A.N. Oh, look.
A new chapter!
Ohohohoho.
Alrighty! Let's not waste any time with this!
Disclaimer: Pokeeemmaaaannnsss
After the second Water-type battle, in which Irving came out the winner, Freddie directed the crowd's attention back to the matchup screen, where the Grass type matchups were to be announced.
"Match number 1! Trip vs Harriet!" Freddie announced. "And match number 2! Marco vs Angela!"
In the waiting room, both Trip and Harriet stood up and walked towards the two doors that led to the battlefield, the eyes of the entire waiting room on them.
"So what Pokémon do you think Trip will use?" Stephan asked as the doors closed behind the exiting Trainers.
Alex snorted. "Ten to one he'll use that Arceus-forsaken Serperior of his. I wouldn't be surprised if his whole strategy was to just Solarbeam the hell out of Harriet's Pokémon."
On the battlefield, the referee was getting ready to start the match, his two flags ready in hand. "Trainers ready?" He asked, looking at both Harriet and Trip. "Both Trainers are only allowed to use one Pokémon! Battle, begin!"
"Maractus! You can do it!" Harriet yelled, throwing her Pokéball in the air. With a small plunk, a cactus-looking Pokémon landed on the battlefield and did a small dance, shaking its needle-covered appendages.
"Serperior!" Trip called, tossing his Pokéball towards the battlefield. "Let's go!"
"Maractus, use Needle Arm!" Harriet commanded. One of the Cactus Pokémon's arms began to glow bright green as it waddled towards the Regal Pokémon.
"Use Leer!" Trip commanded. Serperior's eyes began to glow bright red as a faint red aura surrounded Maractus, stopping it right in its tracks.
Back inside the waiting room, the three Unovian trainers let out an aggravated sigh, drawing perplexed looks from the other Trainers in the room.
"What are the odds?" Georgia complained, resting her head on her hand.
"I don't even know why we weren't expecting this." Stephan muttered.
"Such a one-dimensional Trainer…" Alex hissed, shutting her sketchbook.
On the battlefield, Harriet was trying desperately to get Maractus to move again.
"We'll finish this off here!" Trip yelled. "Serperior, Solarbeam!"
In the commentator's box, Alder shook his head with a small sigh. "He still hasn't changed very much since the last time that I saw him battle…"
With a resounding explosion, the Solarbeam made contact, covering the battlefield in thick black dust. When the last of it finally cleared, Maractus was lying unconscious in a small ditch.
"Maractus is unable to battle!" The referee called. "Serperior is the winner! And the match goes to Trip!" Harriet shrugged and walked off the battlefield after calling back Maractus. Trip thanked Serperior, then called him back and walked towards the waiting room.
As the battle finished off, Rita, who was sitting on a bench in the Frontier Brain room with the rest of Team Time, shook her head, her green leaf swinging back and forth. "That's so bogus! How could that kid defeat a Pokémon in one shot, especially with a move like that?! It makes no sense!"
Soren nodded, staring up at the screen. "Couldn't have said that better myself. Trainers are so odd."
Grovyle shrugged. "I probably could've, but not in a family-friendly setting."
The other three members of Team Time let out a collective groan.
XxXxXxXxXxX
When he returned to the waiting room, Trip was greeted with an exceptionally cold reception in the form of disbelieving looks and stony glares.
"What's the matter now?" Trip asked, sitting back down on the bench.
"Your whole battling strategy, that's what!" Georgia snapped. "You think that power is the be-all, end-all? Gym Leaders are meant to be obstacles to overcome! You can't just power through all the opponents you face – what happens when you come up against someone who actually knows what strategy is?"
"That was a strategy." Trip retorted, taking out his camera.
"No." Alex hissed. "It was an insult to all strategy. I don't care if you think power is the only thing that matters, Trip, but that was the laziest battling I've ever seen in a long time. If you think that you can just knock out all your opponents with a lazy strategy like the pathetic one you had your Serperior do, then you're a sorry excuse for a Trainer."
Trip looked over at Stephan, who shrugged. "They've got a point, Trip, that was incredibly lazy."
The Nuvema native just sighed and looked down at his camera.
XxXxXxXxXxX
The second Grass-type battle finished off with Marco coming out as the winner, his Victreebel's Wring Out knocking out Angela's Leafeon in a flash.
"We won't be breaking the rhythm!" Freddie yelled, pumping a fist in the air. "We're going to continue on with the Electric battles!" Four pictures popped up on screen and spun around in a circle. "Match 1! Casey vs Margie! And Match 2! Henry vs Beatrice!"
With a happy jump, Casey sprang up from her seat on a red bench next to Robin, then sprinted out the door, her yellow megaphone held in her hand. On the other side of the room, Margie smiled and stood from the bench she was sitting on, and walked regally out of the other door. Both trainers entered the battlefield with a tremendous round of applause from the crowd, and stood proudly on opposite sides of the battlefield.
"Trainers ready?" The referee asked. After both Trainers nodded, he initiated the battle. "Both Trainers are allowed only one Pokémon each! Battle…begin!"
"Alright, Electivire!" Casey yelled into her megaphone, throwing a Pokéball into the air. "It's time to show our stuff!"
"Pachirisu, take them down!" Margie cried, tossing her Pokéball in the air.
"Electivire! Lead off the game with an Earthquake!" Casey commanded. Electivire jumped in the air, landing with such a tremendous force on the ground that the whole stadium shook.
"Hang in there, Pachirisu!" Margie cried as the small squirrel was shaken about by the tremors. "Now, Hyper Fang!" Pachirisu jumped into the air, its teeth shining as they grew sharper.
"Block with Brick Break!" Casey yelled. Electivire's arm swung out in front of Pachirisu, knocking the Squirrel Pokémon back onto the ground with a painful thud.
"No! Stand up, Pachirisu!" Margie exclaimed.
"Pachirisu is unable to battle! Electivire's the winner! The match goes to Casey!" The referee announced, pointing with his left hand to Casey.
"Alright! We won, Electivire! With a home run, too!" Casey cheered, jumping up in the air. Margie recalled Pachirisu and walked dejectedly off of the battlefield, while Casey ran back to the waiting room, cheering all the while.
XxXxXxXxXxX
The second Electric battle finished with Henry as the winner, his Zebstrika making short work of Beatrice's Heliolisk.
"Let's continue on! The next type is Psychic!" Four pictures appeared on the screen and split into two groups of two. "Match one! Bellatrix vs Craig! Match Two! Victor vs Laura!"
Bella calmly stood up and walked out of the waiting room, straightening her navy blue hat. As the two arrived on the field, the crowd began to cheer as the ref stated the rules of the battle.
"Both Trainers ready?" After receiving a nod from both, he raised his hands. "Trainers are only allowed to use one Pokémon each! Battle, begin!"
"Okay! Alakazam, let's get them!" Craig yelled, chucking his Pokéball at the battlefield.
"Gallade, go!" Bella commanded, throwing her Pokéball in the air.
"Alakazam, use Psyshock!" Craig exclaimed as Alakazam summoned pink balls, charged with a powerful psychic energy.
"Block it with Swords Dance!" Bella yelled. Glowing swords sprung up around Gallade, the contact of the two moves causing an explosion that filled the battlefield with a thick pink smoke. "Finish this with Night Slash."
Gallade sprinted across the battlefield just as the smoke was beginning to clear, appearing in front of Alakazam with one of its arms glowing dark purple. With a quick swing of Gallade's arm, Alakazam was sent flying backwards into the wall surrounding the battlefield with a crunch.
"N-No!" Craig cried, whirling around to look at his fallen Pokémon. "Alakazam, no!"
"Alakazam is unable to continue! Gallade is the winner, and the match goes to Bellatrix!"
Bella simply nodded as she called Gallade back, then walked back to the break room, holding her head high. Craig sighed and, after thanking it for a job well done, returned Alakazam back to its Pokéball.
XxXxXxXxXxX
Back in Kalos, Calem, who was sitting in front of his television set, let out a quiet sigh. "Always the same strategy with her, isn't it?" His Pokémon nodded, their eyes glued to the television. "If anything, I'd say she's a bit too efficient…"
A.N. Look, I finally updated!
Okay, all joking aside, this took a really long time, and I'm super sorry about that. I started high school in August, and since then, I haven't had much time to write, and in the times that I could, school pretty much sapped all my energy, so I spent most of that time sleeping/reading.
So updates will take a while longer now, but the chapters will be the same until the tryouts finish, and this is how it looks from here on out.
Tryouts (Preliminary): 3 types per chapter (six chapters of preliminaries)
Tryouts (Finals): 5 types per chapter (four chapters of preliminaries)
Meaning that, since we've gotten through the first two chapters of the preliminaries, eight chapters remain of the tryouts.
This is Chapter Nine, so the story will start taking place on Baliar Island in Chapter 17.
That does seem like a long ways away (it really does, especially to me) but just hang tight, and things will begin eventually.
Again, I'm really sorry about not updating sooner, but I will definitely make more of an effort to get these chapters posted with less time in between.
Now that I think about it, I did have the summer to write all the tryout chapters, but I didn't use it…dammit.
Anyway, thank you guys for sticking with me! I really do appreciate it! /hugs