James walked through the doors above him. When he came to the next room, Florinia was standing there. It seemed like she was waiting there for James. Before James could say anything or move up to her, she spoke in her usual emotionless voice.
Florinia: James, it seems you have made it here. Albeit, later than I thought you would.
James: Sorry about that. Your brother really put this battle on hold though.
Florinia: I see. Well, are you ready for our battle?
James: Of course I am!
Florinia: Before the battle, I’d like for you to observe the door behind me.
James: Huh? Observe the door behind you?
Florinia moved out of the way so James could get a better look. It looked like an ordinary door. But as he looked closer, he could see that the colorful lines on it were strapped together in a weird way. He walked up to it and tried to move them out of the way but no matter how hard he pulled or pushed, they wouldn’t budge. The door was shut.
James: What’s this? Why won’t they move?
Florinia: It’s because you haven’t finished your quiz.
James: My… quiz?
Florinia: Yes. Follow me if you will.
Florinia walked towards the door James had recently came out of. James followed her. They walked back to the room with a lot of computers. Florinia stopped in front of some of them and so did James. He was still very confused on what was going on here.
James: So… what quiz am I supposed to-
Florinia: -puts over to the pair of computers- Do you see those computers there?
James: Yes?
Florinia: You are to go up to them and answer them correctly.
James: Why?
Florinia: In order for you to challenge me to a Gym Battle, you must 1st complete the quiz. Otherwise, our battle will never happen.
James: I gotta take a quiz?! But I was horrible at these when I was little!
Florinia: Feel free to read the books in the school. They will be valuable information to you for these quizzes. There are 8 questions in all.
James: What!? Ugh!
Florinia: When you are finished, the doors you saw earlier will be opened and I will be in there waiting for your challenge. I expect to see you there today.
James: But-
James couldn’t get a sentence out as Florinia walked out of the room and back to her Gym Arena. James looked at the 2 computers in front of him and sighed. He hated taking quizzes and hated studying. But if this is what he had to do to challenge a Gym Leader, he had to do it. He looked at all of the questions on the computer screens. 3 out of 8 of them were true or false questions. He decided to guess with them. He picked true to all of them and luckily, he got those 3 correct. That meant that he only had 5 questions left to answer. After reading each question, he’d go around the school and read a book about that specific question.
It took a bit but he finally answered all 8 questions. At this point though, he had a strong headache from studying so much. He kind of wished that Fern was here. At least that headache wasn’t as painful or annoying. James went back to the room where he met Florinia before and saw that the door was now fully open. Before he went in though, he saw the computer terminal there. Which meant he would be able to talk to Ame. He pressed the call button and soon enough, Ame’s face popped up on the screen.
Ame: Hey James!
James: Hey hun. How are you doing?
Ame: I’m alright. Been investigating some stuff on the other Wards but ehh. How are you doing? I didn’t think it’d take this long to get to the computer terminal.
James: Florinia had me do a quiz and I’m not really a good studier or whatever you call people who study.
Ame: Ahh. I see. Doesn’t shock me. It’s been like that for a while with her.
James: I see. So what do I need to know about her?
Ame: Well for starters, her fighting style is a little different from what you might expect from a Grass Type user.
James: Yea? How so?
Ame: Her team is centered around sand.
James: Around sand?
Ame: That’s right. We like to call it her “Desert Rose” fighting style. She’ll try to stall you out and take you down with residual sand damage and other status effects.
James: That sounds annoying… Then again, her brother is more annoying than her.
Ame: Mhm. She’s all about knowledge and strategy. Check out your app and search for a field called the Desert Field. You’ll learn more stuff.
James: I will. Thanks hun. See you later.
Ame: Bye sweetie. Good luck!
The screen went black and the call was over. James took out his PokeGear and looked at the Field Notes. He luckily found the Desert Field and took a look at it.
James: Hmm… Doesn’t seem like TOO much stuff changes here. It’s basically a good place to power up Ground Type moves. I think this will be more even than the battle I had with Julia.
He closed the app and entered the room. When he got through to the next room, he could see Florinia standing on the other side of the battle field.
But when he looked over to his side, he could see a bunch of students sitting on some bleachers. He didn’t know he’d be having an audience with his Gym Battle against Florinia.
James: Who are all of them?
Florinia: They are students. When they have time, I allow students to observe my battles with Gym Challengers to show them the rights and wrongs of the battle.
James: Ohh. I see. Well I guess I can understand that. This is much less awkward now.
Florinia: Now James, your assistance in the Meteor-related affairs is appreciated. However, that alone fails to merit the appropriation of a badge.
James: Well I know that. I just did that to help you all out some.
Florinia: Nevertheless, our battle will commence shortly. Students, please take notes on standard battling procedure.
Students: Yes Miss Florinia!
Florinia: Hypothesis: Subject displays insufficient data for conclusive success.
James: Umm… What?
Florinia: Expected outcome: Failure.
James: I’m not so sure what exactly you’re saying but it sounds like you think I’m gonna lose! Well I’ll teach you that this won’t be the case today!
And with that, the battle began. Much like his Gym Battle against Julia, most of Florinia’s team were easily taken out. It only started to get difficult when she brought out her Cradily. It kept raising its defenses and recovering its health. James decided to use her own strategy against her and put a status effect on it and chip at its health down until it fainted. And with that, the battle was over. The students stood up and clapped. James felt embarrassed but thanked them for congratulating him.
Students: Great match!
James: -chuckles nervously- Thanks everyone.
Florinia: Students. Silence. Please come here James.
James: -walks over to Florinia- Yes?
Florinia: Here is your Canopy Badge.
Florinia took out the badge from her pocket and placed it into James’ hand. He looked at it with excitement. This was now his 2nd Gym Victory. He couldn’t help but feel proud. Not with just himself, but also with his Pokemon. He was proud of how strong they became.
James: Alright. My 2nd Gym Badge! Thank you for the battle Florinia.
Florinia: So where do you intend to go now?
James: Umm… Hmm… I’m not really sure. I’m not familiar with the area yet soo-
Florinia: I would like to ask you for a request.
James: Uhh, sure. What is it?
Florinia: Because of my status as Leader and faculty at this school, I cannot stray far from it right now. However, there is still a crisis in this city. As you no doubt know, the Jasper and Beryl Wards have been ransacked by the same machine as Obsidia.
James: Actually, this is the 1st time I’ve heard of this.
Florinia: Hmm. That still doesn’t change what I would like to ask of you. We were luckily able to catch this crisis in Obsidia in a budding rate. However, we were not so fortunate with those wards. Being that you alone have had successful experience of terminating the previously active project, I ask you to venture to the Jasper Ward.
James: So you basically want me to go there and see if the same thing that’s happening there happened here as well. Am I right?
Florinia: Correct. I also have something for you. Could you hand me your Pokegeard for a moment?
James: Yea. Sure.
James handed the PokeGear over to Florinia. She took something out of her pocket, inserted it into the device and started to press buttons. James had no idea what she was doing but if this was going to help him somehow, then he was ok with this. A couple of seconds later, she was finished and returned the device back to James. When James looked at his PokeGear, he could see something called the PULSE Dex.
James: The PULSE Dex?
Florinia: What I just installed to your Pokegear will be able to read data output from the PULSE Machine we encountered before. There maybe others out there and if that’s the case, you’ll have to get those separately.
James: Alright. That sounds handy. Thanks Florinia.
Florinia: Yes. I will make preparations for your passage to Jasper. I would wish you good luck. However, luck is merely an illusory essentialization of statistics and is neither inherently good nor bad.
James: Uhh…
Florinia: Regardless, farewell.
The students on the bleachers got up and started to exit the room. Florinia walked passed him and also exited the room. He wasn’t exactly too sure what just happened but what he definitely knew is that he had a shiny new badge and that he was about to be confronting Team Meteor once again.
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