Welcome to the sixth chapter of the Pokemon Entertainment League series. Sorry this is out later than before. I got into a slump from writing and just didn't feel like writing but I am back now and hopefully being more regular. In this chapter Zane and Roddy go for their interview and discuss what they want to do for the rest of the day (which will be seen the next couple of chapters). Hopefully you enjoy it and please review and tell me what you think.
March 8th Part 1 (Season 1 Episode 6)
Wednesday, the middle of the week and for some reason, waking up at 8:30 in the morning doesn't feel all that exhausting. This begins my third day in the Pokemon Entertainment League and so far I've won my entry battle and made a new friend and ally in Roddy Fabre. But coming up is an interview with the PEL about my introductory battle. Excitement can't begin to describe what I am feeling.
After showering and changing into a blue polo shirt and jeans I am ready to begin the day. Roddy, the day before, told me to come and get him at his apartment when I was ready to go. We are going to get breakfast together, go to our separate interviews, and then go find a match to watch and scope out the competition.
Arriving at room 228 I knock on Roddy's door and soon enough it opens to Roddy who is dressed up for the occasion. Not only is he wearing dark blue jeans but a black shirt with a blue blazer.
"Nice jacket." I say smirking.
"Shut up, I like to look nice if the opportunity presents itself." He says as he closes his apartment door and we walk to the elevator.
The trip to our dining hall feels the same as before. Lots of people mulling around, talking to each other or with their pokemon, probably giving them a pep talk before a match. Roddy and I separate once we get to the dining hall to get our own meals but join up again at a table. I set down my scrambled eggs and toast and sit down at the table with Roddy already eating his bagel and cream cheese.
"So, any idea to what match you want to look at after our interviews?" I ask as I spread butter on a piece of toast.
"I looked at a few before you showed up but wasn't sure. What about you? Did you look up any?" He asks.
"No, good point, I should take a look." I take out my PDA and go to the page that shows today's matches. "How long do you think our interviews will take?"
He swallows some food before answering "It shouldn't take more than half an hour so look for something around 11:15."
I organize the matches for looking for something after 11 and I find one that seems to be of interest to me. "There is an 11:30 match in the Orange Stadium. It's a one vs one pokemon match with three pokemon each. It's between Greg Brown and Darren James. Why do I recognize Darren James?" I look up at Roddy whose eyes are wide.
"Darren James is known as a brutal trainer in the PEL. He's well known for only wanting the strongest or best pokemon in his battles and if his pokemon don't stand up to his expectations, he releases them. It's been said in his interviews that he has released dozens of his own pokemon for not being the strongest they can be. He is someone that doesn't make friends easily and comes off as rude and snobby." That is it. Now I know why I recognized the name.
Darren James's nickname is The Unforgiven. People watch his battles for one reason and that is for the results. Either people want him to win so he doesn't release his pokemon or they want him to lose to show him that what he does isn't right. His battling technique is brute strength and high power moves. He is a force in the PEL and most trainers don't want to engage with him due to his personality and training technique. Once he was in a one vs four special battle. His Kingler went against four other pokemon. He ended up winning the battle but his Kingler was diagnosed with Exhaustion Syndrome a week later, which was an illness that made pokemon more prone to exhaustion in a battle from over exertion. Apparently he used the brilliant win from Kingler to make it keep battling which led it to its illness. A week after the diagnosis he released Kingler. It made headlines for days and people even pushed for his release but it never happened.
"I am quite interested in seeing his match, if you don't mind. I know he can be a controversial figure around here." I say as I bite into my toast.
"I think that would be a good way of starting our journey here, watching a match that may get a lot of people watching it." Roddy answers with a good point. "Also, since the match will end around noontime we may want to look for another match afterwards to watch as well." He pulls out his PDA as well and I assume he wants to pick one out for the afternoon and so I let him as I eat. After about five minutes I look up at his as he's putting his PDA down.
"Find something?"
"Yea, the tag team champions, Lara and Ryan are having a tag battle today at 2 PM. I'm really interested in seeing them battle." I lean back in my chair looking at him.
"Then it's settled, we have two matches we can watch today after our interviews."
We finish our food while making small talk with each other and bring our trays to be deposited and leave the building. Stepping outside, I know that we are supposed to go to the Press Building but I'm not sure where it is.
"Do you know where we are going?" I ask Roddy.
"Yup, it's on the outskirts of the campus but there is a direct route to it. Follow me." He leads us in the complete opposite direction than where the stadiums are located and I realize that it seems that the campus is divided with one side being used for battles and other main activities while the other half is more about the administrative side of the PEL, like conducting interviews, with dining halls and places to live scattered around everywhere.
Soon enough we stand at a small three story building label Press Building. We enter into a basic area that has lots of doors around it. Roddy moves over to a plaque and I follow right behind him, noticing the plaque is actually a directory for all the interviewers in the building. He takes out his PDA as well.
"If you look at your schedule for today it should have your interviewer listed." I take out my PDA after he says this and look up today's schedule and notice that my interview is with someone named Parker Wainwright. I look for her name on the board and see that she is on the second floor, in room 18.
"I'm on the second floor for my interview. Who do you have?" I ask Roddy.
"A Bernie Nickelson. I'm down here at room 4." He turns towards me. Well I guess this is where we part for now. Meet up here after our interviews end?"
"That's fine with me." With that he turns away from me and heads towards the room I presume is where his interview is at. I head to an elevator and go up another floor. I exit out into the same design as the first floor, basically a box shape main room with doors off on the walls. I look at the doors until I notice the pattern and find room 18 and walk in.
Inside I am in a small room with three chairs and a receptionist with a man sitting behind it. He looks to be in his thirties and typing away on a computer but looks up when I walk in.
"I'm Zane Arrington, I'm here for my interview." The man smiles at me and I instantly don't feel so nervous at the concept of being interviewed.
"Please sit down, Ms. Wainwright will be with you in just a minute."
"Thank you" I sit down in the closest chair to me, which isn't too far away considering the size of the room, and wait. Considering I am about ten minutes early for the interview I'm expecting to be waiting for a bit. The man after about a minute gets up and pokes his head into a door that's next to his desk and comes back out and sits down.
I start thinking over in my head about what I should talk about in my interview when the door next to the desk opens up and a woman steps out.
"Zane? You can come in now." I get out of my chair and take three steps across the room and enter into what I assume is the office space for the interview. There is two windows on the far side of the office space with one side having a desk with a computer on it and the other side having a table and chair set up. "You can sit at one of the chairs and we will start the interview." The woman said. I go to the table, which is a square wooden coffee table with four chairs around it. "Would you like anything to drink?" The woman asks me.
"Ummm, no thank you." I am not expecting anyone to offer me refreshments during this. I chose a chair and sit down with the woman sitting down across from me.
Parker Wainwright was a nice looking woman with long brown hair and wearing a black dress shirt and a skirt. She was about my height but seemed to give off an aura of friendliness. She looks like she is older than me but not by a lot.
"I know this is your first interview so I should probably tell you some stuff just so you are a bit more informed. First off I am Parker, your interviewer." I nod, knowing that this was probably Parker. "Second, depending on your interviewer they may act differently. Some, like me, will offer you drinks or snacks so you can be comfortable. Others will just sit down and start talking. Some interviewers have certain ways of interviewing and certain subjects they want to talk about. As you go on you'll probably figure out which interviewers you like conducting business with more than others. Of course who you get paired with for an interview is completely random and sometimes you just have to deal with who you get."
"Very interesting. It's only my third day here and already the environment is quite complex. But I am certainly enjoying it." I say.
"Well that is a good thing. It's always good to have happy competitors here." I nod in agreement, not really sure if this is all part of the interview. "Now like all interviews here they are all recorded but the interviews are instead written out and submitted online for others to read. So shall we begin?" She asks with a smile.
"Sure, let's get to it." I say feeling a bit less nervous.
"Good." She gets up and goes over to a wall and presses a small green button on it and sits back down across from me while taking a small notebook from her pocket and opening it. "First off, how did you think of your first battle?"
"Honestly, I was quite impressed with how it went. When I went out there I felt nervous, being in a stadium with a whole bunch of people watching, but it only took a minute or two of battling for me to forget about the crowd and being nervous and get into the swing of battling. In the end I think I did very well and I think Roddy was a great opponent for me to have my first battle against."
"Very good. Now I did watch your match and was impressed as well, tell me about the battling technique you use." That was an easy question to answer.
"I am very logically when I am in a battle. I can examine my opponent's pokemon and usually figure out their plan as well so I am able to properly counter it."
"That's interesting, can you give an example of that?" She asks.
I think for a moment and realize that maybe I should try and figure out the best example for this to explain who I am and how I operate. But I soon figure out just how easy it is to come up with an answer.
"Well early on in my battle when my Bronzor was facing Roddy's Oricorio, I tricked Roddy into thinking I was attacking with my Bronzor's Feint Attack and he countered with Revelation Dance. Well I figured out the perfect counter was to bring in Oricorio close to Bronzor and then hit it with a close up attack that Roddy didn't know about before." She nods and smiles at my response.
"That was, even though it was early in the battle, a turning point for people in their thoughts on you. Now I would like to talk a bit about your opponent Roddy, what did you think of him?"
"I was quite impressed with his battling skills. A few times he had me against a wall but I was able to get around him. I am very glad that my first battle was with him. I feel like we both were able to showcase exactly it is that we are good at against each other. Plus we have become friends since the battle." Parker looks impressed at that.
"You both seem to be good at making friends, which will be helpful when you are here."
"I think that it is best to have as many allies here as you can. Allies can help you more in the long run." Parker nods and flips to another page in her notebook.
"So one of the main points I saw in your battle was Roddy's Wigglytuff. It looks like a tough pokemon, it was able to effectively take out one of your pokemon and in total battled against 3 of your pokemon. What were your thoughts when battling Wigglytuff?" Parker asks and this is an easy question for me to answer. Something I spent a lot of time thinking about during the battle.
"Wigglytuff was definitely the biggest obstacle I had to overcome in the battle. From the minute it first came out of its pokeball I thought there was something different about it. It seemed sinister and I found out quickly that its sinister personality is what helps it a lot in its battle. You saw that it not only took a few Hydro Pumps, but as well as quite a few Take Downs, and the pokemon I used to counter it, Trevenant, wasn't even as effective against it as I hoped. Wigglytuff is going to be a force to go against in its upcoming battles. Roddy has trained a good pokemon there." Parker nods again and looks back into her notebook.
"Now which pokemon of the six you had in your introductory battle is your main pokemon?"
"That would be my Noivern. I got it as a Noibat for my first pokemon when I was 14. It's been with me through a lot and I know I can count on it in the future. It is quite powerful but a little bit quiet so it keeps to itself more." I love my Noivern since the day I got it as my first pokemon and I know I wouldn't be here without it.
"I only have a couple more questions, do you have any goals when in the PEL?
"Honestly I am not really sure. I would love to be able to show off what I can do and acquire championships when I can but right now I haven't been in it long enough to figure out exactly what it is I want to do." I feel slightly uneasy not knowing exactly what I want with my future when here.
"That's perfectly ok, final question can you tell me a bit about your past as a trainer?" The interview was almost over? It didn't seem to take long.
"Well, as I said before I got my first pokemon at the age of 14 when I was in high school. Then after a while of catching and training my pokemon I entered into local battling tournaments and competitions when I was 16. By the time I was 17 I had done very well for myself and on weekends had gone to other towns to participate in other competitions. When I graduated high school I basically kept doing what I was doing until I got here. The PEL will be my ultimate test as a trainer." Parker nods and stands up and I think that signifies the end of the interview so I stand as well.
"Well it is a pleasure to have done your first interview in the PEL. I hope to see a lot more of you in the future." Parker smiles at me and I feel like she honestly means that.
"Thank you as well for explaining a little bit of what goes on here and making me feel comfortable." She smiles at me as I leave the interview room. In the entry room the same man is sitting at the desk but now I girl was sitting in the same exact seat as before, probably the next person to be interviewed.
I leave the room and am in the square area that has all the doors to all the interviewers. I check my watch and realize that I was in the interview for almost 25 minutes. That means that Roddy should be in his interview right about now. I head to the elevator and go down a floor. When I get out I am pleasantly surprised to see that Roddy is standing near the entry door waiting for me.
"What are you doing here? I thought you would be in your interview now." I ask wondering how he is here so early.
"I just got out a few minutes ago. Bernie Nickelson is well-known for only wanting to interview either winners or popular trainers. Someone like me who is brand new and just lost his introductory battle isn't going to be high on the list of likeability for him. I was only in there for 5 minutes. We talked mostly about how I liked the battle and we talked a bit about you," He smirked at me. "Don't worry I made sure to add in some good points about you." Weirdly enough he didn't seem all that disappointed that his first interview didn't go great.
"Well if it makes you feel any better I talked a lot about you so I think I covered enough good press for the both of us." He smiled at that and I think even though he didn't mind the short interview he was happy that I helped him out a bit.
"Shall we go watch the first battle of our careers?" He asks walking towards the door with me.
"I've been waiting for this all morning."
Thank you for reading. The next couple of chapters will have Zane and Roddy watching those matches they talked about. Please review and tell me what you thought about it and tell me
1) How did you like the interview process?
2) How do you like the fact that different interviewers conduct their interviews differently?
3) What are you expecting with the next two battles?