It was now tomorrow again and I couldn’t be more excited. I turned off my alarm clock simply cuz I woke up early and headed into the bathroom with a pep in my step. After freshening up I headed to the kitchen and started making my breakfast before heading back upstairs to wake up my mother and the Pokémon currently asleep on my bed. Chardon woke up first and started heading over to me for me to pick him up if I was interpreting that universal sign correctly.
I checked around my house to look for a good toothbrush for Char and started teaching him how to brush his teeth which he took as a fish in a river, seems he likes staying clean. I was careful cleaning him as I was using a wet wipe anywhere near his tail.
After Char finished we headed to the kitchen right when the timer started chiming and I started putting on mittens before opening the oven and taking my freshly made pizza onto a stand for it and started ringing a bell. Now I might be a bit experimenting but if there was one dish that I excelled with it was the pizza, only because I would make it using my mom's recipe. Suddenly I hear feet and fur stomping above me with a door slamming shut and a cry from one of the starving creatures above, Char was curious as to what the hype was about so I decided to give him a slice which he took a curious nibble from, then a bit, then he wolfed the thing down in seconds. Such is the curse of my amazing cooking, no one has ever been able to resist and the only reason I am allowed to experiment at all is because of this delectable dish and the few masterpieces way after. After I told Char to be patient my mother came running down and seated herself at the end of the table, the end near the pizza I might add.
“So, big day… you'll leave Pallet, have a trainer battle amongst your friends, and face against the gym leaders to head for the championship tournament.” My mother stated my itinerary while she fidgeted and stared at the special breakfast.
Right then, the Eevee duo came as fast as they could and seated themselves on the raised chairs we keep for small Pokémon. I went back to the kitchen for my second pizza, this one filled with the vitamins and minerals necessary for Pokémon to excel when battling and naturally healthy for both Pokémon and humans. When I came back there was only one slice left of the first pizza and all the culprits froze being caught red handed aiming for the last slice. I just calmly extracted the pizza from my mothers hand and took a bite while placing down my second pizza. This time they all ate slower but still finished the pizza to only two slices before 2 minutes had passed.
After I had the last 2 slices from the second pizza mother came back downstairs ready for her day as a school teacher and motioned for me to change to which I raised an eyebrow, it’s only natural I go to school in my night suit during pajama day. She gave up pretty quickly and we both exited the house, but not before getting all the Pokémon in the house to come with us, and set out on going to school together. After a few minutes of walking we get to the school and start walking through the front gate 20 minutes before school starts before splitting up. I headed to the battle platform and waited for my friends to come, and the first to arrive only takes 40 minutes. By now my classmates and a couple of other grades are aware that I’m here for more than just studying at school because I have a poke ball and there are different Pokémon with me, so they got even more excited when Mirielle came in travel clothes with her parents and Pikachu which had a sunflower hat on its head. She seemed stunned at my clothes but one quick look around revealed that it wasn’t me going crazy or something like that.
“Glad you could make it, I know this’ll be a great idea.” I started off the conversation
“It’s such a pleasant day I’m glad we will trek today instead of yesterday.” she replied “so, are you ready for a battle.” Look at how confident she is, I’m happy for her, but unfortunately she’s the one who’s going to lose.
“Unfortunately your the one who’s going to lose,” I say with a smirk “if you face me that is.”
It doesn’t actually take that long for Amy and James to come, it actually looks like Amy went to mr. Slowbro’s house and dragged him all the way here. It just occurred to me that only I'm the one between the four of us who decided to go to school in pajamas. With all four of us we play Rock Paper Scissors and then the two with the most wins get to battle first followed up by the losers battling. I end up facing Mirielle first and we head to our respective ends to start the match. My mother comes up to the middle and begins stating that this is a casual match between the two of us.
“Are both trainers ready?”
“Yes/Yeah”
“Then … begin”
We sent out our starters who looked ready to begin.
“Char use Dragon Dance”
“Pikachu use Growl”
“Repeat Char”
“Huh, you as well Pikachu”
This was slowly becoming clear that Mirielle was only reacting to my orders, so I maxed Char’s speed as fast as possible with his dragon move before really starting the match.
“Alright Char lets start with Growl, follow it up with Ember”
“Wait what?!? Pikachu us-”
A loud yet cute growl sounded out, as this happened a blue light emitted from Pikachu, signifying a stat decrease. and drowning out the order that Mirielle was about to commit. Right after, Chardon whipped his tail at his enemy, the flame from the Charmander's tail sent small burst of flames that hit the Pikachu who had failed to dodge the attack which had a ratatat sound similar to a gun being fired before Pikachu shook it off whilst still standing.
"Pikachu use Electro Ball quick!"
"Chardon, use Scratch to deflect and hit with Beat Up!"
"Pikachu, g-get ready to use Nuzzle!"
As the orders were being called out, not many people were really watching sans the new trainers, the Eevee duo, and the trainers' parents.
This was mainly due to these being fresh new Pokémon that had zero previous training or any worthwhile battle experience, the school was more used to seeing battles from trainers with at least two or more badges and it didn't help that the battle started out with a stat war before really kicking off. But hearing these new orders, some kids decided to look ups from their conversations to the battle and were surprised by something.
For starters, the Charmander was moving faster than the Pikachu could charge up her attack and by the time the Electro Ball was ready the newly dubbed Chardon was only a quarter of the pitch away. When the electric energy was fired the Pikachu took a few seconds to look and see if its attack had properly landed, the attack meanwhile was met by a pair of claws with a white outline that was trying to change the direction the direction of the Electro Ball, it seemed that both battlers had partially succeeded in their orders; though it seemed that Chardon had not really received much damage from the attack and was rapidly gaining on the opponent Pikachu. Before the Pikachu could ready up Nuzzle, it was hit by the dark type attack and suffered a hefty amount of damage. In a moment of retaliation, Pikachu hit the opposing Charmander with the electric physical attack which was debuffed even though it had a guaranteed status condition occur.
"Dang. Char you’re stunned now!" I yelled to get his attention "move back and fire Ember from a distance."
"Pikachu can you still fight?" An energetic 'Pika' was said before "Use Disarming Voice and then follow it up with Electro Ball"
Despite having its speed cut in half Chardon was still faster than the Pikachu and managed to move towards the other side of the arena before being hit by the fairy type attack, whipping his tail once more he managed to strike the Pikachu again before the electric type could ready up an attack one more time and this time it went flying back and falling into the ground. A pensive ten seconds passed while Mirielle and I were holding our breath waiting for Pikachu to stand back up when my mother said.
"Pikachu is unable to battle to battle, the victor is Chardon and Evandros."
It took a second to realize before I started jumping with joy with a big smile on my face saying 'YAHOO', similarly Chardon was also looking quite pleased with himself and gave his mightiest roar that he could muster. On the other side, Mirielle didn't look that sad, the fact that Pikachu lost seemed to have her relieved and she picked up her partner Pokemon before meeting me halfway and shaking my hand on a good battle.
We both gave our Pokemon to the Chansey nearby and headed back to watch the other two battle. While we were sitting down the Eevee duo came to the both of us tried to snuggle, with Leaf on my lap and Shadow on Mirielle's. They then started yipping and started looking at my pocket that had a spare poke ball just in case I want to catch something before pointing at themselves.
"I think Shadow and Leaf want to be caught now, and Shadow wants to go with you Mirielle." I say
"W-Wait WHAT?!!" her outburst got a few looks and she looked around sheepishly "But, but, but, a-aren't they yours?"
"Nah, not really, I mean Leaf and I made a promise I would catch her as soon as I'm allowed but Shadow doesn't wanna go with me. Judging by how peaceful he looks right now, he probably thinks you could be a better trainer for him more than I ever could."
That got her quiet, then she pulled out a poke ball from her skirts pocket and aimed the button right in front of Shadow. The little Eevee then stood very still before pressing his nose to the button and being sucked in by a white light, the poke ball only shook once before giving a click of confirmation. After that I pulled out my own poke ball and Leaf pounced on it before she too disappeared into her very own poke ball. We then went straight to James and Amy to tell them about captures and they both looked and sounded happy for us before James said.
"Hold up, doesn't that mean that Charmander's move Beat Up is even stronger now because you have a new member of the party." A few seconds passed before
"Urgh, he's right. You've got an unfair advantage over us don't you." Amy groaned as if it was a fact
"Well we all know that I would only use either Leaf or Chardon against you guys not both at the same time."
"Except for me I hope" Mirielle joined the fray with.
"Of course, I wanna know how good I am in a double battle and right now you're the best partner I could ask for." Sincerity was the key and in seconds Mirielle was flush with delight, but why was Amy smirking? "What are you planning Machoke?"
"Oh, me? Nothing, nothin- did you just call me a Machoke." Amy, Amy, Amy, who else would I say that to. "Well anyways James and I will have our battle before we battle you guys."
The battle between those two wasn't anything special and just like my match not a lot of people were watching, mainly because Amy started the battle with Yawn while James ordered a Tackle. This resulted in Bulbasaur taking two Tackle attacks from a Squirtle that doubled up using Shell Smash, after waking up James ordered a Grassy Terrain with Bulbasaurs bulb sending a seed onto the ground that activated the field move and immediately started healing up the grass type bit by bit. Of course Amy would have none of that and ordered another Yawn which Bulbasaur dodged and James retaliated by making this an endurance battle by triple stacking Curse while dodging Yawn and tanking the odd Water Gun. It was a really slow battle, Mirielle and I even got Chardon and Pikachu at the third Yawn of the match, but Amy won by a critical hit Tackle after deciding to do hit and run tactics.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
I think the coolest thing out of the battle was the way Squirtle moved out of the way of a tackle by using Water Gun as a mobility boost to run away. After they got their Pokemon healed it was now time for my battle against Amy as she was the winner between the two. But we were told to speed this up since most of the kids actually wanted to go into class instead of watching. Mirielle and James would have their own battle against each other at the same time as us.
Despite the adrenaline that all trainers feel during their matches, regular people watch from outside without the feeling of defeat or victory that could be attained through each moment spent formulating tactics or striking the enemy, not many people feel the rush as trainers do, so while they cheer for high level matches like champion Alder or Diantha there are usually empty spots in tournaments where lower tier trainers compete.
Understandably you wouldn't have the same level of excitement if you watched a match which held a Dragonite and a match with a Baltoy or Cleffa, and that's ok cuz honestly I just wanna go beat up gyms as fast as possible and surprise everyone with a super-ultra-mega level Pokemon that could Gigantamax or has its own z-move like Snorlax.
Anyway, Mirielle and James had to move somewhere a little further back into one of the smaller battle rings that students are allowed to use for their family and the league mandated Pokemon for better understandings on the life of a trainer. To make it fair Amy and I went to another battle ring adjacent to the other two's maybe to check the competition, maybe because we wanna see the tactics either might employ.
Amy and I met in the middle of the battle ring and Mirielle's father would referee the match while my mother would referee the Mirielle's own, you know for fairness. Pretty simple stuff really, you just shake hands and hope the human fighting-type in front of you doesn't snap your hand in half and to Amy's credit she didn't but she was really darn close.
"Both trainers ready?"
"Yeah" we say in unison
"Begin" was all we got before we chucked our poke balls out to the field.
"Char, move back and use growl!"
"Shell Smas- wait wait wait use Water Gun!" Amy yelled out
The Charmander did just as told and looked quite cute with its little move, meanwhile Squirtle was in the middle of completing his move before aborting it and instead spent precious seconds gathering energy to fire the blast of water in its mouth. This was more than enough time for Chardon to dodge and in retaliation shot a few wisps of Ember which forced Squirtle to retreat in its shell, before it realized that the attack was a fake out. In reality this was my setup while I was waiting for Amy's match to end noting how each time Squirtle thought it was gonna get hit that it would retreat in its shell to mitigate the damage, so I told Chardon to use Dragon Dance whenever Squirtle would shelter up.
"Hey?!!? Chardon is using a stat buffer without a command!" Amy looked incredulous at this
"Bro... do you not remember about making preexisting orders or something, you took so long I came up with this while waiting. Like, come on, we literally just watched Lances battle last week where he said nothing the entire time he beat that rock type specialist from Unova." Which idiot managed to replace my idiot and gave me a new idiot, I'd like a refund please.
Then Chardon made a big mistake, he took his eyes off of Squirtle which capitalized on the opportunity by firing a Water Gun. My little buddy got hit head on for the first time and looked a little scared because his flame on his tail got a little soaked, not taking into account just how much damage a fire type takes from a water attack. In retaliation Chardon took a big breath in with his chest looking wayyyyyy puffed out and fired a black smog right at Squirtle and covering the field.
"Woah," I brilliantly spout out "Char just learned Smokescreen"
"No 'Woah', how are we gonna see the battle now," Amy growls at me "Squirtle use Shell Smash then Water Gun everywhere, try to hit Charmander."
Now, every fire type trainer worth their salt knows that sooner or later their mon will learn Smokescreen and this situation will happen. They also know that while the black smoke impairs sight, it also looks clear in the eyes of Pokemon that are partnered with the fire type, unless it was aimed at the partner instead in which case everyone sans said partner would have clear vision. Chardon just learnt this move in battle so he probably can't see eit-
Right then an orange creature is ejected from the smoke, the fire on its tail really tiny and he looks to be unconscious. Immediately, after Chardon was knocked out the smoke started dissipating showing a Squirtle quite pleased with itself, the turtles shell however had multiple scratches at the back and the water types face had a small burn mark showcasing that Chardon had used our previous strategy and did an additional Dragon Dance before initiating melee.
"Well that was anticlimactic near the end there for us but at least your Charmander was looking happy." Amy tries console me
"Yeah, and Squirtle seems quite happy for himself with having two wins under his belt." I relent
On the other battlefield James and Mirielle are already finished, mainly because Mirielle started things off with a Nuzzle before moving to use Electro Ball and Disarming Voice. None of these moves were very effective against Bulbasaur but the low speed went even lower when James used Curse again presumably sealing his chances, it turned out however that Bulbasaur had managed to learn Vine Whip and herded Pikachu to a corner and started bashing the little female rodent with stat boosted Tackle's and kept the electric type from running by keeping it in place with Vine Whip. Pikachu did manage to get out but at the end of it but she just didn't have the energy to deal consistent damage, presumably because she was working overtime using Nuzzle to force the grass type to drop her. Mirielle had the good conscience to forfeit and took her loss quite well, seems the girl doesn't hate battling but she probably won't battle much if at all.
Again, this is the reality of low tier battles, they're either really quick or they're dragged out so far that it just becomes boring for anyone who doesn't live out in the sticks or some dude who's never seen a Pokemon battle.
Pokemon are tough sure, but you can easily tell how strong a Pokemon is not by any physical tells, mainly because many water types or legendaries don't usually have scars or anything like that, but by the weight a Pokemon brings just by being in the room. It's why most Pokemon in the wild might follow a leader that's a different type or size than the others, because you can tell which Pokemon is the strongest in the room. Only when you start heading to mid tier battles does this weight start appearing and it's really hard to tell which mon is stronger between mid tier trainers but if you compare a Pokemon from mid tier to a high tier you can tell without even looking at their battles or shape that the high tier is stronger.
After the battle concludes we all give our Pokemon to the nurse Joy and Chansey that are waiting, both of whom seem happy not only by being asked to come here and taking care of our partners but also because of Mirielle's call to surrender.
While we wait, it seems that now would be the best time to check up on Leaf and Shadow to see what their move sets might possibly be. It would also be a good excuse to pet the two while we wait for the final battles that are about to take place.
Name Eevee Type Normal Hp 55 Attack 55 Sp. Attack 45 Defense 50 Sp. Defense 65 Speed 55 Total Stats 325
What deviates between the two is their natures and move sets, I mean it was obvious to me that whenever Shadow left he was either training or learning survival skills but to actually see the end result is kind of amazing showing just how much of a battle monster he might become as opposed to Leaf. The only problem would be his null nature which doesn't increase or decrease any of his natural abilities compared to a generic Eevee, Shadow's just normal and that is just fine.
Nature Serious Ability Adaptability Moves Mud Slap, Swift, Quick Attack, Growl, Leer, Tackle, Double Kick, Iron Tail
And then there was Leaf's which was a fairly good move set and a great nature, but it was a little lacking compared to her elder brother. Nevertheless, I would obviously start training my two partners as soon as we hit the road because a good solid foundation is what's necessary for anything in life whether it be a job, studies, or even Pokemon.
Nature Adamant Ability Run Away Moves Swift, Mud Slap, Quick Attack
No matter the moves each Eevee has we swiftly started our final matches to finish this battle royale. But honestly the group seems to be wanting to travel together and no matter how fun that might be I wish to travel by myself, its what my dad did when he started his journey and despite our promise for me to stop thinking about him once my journey started I really did want to keep some part of him deep inside of me.
"Hey guys?" I ask
"Yeah/Huh/Yes" They say together.
"Sorry but I wanna actually travel by myself you know," I continue after waiting for a response that wasn't there "I just wanna start on some secret training and some other stuff, plus I wanna see how well I do by myself really."
None of them seem against the notion I was saying and readily agreed to me not being part of the team, the only person who looked even remotely saddened by this was Mirielle. *Sigh* The poor girl probably blamed herself somehow, she always looks like this whenever I say I have to leave... nah definitely not, I mean we're just friends.
Anyway we all start heading over to nurse Joy and Chansey who have finished healing our Pokemon and we all begin our final battles against each other, not to be a spoilsport or anything but my bet was on Mirielle and I winning. It's just classic type advantage and until trainers become mid tier they usually only win by either this or having really creative and powerful tactics.
Finally, Amy and James's parents manage to come for the final battles but an important piece of info is that Amy's mom married James's dad resulting in them being step siblings. The other two parents are also there, it was just a divorce that spilt their family and nothing tragic thankfully, but it was obvious they were only there to see their kid off and then they'd leave back to their homes in different cities. Anyway, just like last time Mirielle's father was the judge in my battle against James and the other battle was being refereed by my mother.
"Are all trainers ready?"
"Yeah/Yup"
"Then... Begin" and with a hand wave we tossed our poke balls out into the field. With mine landing a few meters away from my feet and his landing in the stands on my right.
"Chardon use Ember"
"Vine Wh- DODGE QUICK" bad move, if he used Vine Whip to move he would have more speed than Bulbasaur actually has.
Just like that Bulbasaur got hit fairly quickly and only dodged the latter of the attack, after seeing rapid success I told Chardon to keep it up and he continued whipping his tail flame right at the opposing Pokemon. After the third hit of Ember the poor grass type fainted, signifying my win against James. Hey, if it ain't broke then don't fix it amiright.
Upon seeing that we won, Char then began roaring his little head off, the smug look that entire time showed that he was really happy to have more than a 50% win rate starting off the journey.
On the other side, the battle happening was already at an end and my bet was right. It seems that Mirielle was on the aggressive at the very start and hit Squirtle with a Nuzzle then Electro Ball combo that swiftly disposed of the water type Amy was partnered with. Kinda rough that their parents came so late that they could only see them lose, but hey, the early bird gets the worm or in this case gets to see their kid eke out a win.
Moving on, with that over only James and Amy went to get their partners healed mainly because Char and Pikachu didn't actually get harmed this match. Char and I were being smothered by my mother and Leaf while the same was happening with Mirielle's parents and Shadow, but her Eevee was only there to be petted by the girl.
Once the step siblings came back with their partners they were also being hugged by their parents alongside their Bulbasaur and Squirtle. After a bit of family togetherness the groups all dispersed with all the other parents handing pre-prepared bags filled with essentials and the items given to them by the professor and a magnetic belt or leather strips that could be placed onto the side of their bags. All of them seem to have Silph Co. bags and that was easy to see since James was going to wear a fanny pack and Mirielle got an even smaller purse that could move as far apart as a medium sized refrigerator if I was doing the mental math correctly, the only person who was going with a bag in their group was Amy but like no surprise there.
Anyway, they start heading to the road that connects with route 1 which no doubt means that they'll be leaving ahead of me so I can at least just wait a couple hours before I start heading out. This also means that I can have lunch with my new partners and my mother in Pallet for one last time before I head leaving, which always means we head to this grilled burger place with food specifically for Pokemon, Leaf loves the restaurant we're heading to because the Farfetch'd that cooks there always makes a little extra fries just for her.
It's not even two yet and I already know that today's gonna be a great day.