Pokémon Academy: Ch 3: Winter Cup [IC]

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

She was in the middle of trying to teach Rogue, Lucifer, Toothless, and Achylx how to play Tag nicely and fairly when something exploded and made everything all poofy and smokey.

Rogue, with her agility, was way too good at the game, naturally; nobody could touch her, Achylx managed to tag the Dark-Ice type with a Pin Missile. Then things got haywire as the Sneasel blasted Icy Wind in retaliation, hitting the blind dragon, who in turn got sent reeling and nearly tumbling into Lucifer, who merely hovered upward to dodge the bumbling Dark-Dragon. "Guys, that's not how this game works! You need to-- OOF--" And something plowed into her gut, making her fall over, but not before this totally-out-of-nowhere crashing sound. Whatever it was felt rubbery and rather thick-headed... oh boy, she wouldn't be able to eat dinner for days...

[DarkLight]

{Avis' view}

It felt great to be out of the stuffy building, especially after that whole mess. Avis allowed the air currents to whisk her up into the light blue sky without any interruptions, adjusting her flight feathers ever so slightly whenever a stray wind attempted to drag her off course. Once she felt the air begin to thin out, the tiny crow realigned herself so that she was hovering like a children's kite, except with no strings attached.

And so the game begins. Who will her keen bird eyes spot first? Her eyes strayed left and right, attempting to locate either a redhead or a brunette. The cold air chilled her to the bone as she gave an occasional flap of her ebony wings, but she has learned to ignore that side effect as soon as she took her first flight lessons. Ah, such is the life of all bird-like Pokemon.

Amidst the small crowd of humans and Pokemon (since most of them are probably still in the stands), the Murkrow had spotted Mareek and Java quite easily. Red is such an easy color to spot in daylight; no challenge for her there. She was about to return back to Danielle when a waving movement caught her attention a little ways ahead. Oh? Jacob and James are over there? What perfect timing! Avis zoomed over to Jacob and James' location and circled overhead, indicating that she had spotted them. With a loud caw, the Murkrow then began making her way back to Danielle and Lana.

((I'm waiting for Lana's response, so I'm not posting Dani's point of view yet))

[Chim]

DarkLight

Lana had no idea what was going on. She heard random words as professor Cadmus and Evan but tried her best not to listen to the argument between Jacob and Mareek. The breeder disliked confrontation and tried her best to merge with the furniture. When that plan failed, and Mareek and Jacob stormed out of the room, she was glad to accept Danielle's offer.

“Sure, but uhm, is it really alright to fill me in? Isn't this between Jacob and Mareek?”

Zephyr

Breloom turned around to see a girl lying on the ground. Silly human. The grass type kept staring with a curious look on his face.

Hosts (ExLink)

The randomizer kept going while Brand prayed for another field to show off. When the arrow finally stopped the screen turned black for a bit and eventually showed a picture of the ocean. “Waterrrrr fiiiield!” Brand yelled, “This is probably the most beautiful one my engineers created. Take a look and be amazed!” the grin on his face reminded Devin at a class filled with 8 year olds that saw a Flygon for the first time in their lives.

Brand didn't mind as what looked like an empty box, about 7 meters deep, arose from the ground. The only thing that stood out was a giant fountain in the middle. Statues of stone images of water types made it look like it was developed by a professional artist. A loud click confirmed that the field was ready and immediately the fountain came to life. The same effect happened at each of the four corners where giant streams of water shot right in the empty box and started filling the whole thing. As soon as the water started to rise, big white circles floated on top. They all drifted around in random directions and bumped into one another making their floating patterns random.

As soon as the whole field was filled with water Gerard showed up and released his Lileep on one of the white footholds and patiently waited for Slade to show up.

Evan

The boy smirked when the Lucario came closer. Perfect, just like I predicted. Faith woke up almost immediately and from there on out it became a one-sided battle. The fairy knocked her opponent into the electrical fence, adding to the damage, before knocking it out completely.

“Hmpf, not even a practice battle,” Evan boasted. Deep down he did a victory dance but he wasn't planning to show his happiness to anyone. When he walked off the field there was only one thing on his mind; Danielle.

[Aurorix]

Slade got up from his seat not saying anything to anyone in the room as he left. He took a deep breath to calm himself before he entered the field, he wouldn't want his fans to see him angry. 'Out of all of the fields it had to be a water one.' Slade thought to himself as he stood there looking at the floating platforms on the field. "While I would rather not do this but, Flare come on out!" Slade said as he nervously released Flare from his ball. The Arcainine landed on one of the floating platforms trying to keep his balance. Flare then looked back as Slade with an annoyed expression that meant to say 'Are you serious right now?'.

"Hey, It's not like I'm doing this to punish you, I don't like this either." Slade said to Flare who was balancing on his platform. "We just gotta give it our all and at least you can swim right?" Flare rolled his eyes before turning back to their opponent giving a menacing glare towards the Lileep. "I hope you don't mind if I take the first move, Flare use flame burst on the Lileep!" Flare formed a ball of fire and shot the flame at the plant of the floating platform.

[Commander]

"Nessy, Ancient Power," ordered Gerad. The Lileep obeyed orders summoning a few boulders in front of him. While the main attack was blocked, the bursting of the attack still managed to land stinging him a bit (Ancient Power - Manga Version). "Alright, it's time to fly. Don't forget to blind it with Acid." The Lileep hopped to the best of it's ability onto the closest boulder and latched on using it's suction cups. Nessy began to glow as he and the boulder headed towards Flare. He wasn't yet though as he launched a quick purple goo right at the big dog (Acid).

[Sutoratosu]

"We should keep moving." Mareek said as Avis circled about in the air not too far away before wheeling back and soaring off again. "Come on already, whatever that was about, it's in the area we're already heading towards anyway..." The porygon2 only nodded, hovering along behind the boy as he made his way deeper into the mixed aromas of various dishes being prepared, passing by vendor after vendor, neither one of them paying much attention to what they were offering nor trying to advertise.

Before long the Firebrand felt a forceful tug at his back, nearly sending him stumbling backwards as Java reeled him back. "Found them," The program said in his earbud, nodding his head down an intersecting path as he released the Psybeam. Mareek was ready with something to say to the bit of excess force, though ended up keeping his mouth shut when Jacob and James came into his view. "So, Einstein... how will you go about fixing your mess of arrogance?"

Mareek only glared at the proxy. While yes, he had been a pompous dick, and yes, he did somewhat deserve the curtness Java had shown him, at this point it was honestly starting to get very old very quickly... "By getting straight to the point," He replied. Then stepping forward a bit and calling down the path. "Hey, Jacob,"- Java gave him an eye-roll... way to be any less elegant about the approach. He ignored it.-"Can we... talk for a minute?"

[Jory]

{James and Mareek}

Jacob smiled lightly as he saw Mareek come into view. "Hold that thought, James. Look who just showed up." He stood up and approached Mareek, trying to look as amicable as possible. "Sure thing, bud. I assume this is about earlier?" he asked casually as he took another bite of his crepe.

[Azeria]

"Well this is bound to interesting"James thought while leaning back and taking a glance at Slade's battle every now and then,seems like the Celadonian was at an insane disadvantage due to the water field and his opponent having a Lileep. Remembering something a certain person gave him a few years back,a tutorial booklet on teaching pokemon higher level ground type moves and strategies to use them with."I remember i copied most of the stuff in there out so i might aswell give it to someone who could use it more than i could"

[Sutoratosu]

"Yeah..." Mareek said... what a pleasant surprise that here Java was being harsher about it than Jacob himself... "I... just wanted to apologize for being a pompous prick back there... and back in the waiting room too. Guess I got so absorbed in trying to resolve all this that I lost sight of the fact that it doesn't matter whose method ends up stopping it before it's too late... just so long as it stops, period."

"...Marvelous." Java said into his earbud discretely. "Simply marvelous... such simplicity, such bluntness... if I were in charge of selecting oscar winning speeches, you, my good friend... you would most definitely never get one."

"Alright, now you're the one being a dick..." The boy thought to himself as he reached into his pocket and silently removed the Jack from the Pokedex's audio port, effectively cutting off Java's direct route as a whisperer... "You want to keep railing on me? Fine, but you're gonna rail on me for all the world to hear, instead of having the luxury of only doing it in my own ear." "But yeah... sorry for being like that and everything..."

Java meanwhile just cast a certain, unreadable look at his trainer... fully aware of what the red head had just done...

[Aurorix]

"Quickly, jump to another platform!" Flare quickly jumped onto the nearest floating platform and was able to dodge the Ancient Power but was stuck on the back by the acid as he leaped across to an other platform. Flare stood still for a moment trying to keep balance on the now wobbly piece of land. The acid burned but he could handle it. "Now Flame Burst again then prepare to jump." Slade said then Flare fired off another burst of flame at the plant. Right after prepared to jump if something were to come at him.

[DarkLight]

Danielle shook her head as she picked up her frightened Larvesta. After Corona calmed down with a few soft words, the coordinator turned her attention back to Lana. "Nah, from what Mareek told me earlier, this involved everyone that was in the waiting room, including myself." She then began walking to the door, stopping to allow Lana and Zared to follow her with ease. "And I'm sure by the time we catch up to them, they will be all buddy buddies again thanks to Avis."

And then Avis appeared in front of her face with a satisfied grin. "All good out there?" Danielle simply asked. Avis crowed happily before she zoomed out once more to lead the way. "Anyways, I guess I better fill you in from the beginning. It'll make sense once you hear the whole story. So, remember back when that herd of Donphan almost ran us over and how Evan disappeared? Well, several... Bad omens have appeared since then..." Danielle proceeded to explain to Lana why they were worried about Evan's behavior and his potential alignment with this unknown organization. She also told her roommate the information that made them all come together in the first place - Kage's received vision about Ryan's death.

[Jory]

{Mareek, slightly James}

Jacob nodded understandingly and placed a hand on Mareek's shoulder. "It's alright, Mareek. I know what it's like to put the blinders on and charge headlong into something." He looked back at Spitfyre, who was occupied watching a few Combee buzzing around a nearby tree. "When we were training for the tournament it took Arete and Spitfyre literally setting my pants on fire to get me to sleep one night. All's forgiven as long as it doesn't happen again." His hand returned to his side and he looked around, a faint grin on his face. "As much as we have going on right now, it's just amazing to me that I'm even here. It's been my dream to win the Winter Cup since I was a little kid. I think my friendships and my grades may have suffered a bit for it, but it's all worth it to me. And to know in my heart that my Pokemon are behind me one-hundred percent makes it all the sweeter." He looked Mareek in the eye, determination on his face. "As long-winded as I've been, I'm getting to my point. I can see the same passion in you when it comes to stopping whoever's behind all this. So how can I blame a passionate guy for... Well, for being passionate?" He looked back toward the stadium. "You're the reason I've been pushing my team so hard. When we battled for the first time, you more than earned my respect as a person and as a Pokemon Trainer. In the finals, I can already tell you and I are going to put on a show that'll be talked about for years to come. Any tension between us is natural. When two fiery people meet, sparks fly. Just know that despite our rivalry, we're on the same side and I'd be honored to call you a friend."

[Sutoratosu]

"I....I...." The boy broke off the shared gaze, turning his eyes to the ground, hands in his pocket. He turned away slightly, to which Java only gave another roll of his eyes. It all felt so strange... finding himself so suddenly speechless like this. Of all the times in the past that he could recall his words being knocked aside, torn asunder from his very mouth before he even knew them and tossed away like some parried Katana, this of all things had never been the situation surrounding the cause... and it frightened him. Frightened him how easily his shell had been compromised, pierced through with just the briefest of exchanges. Frightened him how much it all felt exactly as it had all those years ago, those days when he had needed a shell, a cover to duck behind and think of himself as safe... but could not make one himself, did not know how to make one himself, or even where to learn...

He cast a beseeching glance to Java after another moment of struggling for control of his own tongue. The familiar sensation of choking for air began in the back of his throat. For the first time since the shouting incident the hovering Strategist's eyes couldn't help but soften a bit...

"Ah yes, thank you for the kind sentiment," The program began his computerized voice issuing loud and clear from Mareek's pocket, hoping to perhaps steer it all back into waters the boy wasn't so... pitiful looking in. "As for the matter of apprising Professor Cadmus to certain pieces of information though..."

[Jory]

{Mareek and James}

Jacob looked toward Mareek's pocket, a slight grin still etched on the teenager's face. "Nice to hear from you too, Java. Just give me a moment." He took the last bite of his crepe and looked toward the bench. "Hey, James! Get over here! We're talking about telling Professor Cadmus." He then looked back at Mareek, smiling inwardly at the fact that he'd clearly managed to reach the other student. "So, Java, you mentioned talking to Professor Cadmus, right?" He put his hand on his chin, thinking for a moment. "I just saw Avis flying overhead. That means Danielle and Lana should be here momentarily. We're going to wait for them, then the five of us can go together. With such an organized group, he'll have to at least listen to us. Mareek, I'd be more than happy to hear your thoughts on that. If you have anything to add to the plan, I'd love to hear it."

[Sutoratosu]

Mareek held his stare with Java a few seconds longer, a silent gratitude there. Java only gave a slight nod towards Jacob. "...Make sure she still has Zared with her," He finally said cryptically. "right now it's the closest thing we have to an actual witness..."

Java picked up, helping the boy as he saw where he was headed. "Ah, a good idea... even if Cadmus does not believe my own interpretation and translation of the account, if another of my line were to also speak to it and get the same story...that would make it another story entirely. The only real question though, is how one would even get to the professor at the current moment? considering his current position as a host for the tourney... Perhaps if this break that was supposed to occur were still going on, but now..."

"That's a good point..." Mareek said, glancing towards jacob. "We might have to wait till this evening when the matches for this round are done before we try talking to him."

[Jory]

Jacob nodded. "You guys have a point. Let's wait around for Danielle and see if she has any ideas. Otherwise we might as well head inside and go watch the rest of today's matches before we have our little chat with the good professor. What do you say?"

[Commander]

"Release," ordered Gerad. Nessy quickly let go of the boulder just as the fire attack flew right above him. "Alright, now Brine and grip to the platform." The Lileep understood what his trainer was planning. He took a moment to charge up and release a powerful water jet from his mouth causing him to blast forward to Flare (Brine). Once he was close enough, he slammed the lower half of his body into the platform. Combined with the powerful jet from Nessy's mouth, the platform then began to slowly tip.

[Aurorix]

"Next platform!" Slade yelled as the lileep rocketed towards Flare. He was able to successfully jump to the next one before he was tipped into the water though he was a bit shaken up after almost falling into what looked like really cold water. If he wasn't prepared from before this would've ended up with a splash. "Quickly, Flame Burst on the plant while he's open!" He yelled as he saw an opening for an attack. Flare, still trying to keep his balance fired off another shot of flames, though since the command was so soon his platform was still wobbly and his aim was a little off giving a large chance to miss the plant entirely.

[Commander]

Perfect. It was just as Gerad predicted. Suddenly, Nessy halted his water attack as the platform rocked back and forth until it halted. It may not have been seen too well, but the Lileep began to glow again. While Flare jumped to the next platform the remaining boulder was already on its way to hit the target. The moment Flare released his Flame Burst, the boulder was mere inches away from hitting him (Ancient Power). "Block it with Brine." Nessy, still on the side of the platform released another water attack to put out the flames. Fortune was on the Arcanine's side as it was way to angled to even come close to hitting him. The Lileep then crawled up to stand on the top of the platform.

"Do us both a favor and give up now," spoke Gerad. "I already showed you that little fire attack of yours can't hit Nessy leaving you without any options."

[Aurorix]

Flare was hit directly by the rock and launching him off the platform but luckily onto another. 'If I could only get close enough to make a hit.' Slade thought to himself as Flare slowly go up from the attack. 'Easier said then done seeing as how there're only so few platforms and water everywhere else.' He cringed as he thought of ways to pull out of this.Then an idea popped into Slade's head, 'This just might work though it's extremely risky.' He gulped before telling Flare, "Use Flame burst one more time." Flare unleashed another Flame burst heading towards.

[Chim]

TurboAura and Commander

“I see, so nothing but positive feedback from the first people to test the fields. Well I'm sure Brand would be glad to know that,” Franck gently smiled, “But if you want to excuse me now, I'm going to expand my research. It's important if we want to implement these fields in the Ymora League itself. Take care, Henry, Robert, I'm sure we'll meet again.”

The Old Champion left Tyron's waiting room, even though Tyron had been cheering in the middle of the crowd since the start, and took the Shiftry with him. The grass type glared at Robert one last time before following his trainer's grandfather.

Waiting room (Dobby, Murdoc, Tacos)

Veronica sighed at Slade's opinion. “Why are all your students so boring? You got a serious one that walks away from discussions (Slade), an arrogant brat who thinks he's something while he's obviously not (Ryan) and a guy I don't even know what to respond to since he's using logic (Kage). The only one that even comes close to be considered entertainment is the one with the grass type,” she said to Phoebe. During her rant the Elite Four Member was well aware about Glacien's movements but ignored the ice type. Instead the Ludicolo moved over in an instant and stopped the ice attack with his bare hand, or something that looked like it, and glared at the little Pokémon in front of him before quickly draining almost all it's energy.

“Hmpft, for an arrogant smart-ass your Pokémon sure is dumb. I said people underestimate ice types just like they do to grass types, you know, the type I specialize in? And since ice types have an advantage over mine, I would never be so stupid to let my guard down against them. So before you try and start to give me lectures, teach your Pokémon some manners. And just so you know; I would take personal pleasure into smacking annoying kids like you around. People call me the most unpredictable Elite Four Member but I'm also the one with the worst temper so watch your mouth carefully, little boy.”

Zerron (Galen)

“Yeah yeah, alright,” Pierre said uninterested. “Boring mission if you ask me so are you doing now that thing is sleeping?” He observed Sarah and the Zoroark but had no idea what was going on. “I'd say leave the thing alone and come back when it's awake. We don't even know where the other 3 are so the sooner we wrap this up the better. I'm getting bored and I don't like forests, too many ugly things hide in here...” he smirked at Galen when making his last statement.

[Tacos]

"So you're going to come into this school and bully some of the students because they don't agree with everything you say? How kind of you!" Ryan looked down and saw Glacien becoming weaker and weaker as a pulsing green beam was coming from him. Ryan scooped Glacien up and the Spheal was dangerously close to fainting. "He's not dumb at all you bitch! He, just like me, won't stand to see someone getting bullied by assholes such as yourself! He wasn't trying to hurt anyone, he was just standing up for me. You took it a step further by hurting my pokemon for no reason. You disgust me." Ryan looked back down at Glacien and rubbed his head, a small tear slipping out of his eye. What a lovely person. Hope she rots.

Ryan gave a concerned look to Phoebe. "Um, can you help me find a healing machine, I'd like my friend to not have to suffer any longer for doing what was right."

[Commander]

Henry

While the conversation was going on, Rosie began to twitch. With her great hearing, she was able to pick up the voice of someone yelling. The voice seemed very familiar and said a couple things Henry would like to know. She twitched a bit more while pointing to the door.

As soon as the old man left, Henry looked down and noticed his Delcatty's actions. He then looked back at Robert. "You'll have to excuse me. It seems something's come up that needs my attention." He then left the room following his ace, not even waiting for Robert to respond. From the Delcatty's reaction he already this wasn't going to be something he'd enjoy.

After a little bit, he made his way over to the healing center to just in time to hear the end of Danielle's and Lana's conversation. The Delcatty was a bit confused as she was sure she heard a man's voice. She looked around the room seeing nobody who fit the picture. This confused the Delcatty a little bit. Henry glared at the Delcatty for what seemed to be a waste of time. He simply walked up to Danielle asking, "You mind telling me what went down here. Don't even try lying because I know that Delcatty over there heard some commotion."

-------------------------------------------------

Gerad

The trainer couldn't help but sigh seeing Slade persist in this unwinnable situation. "Brine again." The Lileep followed orders blocking the fire attack once more, but this time the move was headed towards the Arcanine.

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

Oh, what, a Breloom? "Hey, sweetie, what're you doing here?" Raiza asked the perky mushroom boxer. "And uh, did you have anything to do with that crash?" Cautiously, Lucifer hovered behind his Trainer, leering at the Grass-Fighting type.

[Aurorix]

'Here goes nothing' Slade thought to himself as the lileep was charging his attack, "Flare now, use agility to get closer to the plant then use a Reversal Fire Fang on it's stem!" He yelled hoping this would work and their training to focus where the reversal goes goes well.. Flare left a blue trail of light as he quickly moved out of the way of the water attack by jumping to a different, closer platform to the lileep. Then immediately after jumped towards the plant with his mouth a blaze as well as blue circles rotating around Flare's head area before going into his jaw. The yellow stem of the plat almost looked like a bone or one of his squeaky toys Slade threw for him when they played together. Flare turned his head in order to latch onto the plant and hopefully make the hit.