Poke-people: Chapter 2: Your first Exam

[Jory]

Sonny grinned as the two came to a decision rather quickly. "Hmm... I see you've picked Gallant. I can't say that was unexpected. Luckily, I've come prepared! Let's go!" Sonny took a step forward and pumped his fist. "Alright, Maverick! Let's do it, Nemea!" The Scout took out the Fast Ball and the Poke Ball from his belt and threw them, releasing a Staravia and a Litleo in a flash of light. The Staravia, Maverick, immediately locked his foes in a fierce, intimidating look. "Sarcus, don't always rely on a type advantage to solve your problems for you. If a trainer only uses one type, expect him to be prepared to face his weaknesses! Nemea, open this one up! Use Attract on Gallant! Maverick, keep Argentia at bay with Whirlwind!" Nemea immediately complied, looking adorably at Gallant and opening her eyes wide. Meanwhile, Maverick flew to the middle of the field and began beating his wings, the force of the resulting gale enough to knock a full-grown human off his feet.

Edited March 16, 2014 by Jory

[Chevaleresse]

Sarcus gritted his teeth. I know how to battle. "Gallant, ignore the Litleo and use Trick Room!" The Gallade tore his focus away from Nemea and focused intently, calling on the psychic powers of his evolutionary line to distort space, inverting the relative disadvantage their team had in Speed. With the Trick Room in place, the Whirlwind keeping the Aron at bay actually helped it move closer to the opposing team. Max saw an immediate opportunity. "Argentia, Head Smash!" The small Rock-type threw herself at the Staravia, a frightfully powerful and crushing headbutt headed straight for it.

Edited March 16, 2014 by KingMurdoc

[Jory]

Sonny grinned. Just as I thought he might. He pointed his finger at the Aron. "Maverick, use Quick Attack to get out of there! Now, Nemea, go for it! OVERHEAT ON ARGENTIA!" Maverick attempted to move out of the way of the Head Smash, but was clipped as he swooped upward away from it. This caused him to be sent off course away from the Overheat blast, which enveloped the airborne Aron.

Edited March 16, 2014 by Jory

[Chevaleresse]

Max winced when he saw Argentia get hit by the Overheat. She was definitely down for the count, and Max recalled her before the Staravia's attack could land. He knew that wasn't precisely within typical ethics, but he didn't want her to get hurt. He called Tiberius forward, who startled Sonny's team with an intimidating glare and a deep growl. "Gallade, Swords Dance!" Sarcus ordered, but Gallade was too busy watching Nemea with fascination. He smacked his palm onto his forehead. "Come on, man. . ."

Edited March 16, 2014 by KingMurdoc

[Jory]

"Very nice job, Nemea! Maverick, don't worry about the hit! You're fine!" Sonny paused as the Arcanine entered the field. This would undoubtedly be the most difficult opponent to bring down out of the bunch. "Maverick, hit both of those two with an Air Cutter attack while Nemea uses Work Up!" Maverick, making sure to stay stationary in the air, flapped his wings harshly, causing a barrage of air blades to be launched toward the opposing Pokemon. Meanwhile, Nemea began hopping around, getting visible worked up.

Edited March 16, 2014 by Jory

[Chevaleresse]

Max grinned. "Dodge the Air Cutter using Extremespeed and hit the Litleo!" The Arcanine rushed forward, deftly dodging the blades of air using his incredible alacrity, then launched a tackle at Nemea. Meanwhile, Sarcus was desperately trying to get Gallant to use a Rock Slide as the Air Cutter sped toward him and struck him solidly, sending him to one knee. The Gallade endured the attack, however, and the shock caused him to regain his focus. He sent a torrent of stone flying at Nemea and Maverick.

Edited March 17, 2014 by KingMurdoc

[Absol-lutelty awesome!]

"This... Is ridiculous..."

He sighed loudly along with his pokemon, Jake hadn't been in a single battle before and just when he had the chance, he couldn't.

His pokemon were a lot more frustrated than he was, banging their heads on the ground at the thought of watching a battle for the third time without any experience to call their own.

[Jory]

Sonny cried out, "Maverick, take the hit for Nemea!" At this, Maverick flew in front of the Litleo and blocked the attack meant for her, taking around half of his own rocks and the rocks from Nemea's side of the field. "Good job, Maverick. You fought well." Sonny took out the Fast Ball and returned the fainted Pokemon, then threw the Heal Ball, revealing a Girafarig. The Pokemon glared at the other team and snarled. "Harvey, use Flash then destroy Gallant with a Retaliate attack!" The Girafarig neighed fiercely and reared, beginning to glow so brightly it hurt to look at him. "Now, Nemea, wait until Tiberius hits you, then counter with an Endeavor!" The Litleo began to radiate a faint orange aura and braced for impact.

Edited March 17, 2014 by Jory

[Chevaleresse]

"Gallant, Protect yourself from Girafarig!" Though he was still distracted by Nemea, he maintained enough focus to create a barrier that the Retaliate bounced off of harmlessly. Endeavor, on the other hand, hit Tiberius squarely, turning his own attack against him. He whined in pain, and looked to Max for orders.

"Now that you're close, use your Close Combat! Afterward, recover using Morning Sun!" The Arcanine leapt savagely at the Litleo, and threw a number of reckless bites and body slams, then started gathering light, attempting to recover health.

After the attack bounced off of Gallant's barrier, Sarcus shouted, "Use your own Close Combat!" However, Gallant was once again gazing at the Litleo with affection and a bit of concern at Tiberius's assault.

[Jory]

"Harvey, eat up that hit. He's doing nothing to you. Then, when Tiberius's defenses are down, counter with a Frustration before he recovers!" The Girafarig complied, stoically taking a beating from the Arcanine before turning and mule kicking the large canine into the wall with a pair of glowing red legs, creating a spiderweb of cracks. The Arcanine slumped to the floor, clearly breathing but knocked out. Harvey snorted, glaring backward at Sonny. "Nemea, latch onto Gallade's midsection while he's distracted, right below that red protrusion!" Nemea took a couple of staggered steps before successfully dashing toward Gallant and latching on. With labored breathing, she looked to Sonny for instructions. "Nemea, I know you have one more in you! OVERHEAT!" The Litleo took in a deep, pained breath, and let loose a torrent of hot, bright orange flame.

[Chevaleresse]

Max hurried around the edge of the field to where Tiberius had been thrown, and returned him to his ball. He ran back toward the entrance of the gym, and gave Sonny a questioning look before letting out a short "Oh!" and releasing the two fainted Pokemon. He immediately began focusing on them, trying to heal their wounds.

Meanwhile, Sarcus grunted in equal parts annoyance, frustration, and concern. Gallant looked alright, though he wasn't capable of continuing to fight. He sighed, then walked up and helped the Pokemon to his feet. He simply said, "You did alright," and helped Gallant a short distance back. "Now, Absolution. I'm counting on you. We've got this. " The Dark-type looked at Sonny, then nodded. He walked onto the field, and released the hold on his natural Pressure, affecting everyone in the room. "Start with Hone Claws!"

[Jory]

"Nemea, that was fantastic! You're a champion. Now take a good rest." Sonny took out the Litleo's ball and returned her. Suddenly, Absolution began setting up. There's the mistake. Always with the setting up, this one, Sonny thought to himself. "Harvey, use Substitute! Charge behind your clone and hit Absolution with a Frustration!" The Giraffe Pokemon whinnied loudly, a shiny red aura surrounding his whole body as he charged menacingly at Absolution.

Edited March 17, 2014 by Jory

[Chevaleresse]

'Frustration?' he thought. 'Does he treat the poor thing that badly? He doesn't seem to be the type. ' "Dodge with Detect, then Sucker Punch Girafarig when you get the chance!"

((How2italicizeonphone))

[Jory]

"Harvey, keep galloping to maintain your momentum! Loop back around and come in for another Frustration!" The Girafarig neighed and galloped at full speed back toward Absolution, his red aura glowing even more brightly than before behind his Substitute. Absolution's Sucker Punch broke right through the Subsitute, but Harvey came through unharmed and body checked the Absol, sending him skittering backward across the floor. Harvey reared on his hind legs, his evidently furious expression scowling down at the Disaster Pokemon.

Edited March 17, 2014 by Jory

[Chevaleresse]

Absolution took the attack, and it sent him sliding across the floor for a moment before he could regain his traction. He did stand back up, however, and looked ready to continue his battle. "Quickly, hit Girafarig with Night Slash and end this!" The Absol dashed forward at his target and swung a sharpened claw at the Girafarig's vulnerable underside.

[Jory]

"Harvey, you can take this hit! I believe in you!" Harvey's expression changed momentarily to one of pain, then returned to its usual rage-induced scowl as he took the devastating attack from Absolution. He staggered back, clearly only having a little bit left in him. "Now, Frustration!" The Girafarig whinnied angrily, rearing once more on his hind legs. His front legs began to glow red and he brought them crashing down on the Absol beneath him.

[Ojama Yellow]

Spells: Psychic Blow (offense), Air Shuriken (offense), Parabolic Shield (defense)

Skills: Accuracy 2, Speed -, Power -

******************************************************

Lionel was walking around. His Mime Jr., Ms. Mime, was out of her Luxury Ball as always and was walking right next to him. As they were talking, they suddenly heard a weird noise coming out of a building. "Oh? What's happening there? I should go check it out!" The Mime Jr. said as she ran to the doors of the building. "N-no, wait please!" But it was already too late. She had already used her Confusion to open the doors a bit to slip in. "She's so strong-minded... I-I guess I'll just wait outside for her..."

Edited March 18, 2014 by Bibarel

[Chevaleresse]

"Use Sucker Punch!" Sarcus cried at Absolution, but it was too late. The Frustration connected solidly, sending Absolution sliding across the floor once more, and this time he stayed down. His Trainer ran over to tend to him, helping the exhausted Pokemon to his feet and feeding him a Sitrus Berry. "You did as well as you could." Sarcus motioned for him to go back to the rest of the team, and turned back to Sonny, a defiant look still in his eyes, but said nothing. Max just groaned as he saw Absolution go down. He had been hoping to win the battle. "So what now?" he asked.

[Absol-lutelty awesome!]

Jake awoke from a short doze as he felt something step on him...

Throwing himself up in surprise, anger, and fear

He looked down to find a Mime.Jr had been his assailant.

"Well what do we have here?..."

Jake's pokemon stepped forward laughing creepily as if they were ready to kill the little thing, Jake however silenced them with a "stop" hand motion.

He picked up and examined the Mime.Jr closely.

"Who might be your friend?"

He asked the pokemon

[Jory]

Sonny sighed and shook his head. "The reason you two lost was your inability to work as a team. It was like battling two individuals rather than the pair of you. The two of you are going to come here once a week for the rest of the semester and battle either myself, a teacher, or another pair of students together. You two are now combat buddies, so get used to it."

[Chevaleresse]

"I'd really love to know what I did to deserve this." Sarcus walked back to his team as he shot the comment over his shoulder. "You've yet to actually give me a reason as to why I'm stuck here, having my Pokemon abused by someone whose team is at a much higher level, instead of training them or getting my homework done; which, as I might mention, is related the only justification you've given thus far as to why I'm here, despite the fact that I'm doing just fine in every single one of my classes." He consciously thought that perhaps he was going a bit over the line, but he was too angry to care. The suppressed frustration from how the day had progressed thus far was reaching the surface and feeding on itself.

Max looked at Sarcus, and wisely decided to remain silent for the time being as he returned his team and slinked toward the door. He turned around just in time to collide face first with a student he didn't recognize who had just been heading into the gym. He landed solidly on his rear and dropped the ball containing Celeste on the ground, where it landed button-down and released the Feebas, who began flailing about, seemingly unaware that she could, in fact, breathe outside of water.

[Absol-lutelty awesome!]

Jake pulled down the Mime.Jr from his line of sight and quickly remarked,

"Wait, am I free to go then?..."

[Jory]

"You're all free to go. And Sarcus, your reaction to this is the reason you need to practice. You need to learn to control your emotions, or you'll never be able to battle at a high enough level to defeat Team Shadow. You're allowing petty annoyances to interfere with your ability to cooperate with your teammates. And I think perhaps the worst thing you could possibly do is to say this is pointless." Sonny walked over to a terminal near the practice field and pressed a button on the keypad. A tiny holodisc ejected from the port, which Sonny picked up and walked over to Sarcus. "This is a video recording of the battle. There were a few errors made on both yours and Max's part that could use studying. And by the way," Sonny continued, "Your Pokemon are, on average, just as strong as most of the ones I used because they're fully evolved. Your Pokemon will be fine, so stop complaining about that." Sonny handed the disc to Sarcus. "Instead of complaining about getting private battling sessions against experienced opponents, you should be appreciative that you have such an opportunity to improve your skills."

[Chevaleresse]

Sarcus took a deep breath as Jory's calm tone communicated itself to him. The anger reverted to frustration, and Sarcus started to speak. "Could you at least let me explain how I feel? I was in class, then all of a sudden, the one person that I dislike the most in the world comes in and starts complaining about my friends. Then, I'm punished for defending them. The reason I get, with my nigh-perfect grades, is that it's 'interfering with my education.' I'd love nothing more than to go to the river and relax alone with my Pokemon, but instead I have to go to detention. When I get there, I get to find out that I'm being required to work with this person against someone whose team far outlevels ours, with far more battle experience, and the inevitable happens, and now both of our teams are hurting because I couldn't give the right orders, and it's somehow not okay to be upset about those placed above you throwing you into this situation because they felt like you needed a lesson." He stopped for a breath. "I won't say I understand your position. But please consider mine." He turned, and started toward the exit. He stopped, and spoke again without turning around. "And about the first thing you said. Everyone wants you to control your emotions, but I've done a lot of thinking about it, and I'll just say I disagree with the idea that emotions are to be regulated so strictly. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to attempt to relax before the test tomorrow."

[Absol-lutelty awesome!]

Jake set down the Rogue Mime.Jr gently and turned, he seemed far different than the lazed dozing Jake he was just minutes ago.

(Calm and quiet mood swing)

He turned and opened his eyes with a frown on his face.

"Or instead of forcing yourself into a corner huddled together by a fort of excuses and your own beliefs you could consider Sonny's point of view.

Chances are he didn't put you here to "punish" you or "give you a slap on the wrist"...

He brought YOU here Sarcus because he knew that you too shared a difficult relationship, stronger than a rivalry...

He brought you here not for the reason of disturbance but because it was "interfering with your education" by having you two constantly bickering instead of coming here to test just how strong your rivalry is...

The point of you two coming here today, I've realized was that Sonny was just trying to put you into a corner like this with you working with Max to test your "rivalry" if you were truly rivals then you would reluctantly accept the fact you had no choice out to work out your differences in order to even lay a scratch on Sonny's pokemon...

The point was to bring you too together to force you into accepting your differences no matter what the odds, no matter the opponent... That, my friends is the only way you can beat him, or the "team shadow" he speaks of. He's making you come here so you can do that, instead of hiding in a fort of your beliefs you're going to have to except that not every day is a peaceful one by the river, but you have to make it that way yourself."

He handed the Mime.Jr a small origami flower that he had made before dozing off and them raised himself high back towards Sarcus.

"Now... Do you understand the point? It's not forced, this is making sure you two can succeed. Different or not. How will you pass the exam when you have to deal with a partner if you can't even hold a rivalry together?"

He walked up to Sarcus and reached out his outstretched hand to shake it if he agreed with his idea and hoped Sarcus saw what he meant.