Pokémon Academy: Ch 3: Winter Cup [IC]

[Aurorix]

'I guess it's about time for the show to start, best make my way to the gym.' Slade thought as he headed out towards the gym where the battle was going to commence between grass and water. He wasn't ready to face his parents yet and the last place they would look would probably be the gym. Though, to be honest he was curious on how the whole thing will play out.

[Chim]

Tacos and ExLink

Phoebe was already waiting at the gym. She appeared to be alone except for her Blastoise who stood next to her. The Mega Stone wasn't around the water type's neck anymore but rested in the trainer's hand. “So, are you two ready? I'm going to show you reality. The system isn't perfect and sometimes rats slip in. In this case it managed to get quite far,” she said with disgust.

Evan (TurboAura, Commander, Faust? Zephyr?)

“Yeah, I'm going to incapacitate this idiot further,” Evan said sarcastically.

Jaime chuckled at that comment. “I would just ride you over, so try me if you can!” He then turned to Robert. “Oh hey, it's you. And don't fret over it. In the end we found him.”

“Lucky me,” Evan continued with his sarcastic way. “By the way, who are you? I've never seen you before?” he asked Citrine.

[Tacos]

Ryan nodded towards to Phoebe. "I'm ready when you are." Ryan was slightly conflicted, seeing as he had just caught a grass type pokemon, a type that Veronica seemed so passionate about. In fact, he felt like Chloe was similar to Veronica, in a way.

[Azeria]

James was petrified by the stun spores Doux had released some of which had fallen onto his body,the stifness wore off a while later and he continued walking after Danielle had passed him but his floating partner stayed behind for a bit. The Duskull seemed to be deep in thought before he shook himself off before following James out of the forest.

Once James left the forest,he turned towards Danielle. "Danielle,would you know where Ryan went off to?"

[Chim]

Dobby

Claude and his Pokémon soon reached the source of the song. A strange creature he couldn't have seen before was sitting on a rock in the middle of the stream singing her song. A lot of Pokémon had gathered around to listen to the Meloetta, but as soon as she saw the boy she stopped singing and fled into the woods. However the legendary Pokémon didn't run far as she poked her head from behind a tree and quickly pulled back when she saw that Claude was still there.

Floaroma Town, Sinnoh, two days ago, at the top of one of the many flower hills

“Hey Spiro, it's been a while hasn't it?” a young boy said. The silhouettes behind him didn't move. They knew this was an important place for their trainer. The flowers that surrounded them swayed around in the wind as no one made a sound. They all just stared at the stone and cross; the marks of a self made grave.

The Pokémon had never met their fallen comrade, but they knew about their trainer's past and paid their respects. Trainer and Pokémon stood there for a few minutes before the boy finally crouched down and whispered something.

Another thirty minutes went by when suddenly a cellphone started ringing. The boy answered without saying anything. “Understood. We'll be there within 48 hours.”

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

“And?” a man asked, far from the boy's location.

“He'll be here, but what's going on? Why are we contacting all of RoGs best and then out of nowhere this kid has to be summoned as well...”

A slight chuckle and a groan could be heard from a few meters away. “Oh yeah, I forgot you're a rookie so you don't know. But you know what? Why don't you see for yourself when all the bigshots gather?" the third man smirked.

[Aurorix]

"Ready," Slade said towards Phoebe. He then took out Sasuke's ball and released him, "I hope you don't mind, but I'd like to have Sasuke out for now and listen in." He felt that one of his pokemon should know a little bit about this and better then a water type like Sasuke. Since Phoebe is a water type specialist.

[Tacos]

Ryan looked over to Sasuke and back to his empty hands. "Good idea, Slade. I think I should let these two see this as well." Ryan pulled two pokeballs off of his belt and tossed them out, releasing Glacien and Chloe. Glacien chuckled, being the somewhat oblivious goofball he always was. However, Chloe was perceptive and noticed she was surrounded by the absolutely inferior water type. Ew ew ew. They might get their nasty water all over my elegant roses. These watery peasants. Chloe took a step back from the water types.

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

After rubbing the half of the Chesto just to be sure, she bowed her thanks at the hovering rubber-ducky-looking Normal-type and held the berry under her mother's nose just like Mareek did, earlier. A couple of seconds later, Narcissa heaved, coughing, before her eyelids fluttered. "Ah, my head's pounding... Raiza, baby? S'that you...? Ay, dios mio, what happened...?" "Somebody came in with a heavily bleeding nose and you saw," the girl replied smoothly and monotonously, punctuating her reply with a shrug. Figuring it would save Mareek the trouble of having to explain himself, she just went with that excuse. It was plausible enough. That was how sensitive her mother was to the sight of blood. Nodding, the woman sat up slowly, aided by her daughter. Catching sight of Citrine, Raiza felt compelled to observe Henry's sister as she interacted with Evan. That kid'd been the center of some rumors going around, but, as it had always been with her, she was never a stickler for rumors.

[Commander]

Citrine

"I'm Luna Fitzgerald, a student from Orre region, but I doubt you've ever heard of that place." Citrine looked over to see a Vulpix finally make his way over to Citrine. He was breathing very heavily and looked like he was about to collapse. "Oh hey Zuko! I see you finally made it. Hmm...now that I think about it, I probably should've put you back in your Poke Ball." Zuko glared over at Citrine before collapsing to the floor. The girl then beamed the Vulpix into his Poke Ball. "So, Evan, wasn't it? You seem to be a pretty good battler. Maybe even enough to fancy a girl or two."

Henry

The boy was simply wandering around when he noticed something going on in the gym. He didn't hear much, but the tone in Phoebe's voice was enough to perk his interest. Hmm...I guess I have nothing better to do so I might just watch. He kept his distance making sure no one would see him. I have a feeling she has quite a story to tell.

[Felicity]

Claude

Claude was still somewhat enteacned by the singing pokemon. He didn't really know what to say so he just spoke the truth. "You have a lovely singing voice" Claude called out lightly. The still un-named Staryu wandered into the clearing, taking the colours of the surrounding pokemon for its own. Lancelot simply remained by Claudes side. Watching.

[Sutoratosu]

Java

The multitude of names and stats cascaded before his eyes like a waterfall as Raiza went about rousing the woman. Everything, name, age, partners and known movesets, all of it, right there at his virtual fingertips as he probed the Student-Built Database, searching, grasping through the mesh of cybernetic fodder as his target closed in faster and faster, rising like a swell of ocean in a storm. Roaring, surging like a lion as his protocols closed in for the kill, Taking no prisoners but a very select one, did not just stop at poking the bear... but outright slew it

And it was right at the forefront of his data processors. The name and credentials of the boy he'd been attempting to locate since He'd overheard that little bit of conversation about a certain young man, now gone as an exchange student, having accidentally captured a blind and worthless bat. "Search Results terminated as expected." He chimed in his own mind. "Outcome as Expected- statement has no founding in verifiable fact. Dangerously high levels of Verbal Kuso detected. Note of Appraisal filed for Appropriate time. Conclusion..."

"Well, young man, she's lucky to be... where is he?" The nurse paused at the counter, a bit of a scowl on her face as she glanced around but caught no sight of The Red Head. an Audino cleaning up the station behind her, a sweat glistening on the normal types brow and her breaths so labored Java could hear them even from where he stood. Luckily the boy had left the device sitting right where Java had tossed it. "He'll be back momentarily, mam." Scrolled in bold lettering across the small screen. "No need to fret over the sudden absence." The sound of the door opening and then shutting whence again was all it took to redirect her sights from the cyber-duck.

Mareek

"Ah, there you are," She handed off the capsule as Mareek approached the counter, pressing it into hands now free of any trace of the scarlet they had once bathed in so vibrantly. "I thought you had run off for a moment there- Your Riolu is lucky to be alive, those injuries were by far the worse I've had to deal with in ten years..."

Mareek shook his head his head at 'Your', sticking capsule in the recesses of his pocket. "Well to be honest, she's not mine. I didn't catch her, I just put her in a ball to stop her from bleeding out-"

"It doesn't matter whether or not you intended to catch her, she's inside a capsule that was under your ownership; You may think it doesn't count because you only did it to save her life, but you're wrong, young man. You had no issue taking responsibility when you found her, so what's the issue doing it again now?"

"Arceus,You make it sound like I was going to fucking side step things here and abandon her... I was just trying to say that I'm not keeping her after all this is over if she doesn't want to stay-" "What's her condition?" the red head asked next, pushing away the mental gripe before adding "...Mam."

"I've stabilized the worst of her wounds but she'll still need a good month or so of rest- so no battling, no training. Try to keep her out of the capsule whenever you can, it'll speed up the healing process. I'd advise letting her sleep the nights outside of stasis if you find you can't manage it during the day. And lastly- don't allow her to overexert herself, things will only get worse if you do. Understood?"

He nodded, turning away from the counter even as he did so "Yes mam...understood." and without another word he was collecting the bloodied white of his coat along with the pokedex. Java stared at the boys deft hands as they moved with purpose, ensuring everything was still in it's place in the multitude of pockets and concealed areas within the article's folds and innards. Purpose. It was something Java had recorded and witnessed in a vast amount from the boy since they'd met. Barely three or so months ago, if his calculations were correct; and they nearly always were. It all seemed like so much longer though for some reason- somewhere in the barren, cold heaps of data, in all the calculations and the logic, the programming and the protocols, he found that he could simply think of the boy as a mere stranger whom had happened to catch his eye out of boredom. Three months was no time at all to get to know another being, it simply was not logical... but yet Java felt as though he did despite the conclusion his own processes kept yielding on the matter. Perhaps it was the fact that he'd been studying the Trainer's behavior, his mannerisms, his attitude and outlook on the world like some caged bird under observation. Maybe it was the fact he found such a capable intellectual partner in him...

"Stop." Blared on the dex in bold lettering just as Mareek slung the ruined jacket over his shoulder and went to pick it up. "I have something to discuss with you. Something rather interesting..."

"What is it?" He took up the device and insert a single headbud in his ear. A barely audible clicked confirmed the jack was secure in it's port along the top as he slipped it into the same pocket as the Riolu's Capsule.

"Do you recall the individual named "Collin"? The one you encountered in Cadmus' gardens prior to the trip?" The boy only had to think back for a moment or two before the wanna-be water specialist's face flashed in his memory. Java returned the nod he got, going on "Well, I beleive it's safe to say you weren't paying attention to the conversation going on when we first arrived, but... I heard something rather curious that I felt should be poked further..." That very instant the Student-run database blazed on the screen in vibrant resolution. There was only one tab open in the entire browser, scrolled down to a particular section...

Collin Wave's Team as of his time of leaving for the exchange program.

[Jory]

{Jacob & Danielle}

The pair managed to follow Ryan back to the gymnasium with Avis and Arete's help. As they walked by the door, they spotted the other kids congregating near Phoebe, the Water-type Trainer! Jacob nudged his friend, pointing to all the Pokemon that were out. "What do you think is going on in here?" he asked in hushed tones, looking back at his Togetic and Charmeleon. Spitfyre remained silent, warily eying the other Pokemon and sizing them up in case he had to battle them. He snorted derisively, deciding that he could probably take on all of them at the same time. His Trainer sighed, knowing the look in his Fire-type's eyes. "Spits, remember to stay humble. The fastest way to lose is to underestimate your opponents," he said quietly before looking down at his belt. I can't wait to get to know that Seviper, even if she seems a little short-tempered, he thought to himself.

[Chim]

Dobby

Meloetta blushed at the compliment Claude gave her and quickly disappeared to try and hide her embarrassment. What a nice human! Did he treat every Pokémon like that?

The legendary Pokémon's interest was peeked as she secretly kept an eye on Claude.

((Basically she's going to stalk Claude without him knowing and only making herself known when she feels like it))

Evan

Jaime laughed at Citrine but Evan raised an eyebrow and wasn't impressed by the teasing. “Isn't Henry from Orre? And thanks. I just hope I don't attract the wrong girls,” he said sarcastically.

Phoebe

“Alright, stand back,” Phoebe said as she grabbed a Pokéball hanging on her belt. A quick release followed by the appearance of a large and intimidating Gyarados roaring. The Sea Serpent glared at the students with anger in his eyes, but refrained from attacking. It just growled at them and made wild movements.

“Calm down!” Phoebe ordered but to no avail. The water type continued making wild and rampaging moves like it wanted to do nothing more than to stomp these humans into the ground. It's mighty head turned to all sides so everyone had a clear view; a big scar ran right above the left eye. One inch lower and the Gyarados would've been partially blind.

((Jory, everyone is outside the gym))

[Tacos]

Ryan looked with genuine concern to the Gyarados. He'd never seen a pokemon in this amount of pain. He'd heard rumors of the Hydreigon in Devin's garden, but he never got to see it. He shuffled over to Phoebe. "What happened to the poor thing? He looks so in pain." Ryan frowned.

Glacien was as congenial as ever. The goofy little Spheal rolled closer to the Gyarados, ignoring his rapid flailing. He chortled and grinned at the Gyarados, hoping he could make friends with the other water type.

Chloe shuffled back a bit more, disgusted by the Gyarados. What a savage! That thing is utterly disgusting! Ew! Get it away! The obnoxious Roselia thrust her tongue out at the Gyarados and turned away.

[Felicity]

Colere

((Hey, a reason to have had Colere follow Jacob and co))

The small little Dinosaur had stuck to common sense, sticking with her trainers friends in the hopes that Claude would reunite with them. She hadn't taken much interest in the familiar teacher they had led her to until the Incredible serpent was released. She immediately toddled up, loosing a small roar in challenge but making no aggressive movements. She only... stared.

Claude

Bamboozled by the quick disappearance of the wonderful singer, Claude shrugged off the event. If it was shy then it was shy and Claude wasn't about to hunt it down. Claude went over to the still exploring Staryu and picked it up. It returned to its standard pink colouring whilst Claude was holding it. It didn't move at all, not having a face kinda stopped any kind of face reading. "That reminds me, we ought to find you a name." Claude said. A name would certainly help to communicate with the new team member... right? "We also need to find our other friends." Claude mumbled to himself as he signalled for Lancelot to follow along with him. At least Claude still had one forest native with him...

Doux

Meanwhile, the other forest pokemon was hurtling above the aforementioned habitat, riding the few hot air currents that remained in the cold, wintry sky.

[Azeria]

James had followed Jacob and Danielle to the gym and noticed Henry being there aswell but he turned his head towards the Gyarados that Phoebe had just released. It was absolutely humongous,a true monster of its breed but what caught his interest was the large scar on it's head. What could possibly have damaged a GYARADOS of all things enough to leave a scar that large on it's body? James heard the roar Colere had made,she most likely had gotten lost or something. He'd have to ask Phoebe some advice on how to raise Leviathan,even if the fish had a lot of determination,the relative weakness his species had been forced upon in exchange for the immense power of the adult brethren would still hinder him.

[Commander]

Henry

The boy remained silent while looking at the large water type. He already had a feeling everything that took place. It's when Ryan spoke up that he came out of hiding. "Isn't it obvious?" He looked down at the Roselia for a moment before continuing. "Someone went too far in a battle. For something as strong as a Gyarados to be even hit there, the opponent had to be very strong and merciless. It's an ugly truth but sometimes people will do anything to win and it can have some ugly consequences." Henry then looked up towards the Gyarados seeing it in a rampage. "Hatred. That's what I see when looking into this Pokemon. You can correct me if I'm wrong, professor."

The boy looked down at his Delcatty which brought back a few terrible memories. "I guess Rosie is one of the lucky few who escaped such a fate." The boy's last few words could only be heard if someone was listening carefully.

Citrine

"Oh Henry, he's my bro. Of course, everybody seems to recognize the name, but most people give me dirty looks when mentioning it." She smiled after hearing his sarcasm. "Well, that's too bad. I'm sure the right one will show up eventually. You never know."

[Aurorix]

Slade

'Ain't he a little feisty,' Slade thought to himself as he watched the giant serpent thrashed about. 'Though one must wonder who or what could've pushed him to these extreams and left a scar like that near his eye.'

Sasuke

Sasuke watched as the serpent failed about. He glanced at the Roselia reaction and pinched the upper part of his nose in between his eyes and let out a faint sigh in annoyance at the way she was act towards the situation. He then turned to Henry and unlike his trainer he was paying enough attention to Henry to overhear him talking about Rosie. He glanced at Henry and Rosie, arms crossed and bubble scarf flowing in the wind. He starred at them for a while as to say, "I heard that, care to explain?"

[Chevaleresse]

Kage jumped when Tyron burst into the room being his usual loud self, dislodging a (now quite irritable) Lucas and causing a chuff of annoyance from Reina. "Uh, I'm over here, um, sir. What do you need?"

[Commander]

Henry

It seemed a Frogadier caught Henry's last few words. He looked over to the Pokemon with a smirk on his face. "I don't see why you'd care to know about that. Maybe you should focus more on getting stronger and winning battles because that's the purpose you were caught for instead of prying into other people's business." Henry had his head turned so he doubted the teacher could really hear what he was saying. Paradox was standing right next to the boy copying her trainer's arrogant and cocky movements. She knew little of what she was doing, but it was fun anyways. Burrows and Rosie seemed to always get a kick out of it.

[Sutoratosu]

Mareek stowed the dex once Java finished showing him the snippets of conversation and the roster page one more time. They sat in one of the small seating areas snuggled against one of the walls, having left the nurse's counter in order to prevent themselves holding up anyone who still genuinely needed the service. Mareek's sullied Jacket sat slung across the glass surface of the small, knee level table before him, still zipped inside out and bearing the contents of all it's pockets for the world to see. Java hovered above the ruined piece of clothing, looking at the boy expectantly.

"Sooo... what?" Mareek asked. "Didn't we already get it established earlier that something was going on with the topic about the skarmory and everything? And what happened to you wanting me to "Stay out of it", because right now you're singing a whole different tune than the one you gave me before."

Java rolled his eyes and shook his head, letting a glitched sound as he looked at the boy. "What I said earlier about not going to look for trouble still stands, but this situation is entirely different than what I meant- we didn't have to go looking, we just happened to be in the right place at the right time to catch something. Ergo... acting on the acquired information does not in any way violate my previous stance on the matter." He paused, adding "So long as you don't screw it up by pushing it too far, that is."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"You're compromised, Remember?" Java didn't bother waiting for an answer, glancing over at Reeves and back again. "Regardless, I know the best way to proceed to prevent any... mishaps"

"Uh huh..." Mareek said, raising an eye brow. "Well, care to explain what this plan of yours is then?" He got no verbal response in his ear. The screen flicked back to the Student-run Database, though this time it was on a page other than Collin's. All he had to do was read the Team roster to know it was Slade. The information soon faded to nothing more than a blurred background as a line after line of thick times new roman began to scroll across the screen though. "Hell, I guess it could work... alright, lets go for it."

The only confirmation he got was the page coming back into focus, and so the scouring of the database began. Anyone looking over would simply see the glow of the backlight on his face, apparently far too pre-occupied by whatever the device had to tell him to pay attention to his surroundings.

[DarkLight]

{Phoebe's group}

Danielle shrugged at Jacob's question before giving an answer. "Maybe there will be a battle?" Her answer was soon knocked down when the water-type expert unleashed her ferocious Gyarados, forcing the coordinator to step back in fear. Her Mawile stepped in front of her and issued a threat in case serpent wanted to harm them. However, Danielle then heard her other friends ask about the scar. Upon closer inspection, Danielle and her Pokémon realized what they were talking about. "Zared, stand down. It's okay." She inched back to stand by her friends' sides and asked Phoebe tentatively "Professor Arlyn, who would do such a thing like that?"

Avis and her teammates had placed themselves in between Gyarados and Danielle. Although they made no move to strike, they were each wary of the Water type. Even in Pokémon, Gyarados are known for their ferocious tempers, so it's best to be on alert.

[Aurorix]

Sasuke

He wasn't phased by Henry's comment about his motives. When he was curious he found things out no matter how small or large his questions were. He kept starring at Henry but now slowly reaching to tug on Slade's jacket. It was like he was saying, "You can either explain it to me now or have me tell Slade what's going on and have him tell everyone who asks about Rosie his suspicions." It didn't matter which one Henry chose, it just meant more fun for him. He made sure to move slow enough to give Henry enough time to react and make his choice.

[Chim]

Evan

”Henry isn't re-”

“Hey, little bro, are you just going to ignore her advances?” Jaime teased. He had a big grin on his face when he turned to Citrine and gave her a thumbs-up. “I approve!”

“Shut up idiot! Go roll somewhere else!” Evan replied with a red face. Somehow his brother always knew how to push his buttons.

Phoebe

The water expert ignored Henry's comments about Rosie. It wasn't necessary for them to reveal their past in front of all the other students if they didn't want to. “Baldwin is right. Veronica did this to Gyarados,” she sighed. “He dislikes people so that's why he's going crazy and also why I don't give him his the megastone to hold.”

She walked over to the still rampaging Sea Serpent and placed her hand on his side to calm him down. “I got this one as a Magikarp. It was back when I was 12. I used to fish a lot in a river with nothing but Magikarp and Goldeen. Every now and then some other species appeared, but there was a rumor about a Lanturn playing around with Fishermen. I tried to catch it but obviously failed. Veronica was nagging about it the entire time and got sick of it after a few days. She claimed she would be the one to catch that Lanturn and show me water types are nothing special and inferior to grass types. She failed as well and lost her patience ad that's when she caught another Magikarp and mutilated it.” The bitterness and anger Phoebe spoke with made the Gyarados roar even harder.

[Tacos]

{Phoebe's Group}

"Mutilating a pokemon is just so... despicable. Especially with ones that are as helpless as Magikarps. Why have you not reported this? I mean, I understand it's nothing that you can really prove, but I doubt that they would keep an Elite Four member up there if they knew she treated pokemon so horribly." Ryan started rubbing his shoulder with the other hand, feeling quite nervous.

Glacien, still living a life of blissful ignorance, completely denied the possibility that one pokemon could be so sad or enraged. So, instead of throwing a pity party, he hustled back over to Ryan and tripped him. Ryan fell forward as usual and let out an irritated moan. Glacien then rolled over to Ryan's pocket, stole his pokeblock container, and rolled back to the Gyarados. Since he was a Spheal, and they don't even really have fingers, he had to open the container with his mouth. Unfortunately, all of the blue pokeblocks fell right into his mouth. But, instead of eating them as he usually would, he spat them out in front of the Gyarados and gave the biggest grin to Gyarados he could muster. The little Spheal didn't even realize how unappealing the pokeblocks had become, but once again, he was so blissfully ignorant.