Chapter 7 - D-Rank Exam
Ava was preparing for lunch by buying a second meal that neither she nor Lucky would be eating. She had met up with Gavin in the morning when he came for his shift in the poke center. After she explained what she needed from him, he promised her that he would help her over his lunch break if she bought him lunch. Ava felt this was a great deal. She brought up what she was planning to Theo last night; apparently having other trainers pokemon explain moves was a fairly common practice. However, it was usually done for moves the pokemon wouldn't naturally learn, in place of buying a TM. So while cheaper than an actual TM, it was still significantly outside of her price range to hire someone to help. She also didn't know anyone else who had a flying pokemon. The price of a hamburger for Gavin was an easy one to pay.
Walking to the training grounds, Ava saw Gavin already there talking to a bird twice the size of her pidove. The avian had dark feathers with a tuft on top of its head. That must be the staravia Mary mentioned. Ava did not know what kind of pokemon that was when she first heard Gavin had one. But seeing it now, she could tell it looked like an evolved form of starly, a common pokemon in the forest. She had even seen one during her Ordeal.
"Hey Gavin, thanks for coming out. I really appreciate it," Ava said, trying to act a little more professional as she reached the spot where he had set up a dummy near a small bench.
"Don't worry about it, and you brought me my lunch, so we're even," he said, holding out his hand. She handed over the container that held the burger and fries that he had asked for.
"Release your pidove. I already gave the run-down to Lady over here. She should be able to teach yours just fine."
Lucky came out of his poke ball in a flash of light before resting on her arm. Ava told him the plan and gave him a quick pet before he flew off to join the staravia. Ava followed Gavin's lead as he sat on the bench.
"How long do you think it will take?" Ava asked.
Gavin responded in between bites of his burger, "Hopefully it doesn't last more than an hour. That's how long my break is. If it does last longer, you might have to buy me another burger," he joked. "Seriously, though, I see it only takes 30-40 minutes. The main goal will be to just get him to identify and bring out the flying energy. Since pidoves are flying types, it shouldn't be too hard to find. You'll obviously have to train him to get that energy actually usable in moves, but that should go much faster once he has a grip on the energy."
Ava actually didn't know that Lucky wouldn't know the moves after the training, but she wasn't going to admit that out loud. She can't believe how much basic information she still didn't know about pokemon. She can't imagine she will ever stop learning about pokemon and their oddities.
Gavin was right in his time frame. After about 35 minutes, Ava saw that some light blue energy was flickering around the pidoves body.
Excited, Lucky flew to her, where she held out her hands for him to land in. "You did it! Good boy," she praised while rubbing the feathers around his head. His content coo's let her know he appreciated her reaction.
"Huh, I know I was the one who helped you, but he really latched onto you." Gavin remarked as his staravia landed gently at his feet.
"I'm grateful. It looks like the imprint worked."
"You're very lucky. Not many people can build this much of a connection with their pokemon. He's going to be a great asset once he gets trained up some more."
"Speaking of, thank you so much for today. I'm extremely grateful you gave up your break to help me. I can let you enjoy the rest of it."
"Eh, it's no bother. I already committed to using my break to help you. Let's get the most of it. Lady can help him in directing the energy a little more."
Ava didn't know what she did for him to be so nice to her, but she promised herself if he ever needed help, she would try her best to provide what help she could. She wasn't going to fight him from helping, and they spent the rest of his break practicing the two moves Ava wanted to learn. They were able to make slight progress with Peck but spent most of their time was trying to learn Gust. It turns out it's much harder to gather energy and send it out than it was to just gather it in a beak.
They had made some progress before Gavin had to leave. Once he left, her growling stomach reminded her that she had skipped her lunchtime as well. Taking a small break, she grabbed some food and made sure to feed Lucky some nutritional pellets and seeds. He had gotten old enough to be fed those, and they were thankfully much cheaper than the custom formula needed when he was younger.
They spent the rest of the day working on those two moves. By the end of it, Lucky was obviously exhausted as he lay sleeping in her arms. Ava was sitting on a bench with a tree providing shade. She watched as the sun set, painting the clouds above in warm reds and oranges with a hint of pink. She wanted to let Lucky get some rest outside the poke ball, so she just sat watching as the sun went further and further down the horizon.
They have made great progress today. Peck was now able to make the dummy shake and seemed to be hitting the target harder. The energy looked much more focused than when they had started the day. Lucky was able to figure out how to send his energy for Gust, but it fizzled out quickly, and he had to be close to the target for it to be effective.
Now that they had a move, Ava felt she was prepared to take the D-Rank exam later tomorrow. She would spend the morning training to get Gust in a better place. Since this was an exam focused on taming, she wasn't really worried about Lucky's moves not being the most developed. He already listened to her completely, and that should be enough to pass.
With her plan set in her mind and the light from the sun all gone now, she returned Lucky, gave him a quick heal in the pokemon center, and went to bed to be ready for her exam tomorrow.
…
It turns out she would not be moving to a D-Rank today. She had woken up and talked to Gavin about scheduling. Cunningham had been pulled into an emergency mission that he couldn't share the details of, but that meant she couldn't give Ava her exam. Since it was her first exam too, she couldn't take it with any of the other proctors either. She was able to schedule a time for the next afternoon, as Cunningham should be back by then.
That left her with a free afternoon to work more on the moves she had wanted to train with. Peck was already in a good spot, but after some practice, Lucky was able to call on it quicker and use it while flying towards a target. Gust was able to get more polished and could actually be used as a semi-long distance move compared to before. She tried to use the time to teach Lucky the moves Growl and Leer. However, with no other pokemon around, it was hard to see if they had any of the desired effects.
While she wasn't able to move up in ranks today, she was glad that Lucky was more prepared for the exam and missions that would come after it.
Ava ate dinner with Amiyra and Theo that night. Theo had just gotten off his second guard shift ever. They both listened in intrigue as he told them about a couple of starly who had flown over the wall. With the help of the other trainer on duty, they were able to stop them before they could cause any damage or hurt anyone. Ava could tell he was proud of himself as he told his story, especially since that was his first time fighting off a pokemon as a trainer.
She learned from Amiyra that she had made tremendous progress in taming her mudbray, which she named Abraxas. Ava thought that was a pretty fancy name for the literal mud horse but made sure not to say it out loud. In fact, she made so much progress that she scheduled her own exam, despite it only being two days since she started trying. Her exam was actually scheduled in the slot right before Ava's.
Knowing this, when they woke up the next morning, Ava got ready early so she could walk Amiyra to her exam.
They headed towards the gym, which was a couple of buildings and training areas down from the pokemon center. It was still early in the morning, and there was a foggy mist that left dew on the grass.
The reception area welcoming them when they entered was not a large one. There were glass doors past the reception desk that presumably led deeper into the building. They went up to the desk, and Amirya said, "I have an appointment to take my D-Rank exam with Captain Cunningham."
The middle-aged receptionist typed a little on his keyboard. "Yep, I have you listed in here; if I could just have your trainer's ID real quick." Amiyra handed it over, and he gave it a quick scan before returning it. "Alrighty, you are all checked in. Take a seat, and we will let you know when we're ready."
Amiyra went to the waiting area, and Ava repeated the process to check in as well before joining Amiyra in the blue chairs.
They did not have to wait long before Cunningham came in. She looked no different from usual with her short blond hair, muscular build, and strict uniform in place. "Good morning, ladies. I hope you are well rested." Not waiting for a response, she continued, "Amiyra if you would follow me, we can begin your D-Rank exam."
Ava wished her good luck before they both went deeper into the building, leaving Ava sitting in the waiting room. Boredom quickly hit her; she asked the receptionist if she could let out Lucky to give him a pep talk, but apparently pokemon can't be released inside the gym without supervision as an E-Rank trainer. So she just sat and restlessly waited.
It was a little less than an hour when Amiyra came back. "Did you pass?" Ava asked, standing up from her chair. Amiyra didn't respond. Instead, she just held out her ID, which now has a D on it instead of an E.
"Congrats! I knew you could do it," Ava said excitedly.
"Thanks! It went much better than I thought it would go."
Ava was just going to ask her if she had any tips before Cunningham interrupted. "Ava, I am ready for you if you want to come back," she said while holding the door open.
Turning to Amiyra, Ava said, "You don't have to wait for me. I'll catch up with you back at the pokemon center, okay?" Getting a nod of agreement, she quickly followed Cunningham down the hall and through a door to a large gymnasium. There were a lot of different areas to the gym. Ava saw a group of training dummies, multiple perches presumably for flying pokemon, a set of weights, an open area, and even more things she couldn't recognize.
Cunningham stopped in front of the area with training dummies. "Here is where we will start your D-Rank exam. Before you release your pokemon I will release one of mine for safety purposes." She threw out a poke ball from her belt. Ava really needed to get one of those. Currently, she was just using her pockets. From the poke ball, a familiar lucario appeared and stood next to Cunningham. "You are already acquainted with him from our training, but this is my lucario, Scout. You are free to release your pokemon now."
Ava released Lucky, who stayed on the ground, cleaning his feathers with his beak. Ava had told him about the exam yesterday and had high hopes they could figure out whatever was thrown at them. She turned to Cunningham, waiting for instructions.
"The first part of this exam is to see what moves your pokemon can use and if they will listen to your commands. What moves does your pidove know?" Cunningham said.
"He knows Peck and Gusts. I did practice Growl and Leer, but I wasn't able to find a pokemon to see if they worked."
Cunningham nodded. "We can test those against my pokemon to see effectiveness. First, let's go through his attacks one by one. Use them on the dummy in front of you."
"Lucky," Ava said to get his attention, pointing to one of the dummies. "Peck that target."
Lucky took off flying and was able to successfully peck the dummy, causing a small splinter in the wood. He returned to her. "Good job," she praised, gently scratching him.
"That Peck looks good. You can move on to your next attack."
"Lucky, use Gust."
He flew back to the target and, using his wings, directed air toward the dummy, causing it to shake.
Cunningham frowned a little. "Do the same move, but have him do it from further away."
Ava repeated the instructions to Lucky, who moved back and used Gust. The wind sputtered out before reaching the dummy and became a gentle breeze.
"It looks like Gust isn't fully mastered yet. It should last longer and be able to hit targets a little further away. It is still effective when close enough, but make sure to keep practicing it. Now we can move on to the status moves. Scout, come stand near the dummy."
The lucario walked over to the dummy Lucky was just attacking. Cunningham gave Ava the go-ahead. "Lucky Growl." He gave a cute little growl at the lucario who looked like he relaxed a little.
"Scout, did you feel that?" The lucario shook his head affirmatively. "Looks like Growl was effective. Move on to the next move," Cunningham said.
Ava gave the order to do Leer, and Lucky tried to give an intimidating glare. Given the unaffected look of the lucario Ava knew that the move had not worked, and the negative head nod by lucario confirmed it.
"Let us move on from this part of the exam. I want you to return your pokemon now." Ava returned Lucky to his ball. Cunningham walked to some racks on the wall and came back with a box. "The reason I asked you to return him is so the only instruction he would receive would be from you. In this box are five rings. Do you see the perches over there?" Cunningham pointed to a group of ten different perches all at different heights with numbers on each and continued once Ava nodded, "You will have your pidove fly these rings to specific perches in order. Then, once you are done with that, he will have to return those rings to you in a different order. The perch order is on a sheet of paper in the box. You may release your pidove once you are ready."
Cunningham handed her a box with five rings, each one having a number from one to five. She saw the papers with the orders on them and studied it quick before releasing Lucky. He appeared in front of her for the second time that day, and she explained what she wanted him to do. He gave a coo of understanding, and she handed him the first ring, pointing to the highest perch on the right. Flying to the desired perch, he set the ring on it gently, and returned for the second ring. The only trouble he ran into was on the fourth ring, where he almost set the ring on the wrong perch. "No, Lucky, not that one. The one right behind it," Ava shouted, and he heard it settling the ring on the correct perch this time.
They didn't have any more complications after that, and after Lucky returned the last ring and settled on her shoulder, Ava put the ring in the box and closed it. She looked at Cunningham, who stood further away from her than she remembered.
"Very good. Set the box to the side," Cunningham said loudly. Ava did as she was told, setting the box off to her left.
"Is the exam over?" Ava asked.
"Not quite." That was the only warning Ava got before Cunningham started sprinting towards her.
Ava was startled and took a couple steps back. "What are you doing?" Cunningham's response was to keep running towards her. "Oh fuck." Ava realized Cunningham would be right on her soon and started scrambling back away. Lucky sensed her agitation and screeched at the threat and started flying at her.
"Lucky no! Stop!" Ava tried to shout, but Lucky did not respond and kept flying towards Cunningham. His beak was glowing when lucario intervened, grabbing Lucky and slamming him to the ground. Cunningham stopped her charge and stood next to the downed pidove.
Ava ran towards them. "Lucky, are you okay?" she said panicked.
"Don't worry, he's still alive," Cunningham said. "You should return him, though he will be injured." Ava grabbed his poke ball and returned him before spinning back to Cunningham.
"What the hell was that?" Ava spat.
"That was the final part of the D-Rank exam," Cunningham said.
Ava felt confused and angry still. "How is attacking me part of the exam?"
"The D-Rank exams are split into three parts. The first part is how we check if a pokemon will follow your commands when doing their moves. The second part gives us insight into how they respond to simple instructions and if they will continue to listen to you by doing something they might not see the purpose in. Once you pass those two, the final part addresses a critical lesson. If your pokemon will listen to you in stressful moments. When on the field, any number of things can happen. If your pokemon doesn't listen during a fake test, then there is a good chance they won't listen during a real emergency. Your pidove took me as a threat, and despite you telling him to stop, he continued to try to attack me."
"So, what does this mean?" Ava asked.
"Ava Stanton, you have failed your D-Rank exam."
…
Ava felt extremely frustrated. After healing Lucky she ran into Amiyra. Ava's face probably gave away how she was feeling.
"Did you pass?" Amiyra asked tentatively.
"No, I failed at the last part of the exam. That's such bullshit," Ava exclaimed.
"I mean, as much as it sucks, it does make sense on why they do it," Amiyra carefully retorted.
Ava took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. "Yeah, I know. It does make sense. I just got frustrated. I thought I had this exam in the bag, but it turns out I was wrong."
"Yeah that's rough. How about I help you after dinner? I could be the threatening person."
"You'd do that? Thanks!"
"It's no problem. I owe you at least this much for helping me out of my funk."
After a quick dinner where Ava scarfed down her food, they then went to the training grounds. Cunningham had given her some advice after Ava failed the exam. Despite Lucky being easier to train due to finding him really young and being imprinted on. This also meant that he viewed her as his family and his own species. So seeing Ava in danger he tried to protect her. While sweet on the surface, it was dangerous for him to not listen to instructions.
Ava released Lucky. "Hey there, buddy. Do you remember what happened recently where you tried to protect me?" He nodded, looking proud of himself. "While I appreciate it, you cannot be attacking another human with me saying so. If I say stop, then you absolutely must stop." Ava wasn't sure if he understood, but he didn't look as proud of himself anymore. Hopefully that meant he understood.
Keeping his poke ball at the ready so she could return him at a moment's notice, Ava gave a thumbs up to Amiyra who took off running towards Ava while yelling.
Lucky's feathers started to ruffle, and he hissed at her. "Lucky, stop," Ava commanded. He didn't listen, and as Amiyra got close, he started to fly towards her. Ava recalled him with a sigh; while she hadn't truly expected he would listen right away, she had hoped it would be a quick fix. They repeated that process multiple times, with Lucky still attacking.
Eventually Lucky realized that he wouldn't be able to attack, and when Ava said stop this time, he still seemed agitated but stood down and did not fly toward Amiyra.
Abe felt excited about the progress, giving Lucky praise and treats for following her orders. They repeated this testing to see if his reaction would remain the same. It did. Ava knew though that there was one final test she had to do before she would try the D-Rank exam again.
Returning Lucky so he would overhear what she was going to say to Amiyra. "This time I want you to actually hit me."
"What? No, I'm not going to hit you!" Ava exclaimed.
"Please, you have to. I need to know if he is stopping because he's listening to me or because he learned that you weren't actually trying to hurt me. So you gotta give me a good hit, okay?"
Seeing her point, Amiyra sighed, "Fine, but you can't get mad at me."
They returned to their starting place, and Ava released Lucky off to the site so she would have enough time to react if she did attack.
Amiyra rushed towards her, and Lucky stayed right where he was under Ava's orders. Amiyra winded back and threw a punch right across Ava's face.
Ava fell to the ground clutching her face, "Oh fuck that hurt." Realizing where she was, she saw Lucky start flying while screeching. "Lucky stop!"
Ava felt her poke ball almost ready to use it, as he hadn't stopped yet, but then he slowed and backtracked to where he was before, still glaring at Amiyra. Ava knew she should be more excited, but her check actually really hurt.
"You really pack a punch," Ava said, rubbing her jaw.
"Hey, you said you wouldn't get mad at me," Amiyra said.
"I'm not mad, just shocked. Thought you would gimme a slap on the arm, not a slug to the face."
"Well you should clarify next time. I didn't even want to do it."
Ava thought Amiyra really went all in for someone who hadn't wanted to do it in the first place, but since she was the one who asked for it, she wasn't going to complain too much. "I think this means we are ready for the exam. I'm gonna try and schedule another test."
"Alright, I'll see you once you're done with that. I'm thinking of asking Theo and Oliver if they want to play cards, if you're interested."
Not having anything else to do for the night, Ava agreed. "Yeah, that sounds good. I'll meet you in the lounge when I'm done."
After waving goodbye, Ava went to schedule her exam again. Mary was the one manning the desk. It seems she usually takes the afternoon and night shifts, while Gavin works mostly in the morning and afternoon. Ava had seen two other people working, but had never really interacted with them before.
She was able to schedule her test for the next morning, and Mary gave her a potion spray that would speed up the healing from the punch. Ava spent the rest of the night playing card games with Amiyra and Theo, the only two that showed up.
…
The first two parts of the exam went as expected. Nothing had changed from that aspect. When Cunningham sprinted towards her with her fist raised, Ava gave the command, "Lucky stop," to keep him from attacking. She was successful this time, as he obeyed and didn't try to attack.
"When you signed up to take the exam, not even 24 hours after failing it the first time, I was worried that you were getting cocky. I'm glad you proved me wrong. Congratulations on passing your exam; you are officially a D-Rank trainer. Follow me to the office, and we can get you in the system."
Ava returned Lucky and Cunningham led her through a door in her office. It was a smaller office that seemed to be used by different people, as there were no personal effects around. It looked more like the computer rooms back at the pokemon center, but with only one computer. Upon being asked, Ava handed over her trainer ID. Cunningham scanned her own ID and then Ava's. She rubbed the right corner of Ava's ID over what looked to be a black circle and then popped out the right corner, which contained the letter E, out of the card. Ava didn't know that her ID could be split into two parts. She assumed she would be getting a totally new card. Her card was then swiped again, and Cunningham spent a few minutes typing things into her computer.
Cunningham handed her newish ID back to her, which now had a large letter D in the corner replacing the E. "You are now registered as a D-Rank trainer, and your pidove is registered as passing the exam, so you will be able to use him in missions. You are now able to own three pokemon and use two at a time. Remember, any new pokemon you catch must pass a form of the D-Rank exam before being able to be used in the field."
"You will now have the chance to take on missions. All D-Rank missions take place within the city wall. All D-Rank trainers will be assigned a mandatory of three missions a week to patrol the wall and guard posts. Your schedule will be posted at the first of every month." Cunningham showed her how to access the schedule posting by swiping her ID, opening the missions' app, and clicking the taken jobs tab. "These are a required part of being a trainer. If you do not show up for these posts, without external influences, you can be faced with fines. If enough are skipped, you will have criminal charges and jail time. You can put your own postings up for other users to take if you can't or don't want to attend them. However, if no one takes them you are still responsible for going to your shift. There are exceptions that would allow you to be exempt from attending your shift, but those are rare, especially for D-Rank trainers. If you ever have a question, you can ask a poke center manager. Your pay will be automatically deposited to your account after you clock out, and you can use your ID as a debit card. Your first three shifts are training shifts. You will be assigned to a guard shift in addition to the people who are already scheduled. Your pay will be less than a normal mission to reflect this. I have scheduled your first mission for tomorrow at 9am. You can view the details once you return to the pokemon center."
Cunningham reached into a drawer and pulled out a thick plastic card, a small round electronic device, and a green piece of fabric with a pokeball on it, much like the trainer uniforms and arm bands. Scanning the card, she handed it over to Ava. "As a prize for passing your exam, we are giving you a voucher for the TM Hidden Power, which can be redeemed at the poke center."
There were a lot of things about the pokemon world that Ava still did not know, and this was one of them. "What is Hidden Power?" she asked.
"Hidden Power is a move that every pokemon can be taught through T Ms. It is a unique attack that changes its type depending on what pokemon is using it. A water pokemon could have a hidden power that's a fire type or a grass type. You won't know what type it will use until it learns the move. We had these out as a prize for new trainers to give them another weapon in their arsenal as well as provide them with a long distance move. A lot of pokemon, especially the kinds you can catch at your ordeal, don't have access to a long distance move. Take Amiyra and Oliver; neither of their pokemon have any long distance moves. This is a problem when a large threat we face is flying pokemon coming in over the walls. This TM gives trainers the ability to fight a larger range of pokemon while they work to catch and tame more pokemon to fill in their weaknesses. While many people opt to use this on their starter, if they already know a long distance move, others might save it to use on a pokemon they catch at a later date."
Scanning the round electronic device, Cunningham handed it over. "This is a trainer response device. This device is registered to you and allows us to find your location in necessary situations and is used as an alert system for emergencies. If you ever hear this make a loud alarm sound, go to the nearest pokemon center to get information about the emergency. This should be on or near your person at all times. You can fit it in your armband like this." Cunningham took off her own armband, where the side that faced her body had an opening that the device could slide into. Ava copied her and added it to her own armband.
Cunningham handed over the final item, the green bandana-like cloth. "All flying pokemon are required to wear this bandana while in the city. This is to make sure there are no false alarms raised if someone sees them flying, as well as to protect them from being attacked by a well-intentioned trainer who does not see you or know that it is a trained pokemon."
Ava made sure to watch closely as she explained how to put it on a pokemon. The last thing she wanted was to have Lucky seen as a wild pokemon and killed.
"Do you have any questions?" Cunningham asked.
"No ma'am."
"Good, you are free to leave then. Congratulations on passing your D-Rank exam. May you work to keep our city safe."
Ava gave her thanks and walked out of the gym. As exciting as this, especially when she considered how little money was left in her bank account, she was now nervous for her next challenge. The first day at a new job.
Author's Notes: This chapter got away from me a little bit. It was a lot longer than I had anticipated, but I really wanted to knock out the D-Rank exam in this chapter. I apologize for the late posting. With holidays coming up, there might be inconsistent postings.