The third round of the preliminaries has started! But the first crucial step of this round is sending out your pokemon and getting them into a proper formation where you can actually ride them! I think we'll find that it will be easier for some people than others to make a proper formation to ride on, and that will probably be the determining factor for this preliminary round. Remember to review!
KedharS: Alcea can definitely be sweet when she wants to. But yes, she also enjoys having some fun at Olivia's expense, and for good reason! Olivia is adorable when she's upset! So Alcea can't help but troll sometimes, it seems.
Hyphenman: Yeah, Olivia's friendship with Ayame is her main redeeming quality given how much of a bitch she is to pretty much everybody else. And Andy's fun, I'm glad I found a way to work her back into the plot!
Tambry96bj: Yes, exactly the same challenge. In fact, that challenge was one of the leading inspirations for this arc, which should tell you just how long I've been planning things out.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 1298
The first step of round three of the preliminaries was getting everyone to send out their pokemon and getting into proper formation. The trainers were given ten minutes to prepare. They were all spaced out a fair distance from one another so that nobody would be able to get an immediate edge over the competition.
"Ruru! Rogen!" Blake tossed out two pokeballs. One containing his Galvantula, the other containing his Boldore.
"Galvantula!" Ruru braced herself, lowering her body so that Blake could climb onto her back.
"Boldore!" Rogen raised his claws and grabbed onto Ruru's rear, forming a solid anchor for the two of pokemon.
"Good formation there," Callie noted. "Rogen makes a strong brace, and Ruru's got the speed to fight well."
"But he's still got a third pokemon, is it?" Alcea noted. She had a suspicion which one Blake would choose as his third.
"Tara!" Blake's final pokemon was his Snivy. The small grass snake sat in his lap, glaring at the other trainers as they sent out their pokemon.
"Blake chose decent pokemon," Elaina nodded. "But Sango has something even better." She smiled proudly.
Sango flung two pokeballs into the air.
"Noivern!" Noctre howled as she emerged from one of the pokeballs, flapping her wings and sending a gust of wind through the stadium.
"Ori!" Doria, Elaina's Oricorio, emerged from the other pokeball. But everyone did a double-take when they saw her appearance. Instead of the cool dark blue feathers and elegant stature that Doria was known to possess, Doria's feathers were yellow like sunlight. And at the tips of her wings, her feathers puffed up like pom-poms.
"Wait, what's going on?!" Callie asked. "I thought Sango was using your pokemon?!"
"She is," Elaina nodded.
"Oricorio is a unique pokemon," Alcea stated. "It is a pokemon capable of changing its form."
Callie's jaw dropped. "Seriously?!"
"A pokemon that can change form?" Nikita asked, intrigued
Alcea nodded. "Oricorio are native to the Alola Region, a region made up of four islands in a chain. Oricorio can be found on each of those islands, and each island is host to a different type of flower that the pokemon loves to feast on. By drinking the nectar of the purple flowers that grow on Poni Island, it transforms into the Sensu Style, and becomes Ghost/Flying type."
"That's the one I use," Elaina noted.
"Oui. Tres elegant," Alcea agreed. "The one you see before you is the Pom-Pom Style, from the yellow flowers that grow on Melemele Island. She is an Electric/Flying type now, is it?"
"Seriously?!" Raizer sat up in his seat. "Sick!"
"You said there were two other styles, right?" Callie asked.
"Oui," Alcea nodded. "The Fire/Flying Baile Style, from drinking the nectar of the red flowers from Ula'ula Island, and the Psychic/Flying Pa'u Style, from drinking the nectar of the pink flowers from Akala Island. Four in all."
"That's Alcea Vermeil for you," Kanone laughed. "If there's one thing she knows, it's flowers."
Alcea blushed slightly from the compliment. In spite of having moved on to someone else, there were still some lingering feelings left over apparently. She quickly pushed those thoughts aside.
"Huh… I wonder why Sango chose that one, then…" Nikita mused. "Why go to the trouble of changing styles? It's not like she's used an Oricorio before, right? Elaina, do you know?"
Elaina shook her head. "I didn't have an issue with it. In fact… I had never even realized that Doria could change her form. I caught mine on Poni Island, and I suppose… I just assumed that she would be like that forever."
A small smile spread across her lips as she watched her pokemon, now filled with pep and cheer, strut around the stadium with her pom-poms waving.
"I didn't expect her to take an appearance like that."
Alcea didn't join in the conversation. Her mind went back to discussion she'd had several days ago, when Sango came to talk to her.
"Alcea. You have all sorts of flowers here, right?" Sango's expression was unusually determined. She'd come to the Gardening Club for the express purpose of seeing Alcea, after all, and she needed to do business as quickly as possible.
"Oui. Do you have need of some?" Alcea asked, raising her eyebrow quizzically.
"I'm going to be entering the Pokeathlon Competition," Sango said. "And I'm going to be using Elaina's pokemon."
"Borrowing another's pokemon, is it?" Alcea was wary of that. Could Sango really connect with someone else's pokemon in such a short amount of time? "I see. And you have need of flowers because…?"
"Elaina has an Oricorio," Sango explained. "And Oricorio are capable of changing forms depending on the nectar of certain flowers they drink, right?"
"Oui, that is so," Alcea nodded. "I see you've been paying attention in your classes, is it?"
Sango grinned. "Part of becoming a Pokemon Ranger is about understanding how different pokemon interact with nature. Oricorio is just one of many pokemon that change based on their environment! It's essential that I learn about stuff like this, wouldn't you agree."
"That is quite a reasonable thought, is it?" Alcea agreed. "And you're correct. I do have samples of all four types of flower. Which would you like?"
Sango's response came immediately. "Yellow flowers."
"The Pom-Pom Style, then? An interesting choice, is it?" Alcea went over to her store of flower samples and found the right one. "Why choose this one?" She asked as she handed the yellow flowers over to Sango.
A small, sad smile crossed Sango's lips.
"There's someone who's really feeling down right now," she explained. "And I just thought… I should do whatever it takes to encourage them, even a little."
Alcea was surprised at that statement. She smiled. "I see. That's quite an admirable goal, is it?" She knew exactly who Sango was thinking about.
Alcea was still smiling now, in the present. I hope your wish reaches him, Sango, she thought, nodding slightly in encouragement.
Sango climbed on Noctre's back, and Doria got on with her. But that wasn't all. Sango had one more pokemon on her team. He wasn't in a pokeball, but rather, he'd been waiting in the stadium for his partner to come back, and now that she had, he was ready to join.
"Castform!" Silver slid up next to Sango, ready to help her out. He might not have any use in a pokemon battle, but in a situation like this, he could do the best he could.
With a roar and a flap of her wings, Noctre took to the sky.
"Wait, they can fly in this?!" Callie exclaimed in disbelief.
"Oui, why would you think they could not?" Alcea asked.
"B-Because that's not fair!" Callie protested. "Being able to fly gives Sango a huge advantage!"
"Of course it does," Elaina said, proud of how strong her pokemon were. While she felt jealous that Sango got to have so much fun with her team and she didn't, she also felt proud of how well her pokemon and Sango had bonded. And this way, at least her pokemon weren't hurting anyone, as well. That was important too.
Lila seemed to be of the same mind as Callie on this issue. "Is it really fair to have trainers being able to fly?" She pouted, turning to Darla.
Darla smirked. "Of course it's fair," she replied. "The pokemon are just taking advantage of their natural abilities. Prohibiting the ability to fly would just unfairly handicap other pokemon."
"You're only saying that because she's using a Dragon type!" Lila snapped.
"And your point is?"
"Girls," Leanne chided the two. She understood their animosity was mostly being played up for the cameras, but that didn't make it any less annoying. "According to the rules, it's okay to use pokemon that can fly, and they're ALLOWED to fly. So long as they don't go more than 20 meters above the battlefield."
"Um… so that's…" Lila struggled to figure out how high that was.
"About 65 feet," Darla calculated for her.
Lila's jaw dropped. "That's still too high!"
"Deal with it," Darla smirked.
"And there you have it," Elaina said.
"Technically, it's approximately 65.62 feet," Nikita clarified. "Rounded to the tenths place."
"Ah, who cares about that dumb math! It doesn't matter," Raizer snorted. "Just you watch. There's gonna be someone else here, someone who's definitely going to grab the attention momentarily."
Alcea scowled at him. She had a sinking suspicion she knew what he was talking about.
Willa took a deep breath. She resisted the tiny twinge of anxiety that arose in her chest. She wasn't used to feeling uneasy before an experiment. But it was nothing compared to the overwhelming excitement she was feeling.
"Go," she said, tossing out a golden pokeball.
"ZERAORA!" Zera emerged from his pokeball, letting loose a fearsome roar that shook the entire stadium. And now everyone had a brand-new issue to deal with, and the flying thing was completely dropped.
"What the fuck?!" Lila exclaimed. She clamped her hands over her mouth when she realized she'd just broken character. "Err… I mean, oh gosh!"
No one really gave a damn though, because they were too busy focusing on the fact that Willa had just sent out a pokemon that absolutely nobody had expected to see today.
"No way… she couldn't have…" Darla realized immediately what had happened. After all, there was only one Zeraora she knew; and she'd been on the receiving end of his fierce attacks, so there was no mistaking it.
"Raizer… you didn't…" Alcea leveled a glare at Raizer that would have sent most people running in terror. But Raizer wasn't most people, and he just laughed it off.
"Come on, what's the big deal?" He chuckled. "Zera wanted a chance to compete with the other pokemon, and it's not like I have a full team of my own. So I loaned him to Willa in order to fulfill his competitive streak!"
Alcea sighed. Well, there wasn't much she could do about that.
Willa had two other pokemon as well, her Delibird and her Shuckle. But no one was paying attention to those. Zera was too much of a draw.
Nikita, though, she was curious about what Willa was going to do next. After all, the three pokemon she had were a rather motley crew; was she really going to be able to make a suitable mount to ride on out of them?
Willa smirked. There was no need to worry about that. She turned to her Delibird and began digging around in his satchel, pulling out a bottle with a golden liquid inside it.
"Here, Zera, this should be more than enough," she whispered.
"Ora," Zera nodded, taking the potion and downing it in a single gulp. Then his body began to shake. "Zera?!"
"What did she do?!" Lila asked worriedly.
"Uh-oh, this could be bad…" Darla was having a very bad feeling.
"ZERAORRAAAAAAA!" Zera howled as his muscles bulged. He nearly doubled in size and fell over onto all fours, his fur bristling as he turned primal.
"This is a special potion I designed that brings out a pokemon's primal traits," Willa bragged. "It's a feral tonic. With this, Zera's speed and power both increase. Not nearly to the extent of the berserker potion, but this way, he'll follow orders. The important thing, though, is the size increase- look at how big he's become!"
At this size, Zera was now large enough to carry all three of them, Willa, Flemming, and Serturner, on his back. And also strong enough to wipe out everything in his path.
The sight of such a beast made everyone shiver.
"What do you think of that?" Raizer boasted. "Zera's got everyone's attention now!"
"I can't believe you would be foolish enough to allow someone to give strange drugs to your pokemon," Alcea said, shaking her head in disbelief. Nikita looked warily at Raizer. Was he really aware of the risks involved in something like this?
"You don't have to worry about us," Raizer assured her. "Zera and I, we were well-aware of what we were getting into. And Zera wanted to go through with it- anything to become more powerful, you see. We were really charged to win!"
Alcea sighed. There was no fixing idiots.
Besides, she had other people to consider right now. She turned to the battlefield, where Kate and Naya were glaring at each other. Both girls showed hostility to each other on a regular basis, though Kate was more blatant in her distaste.
"We should deal with her, first!" Kate decided. "Bareru! Let's go!"
"Amoonguss!" Bareru bellowed. The large mushroom lowered his head so Kate could climb onto the pokeball-patterned cap. She scrambled aboard, managing to just barely pull herself onto the large pokemon's head.
"That's not all! I've got a few friends here that want to join in as well!" Kate declared. "Crow! Puu! I'll need your help for this one!"
She tossed out two more pokeballs.
"Croagunk!" Her Croagunk, Crow, cackled.
"Stunky!" Puu, her Stunky, cried. Both pokemon joined her up on Bareru's cap.
"Well, that's an interesting set of choices," Nikita noted.
"Two more new pokemon?" Alcea was amazed. She really regretted not peaking in on Kate before the competition began. How far exactly had her friend progressed in strength from her foray into the Unova Region?
There was someone who wasn't impressed with Kate's performance, though.
"Poison, poison, poison," Naya said, shaking her head. Not even the sleeve covering the lower half of her face could mask her disgust. "That's all it is with you, poison. Why are you even in the Gardening Club in the first place if you don't love elegant Grass type pokemon?"
Kate scowled and narrowed her eyes. She might have put up with abuse from people like Naya in the past, but not anymore. Naya was nothing compared to Val, and if Kate could stand up to her, then she could stand up to anyone.
"The Gardening Club isn't just about Grass types!" She snapped. "It's a place where we can go to cultivate nature and take care of our pokemon! Everyone's welcome there, even someone like me who specializes in Poison types!"
Naya sighed, shaking her head. "Well, I suppose I can't stop you if that's how you feel," she admitted. "Then allow me to show you just what my own Grass types are capable of. Rey, demonstrate her mistake."
She elegantly flung a pokeball into the air, and a large pokemon covered in spiny armor emerged. It was her Ferrothorn! The hulking pokemon's spikes glittered in the sunlight like dew on a rose, and he lowered himself to the ground and extended a vine, which Naya stepped onto. The vine slowly rose up to deposit her elegantly on top of Rey, a stark contrast to Kate clumsily scaling her own pokemon a few moments earlier.
"And that is not all," Naya said, narrowing her eyes and sending out her next pokemon. "Sabo, I will have use of your abilities."
"Cacturne." Standing next to Naya on her Ferrothorn was a pokemon that was no less sharp and prickly, her Cacturne. Sabo cackled as he stared down at Kate, gleeful as the spiky pokemon slowly lifted himself up on his viny protrusions to hang like a disk over the battlefield.
Kate grimaced.
"And finally, a pokemon that will demonstrate how truly lacking in class you are," Naya sniffed. "Masha, show her what a real mushroom pokemon looks like, rather than that hideous beast."
Her final pokemon of the team was a Shiinotic. And indeed, the comparison with Bareru was night and day. Masha's slender figure gave her an ephemeral quality, and her mushroom cap seemed to glow eerily with power.
"A Shiinotic!" Lila cheered. "It's so cute! Yeah, go, Naya! Show her who's boss!"
Darla rolled her eyes. "Aren't you supposed to be neutral?" She hissed.
Lila ignored her. She was too busy rooting for the Fairy type pokemon and against Kate and her Poison types.
As usual, Kate had the home team against her. Nothing new there, though.
While this was happening, Sylvia was watching from the sidelines, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "Well… I suppose… now's as good of a time as any," she said, taking note of the ferocious Zeraora. "Let's see if I can get their attention. Dusk, if you would?"
"Dusknoir!" Her Dusknoir bellowed, emerging from the shadowy confines of his Dusk Ball. He lifted Sylvia up into a princess carry, which was amusing enough, but what followed was really something. The next pokeball Sylvia threw out was lacquered black and shiny.
"Shedinja…"
"Hello, Higurashi," Sylvia greeted her Shedinja with a smile. As usual, her unique choice in pokemon would prove an excellent tool in this upcoming fight.
But there was one last pokemon she planned to use that nobody would see coming. As all eyes were on her, the space around Sylvia twisted and shifted, and a hole in the world opened up.
A single small pokemon slipped through, closing the gate behind him and confining it within a simple golden ring.
"Hoopa," the spectral pokemon giggled, and everyone stared at him in shock.
Well, that's certainly a trump card for Sylvia to pull off her belt! She's using Hoopa? That could be a very good situation. We'll have to see how things go. Already the competitive fires are raging, but what pokemon will everyone else use? And whose formation will prove successful in getting them to the next stage, past the preliminaries and into the main competition?