but by the looks of it, Jake got lucky and King used the strongest attack he could at that moment, care to take a guess anyone?"

Everyone looked back to the field, where Kong had landed far from King, whose attack had launched him skywards. Kong had suffered heavy damage and it could easily be seen. Zac was astonished by the sudden turn of events and gawked at his pokemon.

Reyna was the one who answered Eren's question.

"King used revenge. It doubled the damage dealt by Kong's scratches and counting its earlier stat increase, it was one killer move. I wouldn't be surprised if Kong is down for the count."

Vesper and Adelaide were amazed by Jake's genius strategy. Calloway and Lillianna nodded in approval, their heads bobbing up and down. Eren found it amusing how they were in sync with each other. They must have known each other for quite a while or so.

"Nice guess," Eren whispered to Reyna. She clucked her tongue.

"You shouldn't expect any less."

"Sure."

"Not bad guessing what Jake was doing either, I'm impressed."

"You underestimate me, woman."

Reyna stuck her tongue out at Eren.

Adelaide giggled at their interactions. She then pointed to the field.

"Look! Kong is getting up!"

Sure enough, Kong steadied himself. He was quite battered but the lazy look on his face still hadn't budged. He could still move, which Jake wasn't looking too smug about.

"Alright Kong! I need you to get in as close as you can to King," Zac called, happy that Kong could still move.

Kong grunted a reply and began trudging towards King, who was still asleep. The crowd was on the edge of their seats, waiting for what would happen next. Kong was getting closer with each step, and King wasn't showing any signs of waking up. It was a race against time for both the pokemon.

But the winner of the race was quickly decided as Kong stood above the sleeping machamp.

"Now, fire a point blank hyper beam!" Zac shouted.

Jake's eyes went wide and he called out to King.

"Wake up King! Quick!"

But it wasn't heard. Kong's mouth began to form a big ball of pure white energy and looked ready to fire it any second. At that moment, King's eyes slowly creaked open, not even completely recognizing what was happening.

Jake saw that his pokemon had awoken and called out to him again, urgency coating his voice.

"Get out of the way King!"

Kings eyes flew open completely, finally registering what was going on. But it was too late.

"Fire it Kong!"

Everyone gaped, ready to see a point blank hyper beam hit its target..but it never happened. The charged attack disappeared from Kong's mouth and he flopped down.

"What th- oh shit! Why now!" he cursed.

Jake saw it as an opening and ordered King another attack.

"This is our chance King, seismic toss!"

King jumped to his feet and rammed into Kong, grabbing his wide body with his four arms, and hoisting him up with all his might.

"Not good for Zac, it looks like Kong's ability Truant kicked in at the wrong moment!" Lilianna cried out.

Eren understood what happened now. Truant made Kong loaf around, and this was the worst timing possible at the moment.

King was already weakened by the numerous scratches he had received, but he lifted Kong up with pure determination burning in his eyes.

Zac was too shocked to command Kong, and it didn't look like Kong was in any mood to do anything at all.

"Do it!" Jake yelled.

"CHAAMMMMPP!"

King let out a huge cry and jumped, cracking the ground with the reaction force. He jumped high, unbelievably high for a pokemon who had been damaged so much.

All eyes went up as they looked at the sheer strength King displayed. King had reached the highest point and was now starting to drop, Kong in his arms.

King began picking up speed, Kong's weight aiding him.

Eren looked at Zac's face, expecting shock or surprise on his features, but was confused when he saw a calm smile.

'Why is he smiling in such a situation?' he thought.

Zac took a deep breath, and then suddenly shouted, very loudly.

"I'll give you ten times as many bananas if you fight back with all your might!"

Saying something like that seemed very stupid in a way, but it actually broke Kong out of his stupor. He roared all of a sudden, startling King and Jake. Kong wriggled around somehow and locked King in his arms with newfound strength.

Zac laughed gleefully. "That's my boy! Now let's get serious, use your momentum and use earthquake!"

Jake, realizing that an attack of that magnitude could mean deep trouble, called out once again to King.

"Break out of it King!"

King struggled against Kong's grip, but it was pointless. The ape had a grip stronger than iron.

"SLAAA!"

Kong plummeted to the ground faster than King had before and smashed into the field. The crowd was speechless as they watched Kong's attack destroy the field. King was slammed head first into the ground and huge chunks of rocks were uprooted. For a minute it seemed as if time had slowed down. Chunks of the field were floating above ground level. The small rocks and dust were frozen in the air. It was a breathtaking sight. But it didn't stay like that. The rocks crashed back to the ground and Kong rolled off King, who lay in a miniature crater.

Not a single student moved a muscle. All eyes were fixated on the rugged, destroyed field.

Eren had no words for what had just happened. He'd seen many pokemon battles before, online and live, but he had never seen anything like this. Ever. Adelaide, Reyna and the three second years' expressions were similar to his own.

The cheers of the mass of students was riotous. They were jumping and yelling at the top of their voices.

"Whoa what just happened?!"

"What's up with that crazy strength?!"

Zac had a victorious smirk on his face and was getting ready to celebrate, when King slowly got up from the ground, swaying in place a little. Kong looked impressed by its opponent's tenacity.

Jake smiled. "I knew you'd get through it bud," he said, flashing a thumbs up. King smiled and flashed a thumbs up right back at his trainer.

"Look at King go!" Eren remarked, clapping silently. His friends nodded in agreement, too engrossed to reply.

Zac let out a laugh. "I expected no less from my rival. Good job." He adopted a more serious look. "But I'm not letting you win this."

"I don't expect you to make it easy anyway," Jake replied.

The atmosphere around them had suddenly changed. Eren could feel the tension up where he was sitting.

Zac was the first to attack.

"Kong, no slacking off now, we're gonna win this! Use hammer arm on the broken rocks and hit them towards King full power!" he shouted.

In reply, Kong bumped his glowing arms against one another and rushed to the fallen rocks. With a roar he swung his arms around and smacked the rocks. The rocks actually broke into smaller rocks, about the size of ten basketballs, and were projected towards King with deadly precision and power.

"We won't back down either King! Use karate chop and break all the incoming rocks!" Jake commanded.

It was a sight to see. Kong was like a machine who kept pelting the rocks towards the King, who was like a batsman chopping the rocks and sending many of them back. But it didn't last long as King couldn't cut a huge rock. In a last moment attempt to save himself from injury he jumped to the side.

"Not there King!" Jake cried out. But it was too late.

Zac smirked. "Alright, we're finishing it this time Kong! Let! It! Rip!"

"SLAAKINGG!"

King had not noticed that with each pelted rock, Kong had gotten closer. He had been too busy chopping the rocks to see him suddenly appear. A shining ball of white light was in his mouth, and King doubted he would get lucky this time. The hyper beam hit full on and King was launched like toy across the field. He crashed into the wall behind Jake so fast, he barely saw it. Jake and Autumns both rushed to check on the pokemon.

King was literally embedded in the wall, unconscious and unmoving. Autumns looked over King once more before raising her hand and pointing at Zac.

"And the winner of the exhibition match is Zac!" she declared with a smile on her face.

The audience jumped out of their seats and clapped and vociferated.

"Awesome battle!"

"Both of them battled so well!"

Eren and his companions joined in on the clapping.

Eren's heart was thumping against his chest. There was an indescribable feeling inside of him. He felt empowered by it, despite not knowing what it was.

'So this is what it means to be a top battler.'

And that's chapter two! And here are the newly introduced OCs with their respective owners:

Calloway Fullbright- The Awkward Trumpet

Lillianna Crownfate- Oly In Flight

Vesper Greyhound- NitroTheKid88

Don't be disappointed if your character hasn't appeared yet, there's a lot of other ones which I have to manage into each chapter, so bear with me on that.

On that note, submissions are still open, so feel free to submit a character before I close it. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and the battle, I put quite a bit of visual effort into it to be able to write it out.

Thanks for reading!

~Lightning