The Eon Academy [S.S. Wishmaker Side-Story]

[[Desolate Divine]]

Season 2 Episode 8: Regrets (Part 1)

Spoiler:

It was 7am when Jon found himself standing in the empty dining room, preparing a cup of coffee. The interns had left the property an hour earlier in Dylan’s car, not to be returning for nearly another week as they spent a week travelling across Hoenn, capturing Pokemon for the Academy to use for practical training.

Jon had managed to run the Academy by himself the year before, with occasional help from Steven and Alyssa, however that was five students attending. This year there were thirty-nine students including the four who were interns, and Dylan, Steven and Alyssa were all staff now. With the interns gone, this would prove to be a challenge. But Jon already had ideas…

As the coffee brewed, he pulled the microphone for the PA system from the counter where it sat, and pressed the button. On a normal day there were students who were consistently late to breakfast, if not for their team leaders harassing them to get out of bed. Not wanting to go to different cabins to wake students up himself, he had his own way of dealing with this.

“Good morning Eon Academy students!” Jon said loudly and enthusiastically. “As many of you are aware, your team leaders are gone this week in order to capture some Pokemon that we plan to use in future summer programs, which means you get the pleasure of me being directly responsible for you all this week.”

All across the campsite, students who were still asleep began to stir, complaining about the early wake-up call.

“In order to facilitate a peaceful start to the day, each morning at 7am, I will be playing different sounds from nature, all recorded by various people in our very own Hoenn Region, as you all wake up, stopping it when everyone has arrived in the dining hall for breakfast,” Jon explained, making sure to hold in his laugh. “This morning's track will be a pod of Wailord during mating season…”

Before pressing play on his phone, Jon spoke into the microphone one more time.

“Additionally, during this week, we will not use the existing clean-up roster, and instead, clean-up duty for a given meal will be given to the last team to have all their members present for the meal. See you all soon…”

Jon pressed play, before the odd mating calls of Wailord began to play through the camp-site’s PA system. He grabbed his coffee and sat down, before feeling a familiar presence in his mind. He closed his eyes, and found himself looking down at the campsite from Latios’ point of view, where students started to frantically run out of their cabins, trying to find their teammates who were liable to sleep in. Jon was more thankful than ever for Latios’ ability to see emotions as auras, as he sipped his coffee…

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

“You ready to go?” Dylan asked, as Abbee climbed into the backseat of the car, alongside Charlotte and Chris. Justin sat in the passenger seat next to Dylan, still seeming half asleep from the early morning.

“Ready,” Abbee replied, as she buckled in before transferring the variety of Pokeballs she had bought for herself into her backpack, careful to keep them separate from the more expensive variety Jon had supplied her with.

It was 9:30am in Lilycove City, which seemed to only start waking up, though they had arrived there half an hour earlier, leaving the Eon Academy at Mossdeep City and taking a ferry shortly after 6:30am.

They had arrived in Lilycove a little before 9am, before getting breakfast, which Abbee left a little early, having explained to the group the advice Candice had given her. If she wanted to become a Gym Leader, the first step was having enough capable Pokemon of each type that she could find work as a Gym Trainer with any typing. Which meant she was going to have to capture a fair few Pokemon for herself, and this would be the perfect opportunity to do it.

“Are any of you guys going to try and catch something for yourselves as well?” Abbee asked, as Dylan turned onto the freeway leaving Lilycove.

“Probably not,” Charlotte yawned, having been awake since she was woken by a nightmare at 3am, “Milotic is still not as strong as the rest of my team, and needs my focus. I wouldn’t be able to do that properly with a new Pokemon.

Justin had fallen asleep in the front seat, and Chris was the next to speak.

“Maybe if the right Pokemon shows up, I will consider it,” Chris explained. “There is nothing I am specifically looking for, but I’m open to catching a new Pokemon or two…”

“What about you Dylan?” Abbee asked. “Got any Pokemon you want to catch for yourself?”

“Maybe…” Dylan replied. “It’s a little out of the way though, so it might have to wait for another time…”

The route Jon had mapped out for the interns was one Dylan was slightly familiar with. Having gone to different camps around Hoenn each summer, whichever would keep him away from home the longest, he had visited Lilycove, Lavaridge and Fallarbor, so the trip through the northern half of Hoenn was one he had done before. However he hadn’t seen most of the southern end of the region, and was somewhat looking forward to seeing the rest of Hoenn, even if only passing through.

Hoenn itself was renowned for how well it balanced the quality of life for both Pokemon, and the humans who wanted to capture them. There were well maintained freeways connecting the cities, allowing for somewhat easy travel, with large fences either side, containing sprawling regional reserves, with only a small portion of the reserves themselves accessible to the general public to capture Pokemon. It was nearing 10am when Dylan found the exit on the freeway he had been looking for before taking it, and driving up a winding road, where the scenery became gradually denser, and the sight of the odd Pokemon was becoming more apparent. Dylan explained in more detail the way they would proceed as they drove.

“I’ve spent the last few days making a spreadsheet with Pokemon that are sighted in the areas we are going,” Dylan explained. “It’s on the cloud, so I’ll forward you all a copy. As soon as you catch a Pokemon, mark it as caught on the spreadsheet, and we should get a notification. A double or two is okay, but I think Jon wouldn’t be too happy if we used three quarters of the Pokeballs on Zigzagoons…”

Justin had begun to stir as Chris looked over to Charlotte at the other side of the rear seat.

“Since you and I haven’t had a clear winner in our last few battles, how about a bet?”

“Here we go…” Abbee muttered from the middle seat between the pair.

“Who can catch the most individual Pokemon?” Charlotte asked. “I’m game, but are you after your date with Justin last year?”

“Leave me out of this,” Justin murmured groggily, as he began to look around.

“We’ll keep it simple,” Chris replied, disregarding Justin. “Winner gets to cash in by swapping a shift for Saturday Seminars, no arguments.”

Whilst Charlotte didn’t really care too much about there being an actual prize, being able to get Chris to cover one of her shifts did appeal to her, and having to potentially switch with Chris at his beck and call wasn’t too much of a punishment for losing.

“Deal,” Charlotte said, as she started plotting how she would win. There were limited amounts of Pokemon in each area to catch, and their competition was about unique Pokemon. Which meant the faster she caught a Pokemon, the easier it would be to pull ahead. She decided to focus on the common Pokemon, capturing them before Chris could, as they were worth the same in their little game, but if she captured all the common Pokemon, Chris would be stuck looking for the rarer ones, giving him a disadvantage. Little did she know, Chris was thinking the exact same thing.

Dylan parked the car in a gravel car park. He grabbed his own bag full of Pokeballs from the tub of the ute, before making sure the hard lid was locked.

“It’s 10:30 now,” Dylan explained. “Did you all download that hiking app I sent you?”

There was a murmur in the affirmative from the group whilst Dylan continued.

“I got you to download it because the maps are offline, and once you activate it, even without data, it will track your movement and plot it to the map,” Dylan explained. “If you get lost, you can follow it back the way you came.”

Once it was clear that Dylan didn’t have anything to add, Chris sprinted from the carpark towards the nearest set of trees, causing Charlotte to sigh, as she lightly jogged in a different direction.

“I guess they’re motivated?” Abbee said to Dylan.

“As long as it doesn’t drive them to do something stupid…” Dylan muttered, earning a chuckle from Justin. “Even if the four of you are employed by the Eon Academy, I’m still the only adult here, so if something happens, I’m gonna be responsible.”

“They’ll be fine,” Abbee replied. “Chris only went into Shoal Cave that one time.”

Dylan sighed, before making his way towards another area of the reserve.

“Stay safe,” he called out to Abbee and Justin, leaving the pair to decide which way to go.

“North or south?” Justin asked, as Abbee looked between the two sections.

“North,” Abbee replied. “See you in an hour…”

The pair went their separate ways, as Abbee let Victini and Ariados out of their Pokeballs. Ariados to help her catch any Pokemon she set her sights on, and Victini to keep her company.

”Why is Ariados out?” Victini asked Abbee telepathically, as Abbee hoped that Victini had only said that to her.

“To help catch Pokemon…” Abbee thought back.

”Isn’t that my job?” Victini asked, sounding disappointed.

“It will be when we aren’t in the middle of a regional reserve…” Abbee explained. ”I’m pretty sure I’m actually breaking the law slightly even letting you out of your Pokeball here…”

”What’s the worst I could do?” Victini asked, trying to sound reassuring.


”Accidentally cause a giant forest-fire?” Abbee replied. ”Take it as me thinking your fire is too impressive to be contained by a mere forest…”

Victini sighed telepathically, before conceding as the pair continued walking down the trail. It was only another minute before her phone buzzed, informing her one of her teammates had already captured a Pokemon.

“Already?” Abbee said out loud, without even realizing it.

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

Charlotte quietly stalked the lone Poochyena that wandered through the forestland, seemingly looking for food. She held in her hand one of the Quick Balls that Jon had supplied. Whilst she only had six of them for the entire trip, the others all had the same amount, and if she used them now, she could get ahead of Chris, making it that much harder for him to catch up.

She hadn’t sent out a Pokemon, as it would be harder to remain undetected. The Poochyena was upwind, so wasn’t detecting her scent, however Charlotte wanted to get closer before she attempted to throw the Quick Ball. Whilst they only needed to get within a certain radius of a Pokemon, the element of the whole situation she had the least faith in was her aim.

She stood forward, and cringed when she heard a twig snap under her foot. The Pokemon’s ears perked up, as she quickly hid behind a tree. The Poochyena looked towards the source of the sound, before growling lightly, unsure of where the source of the sound came from, whilst Charlotte was blind to it, whilst hidden behind the tree.

Charlotte took a breath. If she left it any longer, it would leave, even more cautious. She gripped the Quick Ball hard, focusing on the area she last saw Poochyena before hiding, before darting out of the tree. Poochyena had moved slightly towards her, and now having seen her, turned to run, though it was too late. Charlotte threw the Quick Ball, and as quick as Poochyena was, the Quick Ball flew towards it at nearly sixty kilometres per hour. The ball flew just to the left of the fleeing Pokemon, however still managed to reach its activation range, flinging open roughly a meter away from Poochyena, and sucking the Pokemon into it before closing.

Charlotte readied an Ultra Ball as she made her way towards the Quick Ball. If Poochyena escaped, it would have a split second before it would be hit again. The ball shook, before stopping, as Poochyena stopped struggling inside, and the light on it clicked, marking the Pokeball as sealed, and Poochyena unable to escape.

Charlotte sighed as she pocketed the Ultra Ball, pulling out her phone, as she picked up the Pokeball with her free hand. Opening the spreadsheet Dylan had sent her, she found Poochyena listed, and marked it captured. However as she pressed the confirm button, her phone buzzed with a notification, Charlotte catching one word of it at first.

Chris.

“Don’t tell me,” she muttered, as she opened the spreadsheet, worried that her and Chris had both captured the same Pokemon.

Chris has captured Zigzagoon.

She breathed a sigh of relief, though not completely at ease, knowing that Zigzagoon was just as common around here as Poochyena. Remembering the guidebook she read, her next best bet in this area was a Shuppet or a Duskull, though if she could find water, Tentacool and Wingull were even more common. She continued ahead, listening for the sound of running water…

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

“Of course…” Dylan muttered, having to stifle a grin. His phone had received two notifications simultaneously, marking Chris as catching a Zigzagoon, and Charlotte catching a Poochyena. Two of the most common Pokemon in the area. Dylan had a hunch that would be how they proceeded, and was glad he took it upon himself to try and find a rarer Pokemon. In this case, Kecleon.

The colour changing Pokemon was difficult to find, but not impossible, and whilst the Pokemon blended into its surroundings to near perfection, the red stripe along its belly didn’t change colour. This was what Dylan kept an eye out for, as he walked through the reserve. He felt a chill down the back of his neck, before turning, and seeing his Dusknoir floating behind him. Whilst he knew it was his Pokemon, the sudden appearance still caused him to jump.

“You have to scare me like that?” Dylan asked, as the Ghost type Pokemon seemed to laugh. “Did you find one?”

Dylan had sent Dusknoir to try and find a Kecleon for him. Being a ghost type and capable of phasing through solid matter, made it a capable stalker, not making a single sound as it followed its prey, and able to move quickly if at risk of being spotted without giving up its stealthy advantage.

Dusknoir nodded, before gliding through the air to Dylan’s left, as Dylan followed as quietly as he could, hoping not to give himself and Dusknoir away before he found his near invisible target.

It took a few minutes for the pair to find their mark. Dylan couldn’t see it at first, but eventually noticed a floating red stripe amongst the branches of a nearby tree.

“Mean Look,” Dylan said quietly. Dusknoir sunk into the ground, leaving Dylan alone, and Dylan saw the red stripe in the tree go completely still, expecting something. In the blink of an eye, Dusknoir emerged from the ground at the base of the tree, and floated up quickly, stopping in front of Kecleon before it could react, and staring it down. Dusknoir’s eye flashed red, as Kecleon was now unable to attempt to escape.

Kecleon turned visible, responding with a scratch attack, however the move didn’t affect Dusknoir. Knowing he needed to take this opportunity, Dylan called out his next move.

“Ice Punch!”

Dusknoir landed the icy punch, knocking Kecleon out of the tree who soon regained its footing. Dylan’s next move would be the one to answer a question about this Pokemon. Dylan knew that Kecleon mostly had the Colour Change ability, which causes their type to shift based on which moves it is hit by. However, some had an ability called Protean, which shifted its type based on the attack it uses, like Justin’s Greninja. Kecleon is normally a Normal Type, and unable to take damage from Ghost attacks. If it had Colour Change, it should now be an Ice Type, and if it has Protean, it will still be normal.

“Shadow Punch!”

Dusknoir darted forward, hitting Kecleon with a ghostly fist. The attack landed, which meant Kecleon should now be a Ghost Type, and susceptible to Dusknoir’s attacks.

Kecleon responded using Lick, which was now stronger due to it being a Ghost type itself, however Dusknoir wasn’t overly affected by the attack, instead launching another Shadow Punch attack, knocking Kecleon back.

Whilst Kecleon was distracted, Dylan threw an Ultra Ball. Kecleon was sucked into the Pokeball, before it clicked shut, the Pokemon not putting up a fight.

“Nice work…” Dylan said to Dusknoir, before opening the spreadsheet on his phone to register the catch. It was still 10:55, and Dylan hadn’t wandered too far from the meeting place. He looked back towards Dusknoir. “Want to try and catch something else?”

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

It took Abbee half an hour to find a Pokemon she wanted to capture for herself. Wanting to heed Candice’s advice, but not give herself too much work, she was focusing on Pokemon that were either dual-types, or evolved to be dual-types. And after about twenty minutes of wandering around, she found one. Or at least, she could smell one…


”Are you sure you want this one?” Victini asked, as he blocked his nose, the complaints becoming more frequent the closer they got to it. ”I’m sure there are plenty of others that have two types that won’t empty a room…”

“Once it gets used to me, it shouldn’t smell anymore,” Abbee explained, having researched heavily which Pokemon she wanted to catch for herself. She had seen how versatile Charlotte’s Roserade was in battle, and whilst she did like the Pokemon, wanted to try using something a little different.

Abbee with Victini on her shoulder, and Ariados by her side, crept forward, before finding a small pond, and the Pokemon she was looking for drinking from it. Gloom.

Abbee readied one of her own Quick Balls that she had bought, tossing it at Gloom who didn’t see it coming. Within seconds Gloom had been captured, and Abbee had the first of her new Pokemon to train.

Before she could say anything however, she was interrupted by the sound of rustling coming from the trees nearby.

“Ariados,” Abbee said quietly, nodding towards the source of the noise, as Ariados shifted its attention. After a few moments the source of the noise revealed itself. An Oddish, that stopped dead in its tracks, before crying out, looking between Abbee and the pond.

“Sticky Web-” Abbee began, before Victini put his paw over her mouth, silencing her more by the shock than any sort of physical restraint. Ariados looked up at Abbee, surprised that she had been cut off.

”Wait…” Victini said. ”It’s asking if we have seen its sister…”

Abbee looked at the Oddish, feeling a pang of guilt. Whilst the large majority of Pokemon bond well with their trainers, and live happy lives, this part of capturing Pokemon was something that she couldn’t look past completely. What sort of lives the Pokemon had before.

Victini hopped down from Abbee’s shoulder, shooting Ariados a glare to stay back, before walking slowly towards Oddish. Abbee watched as Victini tried to speak to the Oddish, wishing she could understand the language of Pokemon like those that Victini mentioned who retained the ability after being transformed on the S.S. Wishmaker.

Victini pointed at Abbee, and the Pokeball she held, before flexing to demonstrate something. Victini then addressed Oddish again who looked back at Abbee with a mixture of awe and fear.

“What did you tell it?” Abbee called out.

“I told it that you caught its sister because you want to be friends with her and make her big and strong,” Victini replied. “I’ve asked it if it has any other family and it says no. So I am trying to explain to it that it can come with you, be able to see its sister, and maybe become strong itself…”

Abbee couldn’t help but be thankful that she had a Pokemon she could communicate with as well as she did with Victini.

The Oddish looked between Victini and Abbee, before waddling over towards Abbee and glaring at her, before letting out a slight growl.

“What’s it saying?” Abbee asked.

“It said it will come with you, but if this is a scam, it will use Toxic on you as soon as it learns how to…”

Abbee laughed, surprising the Oddish slightly.

“You’ve got a deal,” Abbee said to the Oddish, wishing she could open Gloom’s Pokeball, now sealed because she had six Pokemon on her already. “I’ll let you see your sister as soon as I can, so you know I’m telling the truth…”

Oddish nodded wearily, as Abbee got a Pokeball out that was registered to the Eon Academy. She had been considering having her Pokemon stay there once Dylan had the storage set up properly, instead of the League Facility that the general public used, and now figured if she did that, Gloom and Oddish could be together even when Abbee wasn’t at the Academy. Tapping it gently against Oddish, the Pokemon was converted into light, before being sucked into the Pokeball, not resisting at all.


“It is comfortable in a Pokeball, isn’t it?” Abbee asked Victini, not sure how to feel anymore.

”Extremely. Granted, I wouldn’t want to live in it, but I wouldn’t necessarily mind a day or two of R&R in the Pokeball.”

Remembering what Dylan had told them, Abbee opened her phone to the spreadsheet, to see that Justin had captured a Shuppet, Dylan had captured a Kecleon, Charlotte a Poochyena and a Wingull, and Chris a Zigzagoon and a Duskull. She quickly punched in that she had captured Oddish for the Academy, before realizing she only had twenty minutes before she was supposed to meet back with the others.

“We’d better run if we’re gonna make it back in time,” Abbee said, before Victini jumped up, grabbing hold of her top, and climbing up onto her shoulder.

“You mean, you’d better run,” Victini said. ”I wouldn’t want to risk accidentally torching the forest…”

Abbee rolled her eyes at Victini’s sarcasm.

“Are you being petty?”

“I’m a Mythical Pokemon. We can’t be petty. Now march!”

Abbee laughed, before beginning a light jog towards where Dylan’s car was parked. Ariados, being naturally faster than her, ran ahead, soon out of sight of its trainer.

It was a few minutes later when Abbee realized the mistake in letting Ariados run ahead, hearing Charlotte scream from the trees ahead of her.

“Sorry!” Abbee called out apologetically, to Charlotte when she came into sight, whom she had forgotten was terrified of large bugs like Ariados. Ariados kept its distance, wondering why Charlotte seemed so spooked.

“Abbee, I’m not usually an advocate for Pokemon being kept on leashes,” Charlotte said shakily. “But that makes me consider changing my mind…”

“Oh come on, he’s adorable!” Abbee said, patronizing Charlotte slightly. “Ariados, show her your smile!”

Ariados lifted its head, to make its mouth, and the small teeth inside it that were usually obscured by its pincers visible. Charlotte shuddered, before Abbee put Ariados back into his Pokeball.

“Better?” Abbee asked.

“Much…”

As the pair walked back along the track to the carpark, Victini spoke telepathically to the pair, though addressing Charlotte.

”I find it interesting that somebody as tough as you is terrified by a little bug…”

Abbee stifled a laugh, as Charlotte glared at Victini.

”I find it interesting that for a Mythical Pokemon, which everyone attributes to being wiser than normal Pokemon, you don’t seem to understand when your opinion is wanted, necessary, or neither…”

”I’m well aware,” Victini retorted. [/i]”I just decided to grace you with it anyway.”[/i]

Charlotte rolled her eyes at Victini obviously trying to get a reaction out of her for his own amusement, as the trio continued to walk in silence. Except for Victini.

”You’re welcome.”

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

“What’s wrong Charlotte?” Chris called out as Abbee and Charlotte emerged from the trail to find the three boys waiting by the car. “Run into a Caterpie?”

Abbee felt Victini climb down from her, and her belt become slightly lighter, a Pokeball missing. As Charlotte sighed, Victini crept along the ground with the Pokeball, making his way behind Chris, before pressing the button. Ariados manifested behind Chris, with the trainer none the wiser. Abbee couldn’t help but grin. She made a point of obviously looking past Chris.

“Smile,” she said to Ariados. Slightly confused, Chris turned around, before finding himself staring into the teeth laden mouth of Ariados, before jumping back towards Abbee and Charlotte.

“F**k!” he shouted as Charlotte burst into laughter.

“Forget what I said before Victini,” Charlotte called out. “You’re not too bad…”

Victini grinned, before pressing the button on the Pokeball, and taking it back to Abbee, as Dylan cleared his throat, obviously trying to get the attention of the somewhat more carefree interns.

“Anyway, we have captured most of the Pokemon that can be found in this area,” Dylan explained. “Next stop is the Safari Zone, but I might leave that with the four of you, as there is somewhere nearby I was wanting to visit...”

Justin looked over at Dylan, who just a few hours earlier had mentioned not wanting Charlotte and Chris doing something stupid while he was responsible for them, more or less.

“I mean, I don’t mind if you gotta go somewhere else, but is that a good idea?” Justin asked. “I think we can look after ourselves, but you said it yourself, you’re the adult here?”

“For what it’s worth, it’s not you I have reason to be worried about,” Dylan retorted. “Unless some dude is being an a**hole to a waitress in the Safari Zone.”

Chris started laughing, before Charlotte pointed out that Dylan was referring to him being the one he had to worry about.

“But I do think you’re capable of behaving yourselves without my direct supervision for a few hours. And you do do something stupid, I’ll tell Jon everything…” Dylan said looking at Chris directly. Chris groaned, as Charlotte looked at him, then to Justin and Abbee, who both shrugged.

“I’ll behave…” Chris muttered.

“Good,” Dylan explained. “I think you guys should be fine without me for a round at the Safari Zone anyway. I mean, they let twelve year olds go through on their own…”

“Gee, thanks.” Charlotte retorted dryly, though knew Dylan was mostly winding them up.

“So where are you headed?” Justin asked.

“Mt. Pyre,” Dylan explained. “I caught my Duskull there, but there was another Pokemon there I wanted to catch when I was younger, but figured I probably shouldn’t. Now though, I think I can.”

“You mind if I tag along?” Abbee asked. Dylan looked at her slightly surprised. He thought for sure she’d want to stick with Chris. “The Safari Zone has a lot of Pokemon native to Johto, and I’ve never seen Mt. Pyre.”

“If these guys reckon they can handle the Safari Zone with the three of them, I’m okay with it,” Dylan said.

“Oh, we can handle it…” Chris said menacingly, “We’re at a tie currently, so less competition for the Pokemon should help us break it quite nicely…”

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

The sun was high in the sky when Dylan parked the car at the Safari Zone. Having spent the trip there telling Charlotte, Chris and Justin, though intending it nearly all for Chris, about how they were representing the Eon Academy and by extension, Jon Drake, he was as satisfied as he could be that they would behave themselves.

Leaving the car, Dylan and Abbee began the short walk to the ferry station that would take them to the small island of Mt. Pyre, where Dylan hoped to catch a Pokemon for himself. The ferry itself was smaller than others Dylan had seen, most notably the ferries that travel to and from Mossdeep Island. It was purely for pedestrian traffic, with no need for cars on Mt. Pyre.

As the pair stood by the guardrail of the ferry, Abbee decided to ask Dylan what Pokemon he was after.

“A Vulpix,” Dylan explained. “I’ve wanted one ever since I was a kid, one of the Kantonian ones, but last time I was here, catching one would have been a bad idea…”

“How come?” Abbee asked, wondering what prevented Dylan from catching one, if he wanted one badly enough to make the detour out here, leaving the other three by themselves to potentially create a situation.

“Bill,” Dylan explained. “I don’t want a Vulpix as a battler, but more as a pet or companion. A Pokemon to keep out of the Pokeball more often than not. But to do that meant that Bill had options if he didn’t want to take his problems out on me…”

“You think he’d hit a Pokemon?” Abbee asked, shocked though not surprised.

“I wouldn’t put it past him. I mean he had no issue hitting me…” Dylan retorted, “And it’d be even worse if the Vulpix decided to defend itself, or me…”

“You had other Pokemon though, didn’t you?”

“The League offered free trainer school to kids after school, so the Pokemon that I had were ones I used to battle, so I’d have reason to let them out of their Pokeballs somewhere safe,” Dylan explained. “They never left their Pokeball when I was at home. I didn’t trust Bill enough…”

Abbee grimaced at the thought, thinking over just how different her childhood was to Dylan’s. The idea of her father ever laying a finger on her or Tyler seemed to foreign and incomprehensible. When Abbee wanted to start training her own Pokemon, there was little stopping her, and she got her first Pokemon, a Cyndaquil, when she was only twelve years old, and she barely kept it in the Pokeball, even though it nearly set her bed on fire more times than she cared to remember. Meanwhile, Dylan had grown up living in fear of his stepdad, to the point of only getting Pokemon that he could battle with, so he knew they would be safe.

“And Jon doesn’t mind you having a pet Pokemon?” Abbee asked, though being pretty sure Jon wouldn’t deprive Dylan of something like this. Dylan couldn’t help but laugh to himself. “You live in the house with him and Alyssa the rest of the year don’t you?”

“He doesn’t mind. And it would hardly be a change. There is nearly always a Pokemon out. Alyssa’s Alolan Vulpix, Yuki, is practically a pet herself, and spends a lot of time outside her Pokeball, and Serena, Alyssa’s Gardevoir, occasionally keeps an eye on Amelia when Alyssa is busy,” Dylan explained. “And Amelia already loves Pokemon. Especially Latios. Jon can’t leave his belt lying around, because Amelia has learnt which Pokeball on it is Latios’ and has pressed the button a few times so she can see him.”

Abbee laughed at the image of Latios looking confused at the infant girl who had already learnt how to summon him.

“She’s definitely Jon’s daughter.”

“And Latios is surprisingly good with kids,” Dylan explained. “Probably helps that he is a big kid himself when he wants to be. Though did you hear what happened last Christmas?”

“Nope?”

“So between us, Jon decided it wasn’t worth doing my last one on one training session last summer, since he knew I wasn’t really a big fan of battling, and preferred raising Pokemon. Instead, he and I had a beer together since I’d just turned eighteen, and he had the idea to give Latios one, after checking with me that it wouldn’t be bad for him,” Dylan explained. “Turns out Latios really likes beer…”

“This can’t end well…” Abbee said jokingly.

“Well, come Christmas, Jon bought Latios a case, and warned him not to drink it all at once,” Dylan said. “Latios didn’t think it would be too bad, and had too many too quickly when Jon wasn’t looking…”

“Oh God…”

“He fell asleep on the roof of the lodge we lived in last summer with a hangover…” Dylan laughed. “I had to have Metagross levitate Jon up there with a big drum of water so Latios could get hydrated and shake it off. He didn’t touch it again for months…”

Abbee couldn’t help but giggle, before a question came to mind.

“What’s it like living with Jon and Alyssa?” Abbee asked. “Like, Jon has his image to the public, and we got to see a different side of him. No, more we got to see who he actually is, compared to who everyone else says. But even then, the rest of us are just four kids he was teaching for a summer. But he invited you into his home…”

Dylan pondered the question a little.

“It’s strange, you know? You said it yourself, that we only saw a part of him last summer, so it was a bit of an adjustment,” Dylan said, trying to figure out how to word it. “The thing that struck me most was how much he cares about his family. I know that like fifty percent of marriages these days end in divorce, but I see the way he and Alyssa are around one another, and it gives me a little hope that that statistic can improve. Or even how he is with Lili.”

“Lili?”

“That’s what he and Alyssa call Amelia,” Dylan explained. “There were times last summer I wondered if the Academy was taking up too much of Jon’s time, and putting more work on Alyssa, but really, when Jon isn’t working, he is always making sure that he is pulling his weight, and giving Alyssa a break, and it never seems like its a chore for him. Even if it’s changing her dirty diapers, he just seems to love being able to spend time with her, and give Alyssa one less thing to worry about…”

Abbee smiled at the sentiment. Whilst she couldn’t remember much of when her mother was still alive, she knew her Dad was similar. Nothing was a chore to make things easier for the love of his life.

“I guess I can understand why he is so focused on his family, given his upbringing,” Abbee remarked, feeling bittersweet. It was definitely good that such a hard experience brought out the best, but also sad that it took something like that to do it. Dylan seemed surprised.

“You know about that?”

Realizing she may have spoken a little too easily about Jon’s business, she was thankful the others weren’t around.

“Alyssa told me,” Abbee admitted. “When she came with me back to Johto. Jon had mentioned losing his parents at about my age, but I had never heard him mention it before, so asked Alyssa, and she told me about his dad…”

“Well, even his dad is important to him, in a weird way,” Dylan explained. “Jon actually advocated for him to get parole. He got released in March, and visited Mossdeep in April to meet Alyssa and Amelia. I actually met him myself, and it was weird.”

“He forgave him?” Abbee asked, shocked to hear this.

“No, at least, not yet. Maybe one day…” Dylan answered. “Jon isn’t ready to forgive, but is willing to try and get to the point where one day he might be able to. He wants to give his dad the chance to prove he deserves to be forgiven. And that means letting him back into his life…”

“What was he like?”

“Hard to say given how awkward it was…” Dylan said. “He was friendly enough, but he seemed nervous, and just really sad. He only stayed one night. He had dinner in the house, and slept in the lodge, but Jon didn’t sleep a wink that night. I left my room to get a drink, and he was just sitting blankly at the kitchen table…”

Dylan went quiet thinking about the conversation.

“He asked me what I thought, whether I thought he was being too easy on his dad, or being too hard on him, before changing his mind, and apologizing…” Dylan elaborated. “He said it wasn’t my dilemma, and he shouldn’t be dragging me into it.”

“Goddamn,” Abbee muttered, surprised to hear that Jon was capable of questioning himself so heavily, before trying to shift the subject. “What about for you? How is it living there?”

“Honestly, it’s a life I had given up on ever having…” Dylan said quietly, as he looked at Mt. Pyre, now growing larger in the distance. “I always assumed that I’d have to find a job that pays well enough for me to move out, and live in some s**ty sharehouse because its all I could afford. I never thought I’d have a home with someone who isn’t family, but treats me like I am. A place where I’m safe…”

Abbee felt the same bittersweet feeling she felt hearing about how Jon was with his wife and daughter. Happy to hear Dylan had found a home, where he felt like he was part of a family, but heartbroken that it took years of abuse, and Jon taking him in to feel that way…

Abbee sighed, as she placed an arm around Dylan, nearly struggling to reach around his larger frame as she looked out at Mt. Pyre with him.

“It’s a good thing there are some good people out there,” Abbee said quietly. “Because without them, life would just be too s**ty…”

Dylan chuckled at the sentiment, as he tried to suppress the feelings that were emerging, spending this much time talking so sincerely with Abbee.

“It really is…”

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

It was 12:30 in the dining room at the Eon Academy, as Jon watched the students eat lunch. Charlotte’s group were the ones who ended up on clean-up duty for breakfast, due to one of them sleeping in, and had all shown up early to lunch, with the last person to arrive being a member of Justin’s group, putting them on clean-up duty for lunch.

Whilst Jon didn’t tell them this, he only planned on using his new method of figuring out who is on clean-up until it got to the point where everyone was showing up on time, at which point he would nominate a group to keep the amount of tidying during the week even. But they didn’t need to know that yet.

“You aren’t the most popular right now…” Steven said as he approached Jon.

“Am I ever?” Jon retorted, as Steven rolled his eyes. “They’re learning quickly. On any given day we have five students who wander in late to any given meal. This is the second meal we have had this week and it is down to two…”

“I didn’t say it wasn’t working,” Steven chuckled. “Just noting I had a few students in Team Roserade in my class who had a bit to say about you using collective punishment, and how it is a war crime under some convention…”

“You’re the Hoenn Champion, and you don’t know what convention they are talking about?” Jon asked, slightly surprised. “It’s the Lumiose convention.”

“Right now, in this context, it doesn’t matter if I don’t know it…” Steven retorted, “Thing is that they know it.”

Jon laughed at the faux apprehensiveness of Steven’s remark.

“I don’t consider it punishment,” Jon explained. “I consider it a good mix of character building, skill development and life lessons, based on circumstances that determine who needs it the most…”

“You ever thought about getting into law?” Steven asked. “You talk enough s**t to…”

“Not necessarily, but hey, maybe one day I can represent myself…”

“Please don’t.”

Jon grinned, before continuing.

“Anyway, they won’t be too peeved with me for long…” Jon said, before projecting his voice to the rest of the room. “Everyone! Can I have your attention please!”

Steven watched, wondering where Jon was going with this.

“Your team leaders are gone for the week, as you’re well aware. The five of them are all exceptional trainers in their own right, and have reached the level they are at through hard work and ingenuity,” Jon explained. “This is something I think all of you are capable of, which is why afternoon training this week will have a slightly different focus…”

Steven seemed puzzled at where Jon was going, as Jon’s grin widened.

“Whilst your team leaders aren’t here, afternoon training will be focusing on you guys learning how you can beat them in a legitimate battle. I will be going over your team leader’s battling styles, what makes them exceptional trainers, and what you can learn from them,” Jon explained. “And by extension, where they need to improve, and how you can exploit that, to give them a hell of a shock when they return at the end of the week.”

There were excited murmurs from the tables with students as Steven turned to Jon.

“You’re enjoying this way too much…” Steven said. “Do you really think any of your team leaders will lose to one of the newer students? I mean Justin beat you earlier this year, didn’t he?”

“He had six months to train without me having a clue where he was going,” Jon explained, as Steven cut him off.

“So did you…”

“That is true, but anybody would be at a disadvantage against an undiscovered Legendary Pokemon,” Jon retorted. “Anyway, he had six months. I reckon I can get at least one trainer from each group to the point of being able to beat their leader in six days…”

“Big claim,” Steven said with a grin. “I hope you can make good on it, because that would be very interesting to see…”

“Oh it will be…”

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

The time on the top of Chris’ phone read 1:15pm, as Chris added a Pokemon he had captured to the spreadsheet. It was his eighth in the Safari Challenge, and putting him back at a tie with Charlotte, both trainers now on ten Pokemon captured each. Justin meanwhile had captured six Pokemon himself. Chris looked through Charlotte’s capture list, and couldn’t help but laugh at the fact it contained Pinsir, Heracross and Spinarak, all of whom were Bug Types, and far from Charlotte’s favourite. He half wished he could have been there to watch as she tried to capture when whilst keeping her distance, and being ready to flee herself at a moments notice.

The Safari Challenge had begun at noon, where the trio were given thirty specialized Safari Balls each, having to leave their own Pokemon and Pokeballs. At first they thought they might be in a situation, as Dylan was the one carrying the Eon Academy’s Hoenn Business Card, that he would use to register any extra Pokeballs to the Eon Academy, and by default the Safari Balls would be registered to them, however after briefly explaining why they were there, the clerk was able to copy the registration information from one of the Pokeballs that Jon had bought to the Safari Balls they would be using.

The challenge had fifteen minutes left, and based on the fact that Chris hadn’t seen a Pokemon they hadn’t captured yet in over ten minutes, he figured this would be the only challenge they did.

As he walked, he heard the sound of something moving in some bushes nearby. He slowed to a stop, and watching as the leaves on the outside of the bushes moved, readying a Safari Ball. There wasn’t an exhaustive list published of what Pokemon were available in the Safari Zone, and Jon had mentioned prior that they make a considerable amount of money on people participating on the basis of rumours. Every few years word might spread that some rare, non-native Pokemon has been released in the Safari Zone, and regardless of whether or not it is true, the Safari Zone remains silent, allowing it to bring in customers. So Chris had no idea what was in the bush, except for one thing. This Pokemon must be big.

Not taking any chances, Chris took a breath, before throwing the Pokeball into the bushes. However, instead of the sound of the Pokeball opening, Chris heard something else.

“S**t!” Justin yelled from the bushes, as he walked out, clutching his healing nose in one hand, and the Safari Ball in another, seeing Chris. He threw the ball back at Chris, hard, before yelling. “Do you just throw these things at anything that moves?!”

“Sorry…” Chris said apologetically. “I thought you were a big Pokemon.”

“Well I’m just someone whose nose you almost re-broke!” Justin said irritably, before lifting his hand off his nose, revealing a small amount of blood.

“S**t, are you okay?” Chris asked, making his way towards Justin, who took a breath, starting to calm down.

“Look, it’s fine,” Justin said, as he pulled a tissue from his pocket to wipe the blood from his face. “It didn’t hit hard, and the splint took most of the force. Just hurt like hell…”

Now that Justin had calmed down, enough Chris asked the question that had been on his mind since he realized it was Justin in the bushes.

“What were you doing in the bushes?”

“It’s hot and I’ve been outside the last hour and a bit, so I’ve been drinking lots of water…” Justin explained. “What goes in must come out, and I couldn’t find a bathroom. That and there are security cameras everywhere…”

Chris groaned as he realized that Justin was just trying to relieve himself only to be met with a Safari Ball to the broken nose. Justin sighed, as he looked at his watch.

“We should head back to the main gate anyway,” Justin said. “I think we’ve caught everything here that is worth catching.”

The pair walked back towards the main gate, following the signs that directed them in relative silence, until Justin’s phone got a notification.

“Did one of the others catch something?” Chris asked, pre-emptively pulling out his own phone to see no notification present.

“Nah, it’s Candice,” Justin said casually, as he opened the message that had just arrived. After he read the message and rattled off a quick reply, Chris spoke.

“So what’s the deal with you two?” Chris asked. “Like, is she actually your girlfriend now?”

“It’s tricky…”

“What, you don’t even know?” Chris asked.

“Of course I know…” Justin muttered. “She had to leave right after we agreed that we didn’t want to wait any longer, so we couldn’t really talk about it in person, so on Saturday night when she got back to Snowpoint, we video called for a few hours and talked it out. I say it’s tricky, because there isn’t really a clear cut label for her and I right now…”

“So what are you and her?”

“I mean, we’re together, but I’m not eighteen for another few months, and she turned twenty-one back in April. It’s all legal and stuff, but as a Gym Leader, she is somewhat in the spotlight, and if it came out that we were together, it would cause her problems,” Justin said. “She’s willing to risk the hit to her reputation, but I don’t want the media to say the sorts of things about her they would if it came out she was in a relationship with a seventeen year old, even if it is above reproach. So yeah, we are together, but the only people we don’t mind knowing are the ones who know us well enough to understand why we aren’t exactly public about it…”

“So she’s your secret girlfriend?” Chris asked casually, as Justin rolled his eyes at how serious he wasn’t being about it.

“I guess that’s the best way to put it,” Justin replied. “Candice is my secret girlfriend.”

“She is aware of that isn’t she?” Chris asked jokingly. “I don’t think it counts if it's news to her…”

“What do you think a**hole…” Justin muttered, stifling a laugh as the pair continued to walk, in relative silence, Chris seeming deep in thought.

“Sorry for going off on you before,” Justin said. “I should have just looked harder for a bathroom.”

“It’s cool,” Chris replied, before returning to the quiet state he had been in, confusing Justin even more.

“Then why are you being so weird?” Justin asked, genuinely surprised. “I thought you were p**sed off at me?”

“No, I was wrong before,” Chris said. “It could have been anyone in the bushes, and it could have been worse. I shouldn’t have thrown a Pokeball at a Pokemon I couldn’t see.”

“That doesn’t answer the question of why you’re being so weird…”

Chris sighed, as he stopped walking.

“I guess I just don’t get how it happened,” Chris said.

“Gee, thanks,” Justin retorted as he stopped to face Chris.

“You know that’s not what I mean. How you went from being friends with her, to being with her…”

“Honestly, I don’t know. It kind of just happened…” Justin said. “I mean, we spent nearly a week together in Galar, and wound up spending most of the time we could talking there…”

“Obviously there's more than that,” Chris replied. “If it were just talking then I’d have had more girlfriends than hot meals…”

“Because you don’t know when to close your mouth?” Justin retorted, as Chris chuckled. “I didn’t think you cared that much about whether or not you have a girlfriend?”

“It’s not that I really want a girlfriend specifically…” Chris said, feeling embarrassed even alluding to it. The sense of embarrassment rose as Justin seemed to figure it out.

“Abbee?” Justin asked, his suspicions confirmed by Chris’ expression shifting even more. “Why?”

“What, do you think there’s something wrong with her?” Chris asked, suddenly sounding defensive.

“Of course not. Abbee is great. I couldn’t fault her if I tried,” Justin reassured. “I just can’t say that I expected you to be interested in her before last week.”

“I guess, I feel like I can be myself around her, and that she accepts me for who I am…” Chris said quietly, as he started walking again. “And even though that is the case, being around her makes me want to be more. Not out of feeling like I’m not good enough or anything, but because she is just so great, and it just makes me want to be better…”

The pair walked in silence as Justin thought over what Chris had said, and tried to think over how exactly he and Candice found themselves in the place they were in.

“When we were in Galar, Steven saw how close Candice and I had gotten and said something to me. That the circumstances were unusual, and eventually the situation we were in would come to an end. We’d go from being with each other twenty-four seven, on an adventure into the mysterious unknown, to going back to our normal lives. Myself as a student, and herself as a Gym Leader. He warned me to be careful to not become too accustomed to the way things were, too attached, because it couldn’t last.”

Thinking back to his time in the Crown Tundra, Justin cringed a little remembering how he reacted to it.

“I didn’t take it too well, and ended up actually avoiding Candice a bit, because I was just too confused about it all. Candice noticed, and ended up asking me why I was being so weird, and I broke,” Justin said. “I told her the truth, or at least some of it. That I’d enjoyed spending time with her, but wondered if we were setting ourselves up to be disappointed when the time eventually came that we’d have to go home. Whether we’d even be in touch a year from then...”

“That sounds like an ultimatum…”

“It wasn’t,” Justin said very quickly. “She told me that she felt the same way, and had been avoiding thinking about it. It was Christmas Day so she invited me to come to Snowpoint for next Christmas, and said that she’d come visit Mossdeep during summer, and that if we didn’t keep in touch, it would be crazy awkward, so we really had to-”

“That’s nice and all, but things are different with Abbee and I-”

“Let me finish,” Justin said exasperatedly. “You asked for my advice so I’m giving it to you…”

Chris was surprised to hear Justin being so assertive with him but took him at his word.

“If I didn’t man up and be real with her, even though I didn’t tell her everything then and there, chances are, I would be sitting here wanting to send her a message because we haven’t spoken in months, wondering if I’m coming across as desperate, and her being just as miserable as I am,” Justin explained. “If you can’t find the nerve to be honest with her, and expect what you want to just fall out of the sky into your lap, then you will be waiting forever, and disappointed. Show some backbone and be real with her, even if it’s just for a moment. Show her you think highly enough of her to take a chance and put your pride on the line…”

“What if she doesn’t think the same of me?” Chris said quietly, it becoming clear to Justin that this was his biggest hurdle. “Being rejected is hard enough on its own, but what if her knowing I feel this way about her changes things?”

“You said yourself you can be yourself around her, and that she accepts you the way you are…” Justin said as he started walking towards the gate, leaving Chris behind. “I know Abbee well enough that she wouldn’t hold it against you if you worked up the nerve to be honest with her. Give her some credit…”

Chris silently followed Justin. The advice was what he needed to hear, but not necessarily what he wanted. The pair made their way towards the gate, as unbeknownst to them Charlotte did her best to wipe the tears from her eyes, and emerged from the nearby shrub after Chris and Justin were gone, where she had heard everything being said.

“Nothing I can do…” she muttered to herself, feeling like a hypocrite for being as hard on Dylan as she had been, when she was just as guilty. Abbee had asked Charlotte weeks ago about Chris, and she had been too proud to admit anything. Just like Dylan, she had the opportunity to have set events on a different path, and didn’t take it. And now she regretted it…

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

“Are you sure we have the time?” Abbee asked as she looked at her watch, reading 1pm. “Aren’t we already behind schedule?”

“Their Safari Challenge started at noon, and goes for ninety minutes. By the time they get the Pokemon processed, return the extra safari balls, and transfer the Pokemon back to the Academy, it will be after 2pm…” Dylan explained. “Jon’s itinerary is a guide more than anything else. As long as we reach the Pokemon Centre by lock-up, and catch enough Pokemon, we can shift the schedule a little. And we’ve already caught thirty Pokemon…”

“Wait, what?” Abbee asked, getting her phone out to see for herself.

“It’s because of the Safari Zone. Nowhere else in Hoenn has that many different Pokemon available,” Dylan said. “At a guess, it’s going to be lower numbers for the rest of the day, because the areas we are going through have mostly the same Pokemon. Then tomorrow onwards they will start a little higher, then start to decline.”

They had spent the last fifteen minutes halfway up Mt. Pyre, where Dylan had managed to capture for himself a Litwick, the Pokemon being rare in Hoenn, and one he had always liked, wanting a Chandelure for his battling team. However they were yet to find a Vulpix.

“So you’re thinking of becoming a Gym Leader?” Dylan asked, as they continued to look around the reserve that consisted of the midway section of the mountain.

“I need to finish school first. Certainly gonna try,” Abbee retorted. “Not forever, but I think I’d enjoy it for a while. Good experience, and stable work, as well as good publicity.”

Abbee wandered towards a large rock that blocked her view of the area to the side, looking past it.

“I do want to try competing in proper tournaments,” Abbee explained. “Chris and Charlotte are definitely going to be doing that, and that’s what Dad did. But I want to be able to do it because it's what I want to do. I don’t want to go into tournaments knowing that if I don’t win I can’t afford to keep the electricity on. I figure if I work as a Gym Leader, I can save some money, and become more well known. Ideally I might get sponsored pretty early when I shift to competing myself, so I can compete for the fun of it, not out of necessity.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Dylan replied, as he opened his bag, and removed a small container containing some soft Pokemon food, Abbee presumed that he had made specifically for a Vulpix.

“What about you?” Abbee asked. “It seems like a pretty sweet gig at the Academy?”

“It is, really,” Dylan said, as he looked around, spotting a gap in a nearby rockface that had some black marks around the edge. He placed a few pieces of the food near the entrance, before fanning the odor of it into the gap, and backing away, leaving a trail of it a few meters away, before finding somewhere to sit. Realizing what he was doing, Abbee gave him some space, sitting a few meters away from him.

“It’s a good job. Jon pushes me out of my comfort zone. Something like teaching, I never thought I’d be able to do, and I am learning heaps doing the research to figure out what to teach, and making sure I am knowledgeable enough about it,” Dylan explained. “Also lots of opportunities to learn new skills. I’m no carpenter, or computer engineer, but you saw what I was able to do with the storage room…”

“You’ve definitely picked up some skills since last year,” Abbee commented.

“I’ll definitely be there a while. A few more years at least,” Dylan continued. “But eventually I do want to leave the Academy. Mossdeep Island. Heck, maybe even Hoenn…”

“What will you do then?”

Dylan went to answer, before noticing movement in the gap in the rock face, as a small dark red head popped out, and began sniffing at the food, before biting off the edge of it to sample. It then wolfed down the rest of the bite sized piece, before noticing another not too far. Abbee sat silently, as Dylan grabbed a piece from the container in his lap. Slowly, the Vulpix made its way out of the rock face, eating each piece of food it came across, until it found the next one was being held by Dylan. He placed the piece he was holding on the ground, before getting another out. Slowly, Vulpix moved towards him, quickly grabbing the piece of food, and darting back a few feet to eat, not taking its eyes off Dylan.

Abbee watched in awe as Dylan kept giving the Pokemon food, as it slowly became more comfortable with him. Eventually Vulpix took the food from Dylan’s hand, however before too long, it was eating it straight out of Dylan’s palm, and eventually, Dylan was able to scratch it behind the ears as it ate. The food in the container diminished to nothing, as Vulpix cried out, but didn’t seem to recoil at all when Dylan attempted to pet the Pokemon again. Satisfied, Dylan got an empty Pokeball of his own, and pressed it to Vulpix, who didn’t seem to resist being captured, the Pokeball clicking shut instantly.

“Couldn’t you have lured it out and had Dusknoir trap it?” Abbee asked, as she approached, looking at Dylan who stared at the Pokeball with a smile. “It would have been easier.”

“For a Pokemon I’m battling with, sure. Battling Pokemon work hard, and it makes them strong. Before too long they come to enjoy the challenge because they know their trainer is striving to make them stronger,” Dylan explained. “But I want Vulpix to have a simple, relaxed life. And luring it out only to trap it, and battle it with a much stronger Pokemon until it’s too weak to fight back is a bad start to it…”

Dylan stood, repacking his bag, before the pair began the descent down the mountain.

“I think I want to be a breeder,” Dylan explained, answering Abbee’s question. “There is more beyond that, but I think being a breeder is the start of it.”

“What do you mean?”

“The way trainers capture Pokemon from the wild is a bit of an ethical gray area,” Dylan explained. “In some ways, the Pokemon wind up stronger and healthier when they are trained by humans, and live longer lives. But on the flip side, we don’t know what their lives were like before. I don’t know if this Vulpix has parents who are now worried about it. That is part of the reason breeders exist. They can provide Pokemon for trainers without disrupting the lives of wild Pokemon, and also try and provide Pokemon with traits that suit what trainers are after. Granted, that system isn’t moderated enough, and there are a lot of neglected Pokemon that are simply not what the breeder was after…”

“I guess I would love to see the culture of Pokemon training change. Instead of tearing a wild Pokemon from the life it has, it being normal for a trainer to get their Pokemon as an egg from a breeder, and raise it themselves,” Dylan explained. “If the standard for getting Pokemon was through breeders rather than catching them, then breeders would be able to find homes for the Pokemon that they breed that aren’t what they are specifically trying to breed for. If someone wants a pet Vulpix, they could go to a breeder and adopt one that has been bred but isn’t suited for battling, instead of coming here to remove one from its natural home, and leaving one to sit in a Pokeball for far too long.”

“But isn’t that what you just did?” Abbee asked, realizing she came across much harsher than she intended. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that…”

“No, you’re right,” Dylan explained. “The problem is that the current culture is to catch Pokemon instead of breeding them, and currently, breeders choose to breed more Pokemon than they can help provide fulfilling lives for. And I think that knowingly doing that is worse than capturing a wild Pokemon. So I don’t want to support it…”

Abbee understood somewhat where Dylan was coming from, though had the immediate question come to mind about whether Dylan was doing more harm by letting one more Vulpix from a breeder be neglected, in favour of taking one from the wild. She didn’t voice this question though Dylan could tell what she was thinking.

“I get my reasoning is far from perfect. Unfortunately, the system is that messed up that I have to choose between what I see to be two evils. I can support a breeder and a system that brings more Pokemon into the world than people are willing to provide homes for, for the sake of profit, or I can catch my own, and provide it with a better life than it would have in the wild, whilst not putting money into the broken system,” Dylan explained. “Sometimes, and this is one of those times, there isn’t a clear cut right way, and we can only do the best we can.”

“I understand,” Abbee said. “So how do you think you will do that? Change the system I mean?”

“First step would to become a good enough breeder that you professionals would rather have a Pokemon bred for you than try and catch one from the wild. At the same time, try and get my message out there that there is a better way for us as a Pokemon partnered society to live, if only we’d understand how broken the current system is,” Dylan explained. “I don’t know how I would go about it practically, but I certainly want to try…”

The pair had descended to the lower part of the mountain, which contained the graves of Pokemon, and made their way towards the ferry that was due to leave in the next twenty minutes.

“Well, once you’re set up, I will make a point of coming to you for Pokemon, instead of catching them myself,” Abbee said. “And recommend it to my millions of fans when I am famous and on everybody’s TV screen.”

“I’m sure you will.”

************************************************** ************************************************** *****
“There are only two Pokemon on this Route that we aren’t going to be able to catch if we don’t catch now…” Dylan explained as he drove down the highway leaving Fortree City. “Feebas, and Tropius.”

Dylan and Abbee returned to Dylan’s car where Chris, Charlotte and Justin were waiting for them at 2pm, before driving west, then north. They stopped for half an hour in a reserve on Route 120, catching a Pokemon each, putting the group’s total to thirty-five Pokemon, not counting the ones that Abbee and Dylan had captured for themselves. They had a late lunch at 3:30pm in Fortree City, before departing.

“Should be an easy afternoon then.” Justin said, as he looked through Dylan’s meticulously organized spreadsheet. “There’s only two Pokemon that we won’t have another chance at in Route 118, so realistically, we only need to catch four more Pokemon today to be doing pretty well.”

Charlotte sat behind the driver’s seat with her head resting against the window. Abbee sat next to her, noticing how unaware she seemed.

“You okay?” Abbee asked, as Charlotte jumped slightly.

“Yeah, sorry,” Charlotte said quietly. “Lack of sleep is getting to me…”

Really, she was thinking over what she overheard earlier today. Dylan had said that he could see something going on between Abbee and Chris, and whilst she could see Abbee was interested in him, and understood why Dylan was upset, she had hoped to the point of clouding her own perception that Chris just was oblivious and not interested in Abbee. Now, there was no way of convincing herself otherwise.

“I think we should split up,” Chris explained. “Justin, Abbee and Dylan go look for Feebas, and Charlotte and myself look for Tropius.”

Justin found himself wondering why Chris was intentionally splitting himself and Abbee up again, seeing as most of the afternoon Abbee was with Dylan. If he did like Abbee, it wasn’t a good look nominating himself to be on a team with another girl. Charlotte also found it surprising.

“I mean, sure,” Charlotte said, “But why?”

“We are still tied. Eleven Pokemon each, and if we are on separate teams in this route, it will just continue” Chris explained. “And if we make Feebas the tie-breaker, I am putting myself at a disadvantage, because you’ve already caught one…”

“Of course…” Dylan muttered, remembering their bet. “Any objections?”

There was a general murmur of approval from the group as they continued along the meticulously maintained highway, watching the reserves either side of them rush past.

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

“Team Roserade…” Jon said to the seven students who sat on foldable chairs in front of him, pretending not to notice Steven who stood at the back, curious to see Jon’s analysis of his interns. They were in the arena, with the lights dimmed, and a large projector screen having been lowered from the roof. Jon pressed a button on a clicker as the black screen shifted to a dramatized file of Charlotte. “This is Charlotte Jones, your team leader…”

The students laughed a little at how serious the file was, listing her name, her Pokemon, and looking like a police report from a movie.

“Whilst Charlotte seems to not be able to get better than a draw when she battles against Chris, I would say your team has the biggest challenge ahead of them if you wish to beat Charlotte in a Pokemon battle,” Jon explained. “Charlotte’s biggest strength in battle is lulling her opponent into a false sense of security, when really they are just falling into her trap, as well as her uncanny ability to predict what her opponent is trying to do. Most battles she spectates, she can see what moves are being used, and figure out what the person ordering them is trying to do.”

Pressing the button on his clicker to move to the next slide, Jon brought up the footage from the battle he had with Charlotte during the first day at the Academy.

“When Charlotte battled me, she predicted that I would open with Nidoking, so sent out Roserade. She knew that I would rather not risk her getting a free hit by me changing my Pokemon, and also knew that Nidoking wasn’t a threat, so put Nidoking to sleep, before using Toxic Spikes, which in and of itself was genius. She knew that I would want to send out Blaziken at some point or other, and Blaziken becomes more dangerous the longer it is on the battlefield, so it would more likely than not be sent out next,” Jon explained. “By using Toxic Spikes, she essentially limited how long I can stall using Blaziken to build up its power. Once Roserade took down Nidoking, as predicted, I sent out Blaziken, which was poisoned by the spikes, but had a significant advantage against Roserade. Charlotte responded by having Roserade use Venom Drench. Who knows why?”

Christy, the oldest member of Charlotte’s group, put her hand up. Jon nodded towards her.

“Because any damage Roserade could do before being beaten was going to be minimal at best. So the limited time Roserade had left was best spent preventing Blaziken from getting too strong before the poison could do its work…”

“Excellent,” Jon said. “Charlotte has taught you well.”

“Venom Drench only works on poisoned targets, but is incredibly accurate, and will reduce speed and offense, both physical and special. Instead of wasting time trying to knock Blaziken out in a situation where Roserade had a snowflake’s chance in hell, she instead gave her next Pokemon an advantage, making Blaziken’s Speed Boost redundant for a little while, whilst forcing me to either choose to attack whilst weakened, or use a less than ideal move in order to get back the advantage I had, and waste Blaziken’s limited time.” Jon explained. “Once Roserade was out, Charlotte sent out Miltoic, and at that point, I managed to even the playing field, though I will go into detail about that later. Blaziken took down Milotic and was still standing and Charlotte sent out Drifblim, and played me like a fiddle…”

“Last year, Charlotte beat Chris with her Drifblim, by allowing it to get burnt by Chris’ Charizard. It activated an ability it had called Flare Boost, which increases the offensive power of its special attacks when it is burnt. So by sending it out against Blaziken, she thought she bought herself a free turn, as I was not going to risk using a fire move and burning Drifblim, and fighting moves were ineffective,” Jon continued. “I had Blaziken use Thunder Punch instead, though Drifblim used Minimize to dodge it before Blaziken fell to the poison. Which led me to the dilemma of whether I should use Absol, Jolteon or Scizor. Scizor was the worst option, as it is susceptible to Fire Type moves, and I had seen Drifblim use Will-O-Wisp to burn a target, then Hex to deal more damage. Jolteon and Absol both had type advantages, however Jolteon’s biggest strength is its speed, and if Drifblim used a Destiny Bond attack when Jolteon is about to hit it, and can’t turn back, both Pokemon would be knocked out. Meanwhile, Absol was resistant to most of Drifblim’s attacks, and had better attack power, so was in a better position to take a cautiously offensive approach towards Drifblim.”

“What about Latios?” Curtis, the youngest boy in the team asked.

“The whole purpose of the match was to show what sort of things you will learn here, and using Latios would have been detrimental to that,” Jon explained. “By no means did I go easy on Charlotte. It just means I didn’t give myself an advantage that would be a detriment to the point of the battle.”

“Anyway, I intentionally let Drifblim go first, to try and gauge what Charlotte was doing, and she had Drifblim use Explosion, which on its own wasn’t enough to knock out Absol,” Jon continued. “However, since last year, she had changed Drifblim’s ability with an item to Aftermath, causing extra damage to be dealt when Drifblim faints. She knew she was more likely to lose than win, so forced a tie.”

There wasn’t much of a reaction from the team to that, and Jon partially understood.

“Here is where Charlotte went well in that battle. She played to my own human nature, knowing that I would base some of my decisions on what I know of her, and used it both to inform her own decisions, though not relying on it too much to the point where she became predictable, but more so used it to limit what I could do. She used a tactic that was completely new and refused to settle for me winning,” Jon explained. “Her weakness in the battle however was becoming a little too comfortable when she had the upper hand, and relying too much on her own predictions.”

Jon pressed the button, causing a screenshot from the Blaziken and Milotic matchup.

“Blaziken was weakened and on a timer at this point, so Charlotte expected me to try and dish out as much damage as I could as soon as possible. But more than that, she didn’t expect me to stall like I normally would,” Jon said. “Between that and thinking Milotic had it in the bag, she made a couple of calls that were not the best, and Blaziken was able to take Milotic down.”

“What would you have done then?” Wesley, the oldest boy of Charlotte’s group asked.

“Stuck to the original plan,” Jon answered. “Toxic Spikes poisons a Pokemon, and the poison gets worse the more time passes. Watch this…”

The screen changed to a clip of the battle, starting from Blaziken entering the battlefield, and being poisoned. First it took a Venom Drench attack from Roserade before knocking it out. Charlotte sent out Miltoic, and Blaziken used Bulk Up, whilst Milotic attempted to Scald, which Blaziken then dodged, seeing as Bulk-Up didn’t require too much of its focus. Milotic used another Scald attack, which Blaziken blocked with Protect, simultaneously gaining speed, before using Power-Up Punch to strike Milotic, and increase its own power, before using its superior speed to dodge the Wrap attack, speeding up even more, before unleashing a reckless Close Combat attack. Milotic fell, before being replaced by Drifblim, which Blaziken attempted to hit with Thunder Punch, which Drifblim dodged with Minimize. The clip ended.

“Notice anything interesting about that clip?” Jon asked with a grin.

There was silence for a second, until Stacey, a fourteen year old, seemed to understand what Jon was saying.

“Blaziken fainted without taking a single damaging hit from Charlotte’s Pokemon…”

“Bingo…” Jon said, his grin widening. “Charlotte got spooked by me stalling and acting in a way completely against her prediction, and her own strategy, and went on the offensive. However, if she had have stalled as much as I did, Blaziken would have fainted pretty soon anyway, and Milotic would be nearly unharmed. It knows Protect, and even though you can’t rely on it to take every hit, even a Thunder Punch wouldn’t have beaten Milotic in a single hit. Between Protect and Recover, Milotic could have outlasted Blaziken until the poison that she set up early on.”

“So if we want to beat Charlotte…” Krista, aged fifteen, asked with great anticipation.

“Don’t let her talent in predicting how things will go weigh you down,” Jon explained. “If I hadn't gotten so caught up in not using Fire Type moves against Drifblim, and Blaziken just used Flare Blitz, I could have won then and there if it landed.”

Jon gestured to the screen, where Blaziken lay on the ground unconscious from the poison.

“Instead, if she backs you into a corner that seems to only have one way out, do the last thing she expects. Even if nothing more than to just throw her off her game a little, and make her a little less confident in her mind games,” Jon explained, “That’s not to say do something stupid. Just think of the last thing she would expect you to do, and make every second count…"

Jon had used twenty of the fifty-five minutes of the session with his lecture, and in the remaining time, paired the students, having one be the Jon who was in a difficult situation, and the other be the Charlotte who had set up a difficult situation. With Jon and Steven’s advice, each of the Charlotte’s came up with a different predicament for the Jon’s to find themselves in. Usually it was something that severely limited their options, most of the students able to strategize something like this themselves after Jack’s lecture a few weeks earlier, with Chris as the training dummy. And from there, the Jon’s would have to come up with some completely unexpected way of turning the situation around. Very few were able to, most notably, Darcy who had a Gengar with most of its attack power lowered by the opponents first Pokemon using Momento, was able to beat the opponents second Pokemon by hitting them with Hypnosis to buy time, using Mean Look to trap the opposing Pokemon, and then using Perish Song, before buying time with a mixture of Protect, Phantom Force and Endure for Perish Song to knock both Pokemon out.

The students left at 1:55, and in the five minutes before Abbee’s group arrived, Steven approached Jon.

“I think your interns are going to have a bone to pick with you when they get back…” Steven said with a grin, imagining the look on Charlotte’s face when her group members all seem to know how to have an edge over her.

“The whole point of this summer is for them to learn,” Jon explained. “They have learnt part of what makes Charlotte so formidable, and also how to defend against that. I think that will give them an edge over most other trainers in their age group.”

“No doubt,” Steven laughed. “But don’t be surprised if I take pity on them, and give them a crash course on how to specifically beat you, down to your own psychology.”

“Trust me, the way they are going, they probably don’t need it…”

Team Victini were next for the afternoons training, and Jon admitted to Steven that he struggled to analyze Abbee a little more than the other trainers, as she had shown the most improvement this year.

“It’s to be expected,” Jon added. “She had Victini join her team at the end of last year, and it was right after Richard died. Because of that, I am pretty sure she hadn’t had an overly challenging battle with Victini until she battled Dylan at the start of this summer. She didn’t have to struggle in a battle, and by extension rise above it until she came back here...”

As Team Victini arrived, Rose, Jon’s niece, approached him with a sense of excitement.

“Beth just said that they might actually be able to beat Charlotte,” Rose asked. “Is that true?”

“If they can’t beat her, they will at least be able to give her a hell of a scare by the time she comes back…” Jon said with a smirk.

After a few moments for the excitement of Abbee’s team to die down, Jon pressed the button on his clicker, causing the slide to shift to a file of Abbee. The younger students looked between Jon and the screen in awe, eager to learn how to beat Abbee.

“Abbee Strauss. Your team leader,” Jon said, making a show of it, as Steven sighed from the sidelines where he watched. “A strong trainer in her own right, and definitely likely to make a name for herself in the competitive battling scene. But not without her own weaknesses.”

“Abbee’s main strengths are her creativity and ingenuity, as well as the close bond she has with Victini, who can telepathically communicate with her, and will,” Jon explained, as he clicked the button, showing the footage of Abbee beating Justin on the day the new students arrived. “The day before, Justin had beaten me in a battle, and I wasn’t holding back at all.”

After Abbee’s win against Justin, Jon made a point of having her talk through how she went about winning, curious to hear her take on the battle. That’s where she mentioned Chris’ vague advice before, and Victini’s instructions during the battle with Greninja, and Jon found himself appreciating even more her creativity.

On the screen, Victini faced Alakazam, on a paused frame.

“Justin’s Alakazam is a tank that doubles as the harbinger of chaos,” Jon explained, as Steven burst into laughter hearing this description. “Alakazam is intentionally slower than it should be, and a lot bulkier. The way Justin uses it, and actually used it to nearly beat me single-handedly is to use moves like Speed Swap or Trick Room to swap its speed with its opponent, before buffing its own defence while its opponent attempts to whittle it down. That’s when Justin really messes you up.”

“Alakazam has an ability called Synchronize, which means if gets some sort of status affliction, the opponent gets it as well. So when Alakazam’s energy gets low, Justin has it use Rest to put itself, and by extension, its opponent, to sleep, before using Sleep Talk to act mostly unaffected,” Jon continued. “It’s a solid strategy, and can be hard to combat, and that’s not even accounting for Regieleki. But Abbee did, having never run the countermeasure before that day...”

Jon took a moment to think of how to word this so it wouldn’t raise questions that could result in his imprisonment.

“That day, before the battle, Chris gave Abbee some advice. He had known of Victini using a certain move that could help Victini beat Alakazam and Regieleki, back when Victini was with his last trainer. He didn’t tell Abbee which move he was thinking of, but instead told Abbee to ask Victini about that battle…” Jon said, albeit cautiously, as Steven shot him a nervous glance, knowing which battle Jon was referencing. “In less than an hour, Abbee had taken that vague advice, and turned it into a perfect counter to a tactic that had beaten me the day before…”

Jon pressed play, causing the video to start, as he explained certain moves.

“Victini was faster than Alakazam, and the very first thing Victini did was use Skill Swap to switch its own Ability with Alakazam. Victini’s ability increases its own accuracy, which would benefit Alakazam, however Alakazam’s ability being transferred to Victini shifted the entire course of the battle,” Jon explained. “Not only can Alakazam now not put Victini to sleep using Rest, if Victini were to be paralyzed or poisoned, whoever Justin has out later would suffer the same, with the exception of type immunities. In her first move, Abbee has thrown a massive spanner in the works for Justin.”

“Alakazam then used Speed Swap to switch speed with Victini, and then used Cosmic Power to boost its defense. This is where Abbee’s ingenuity starts to shine. Victini knows Speed Swap, and it would have been easy to just use it again and balance the tables back to the way they should be. But Abbee had Victini do something smarter,” Jon explained, as he paused the video. “Abbee had Victini use Trick Room instead. Anyone have an idea why?”

There was silence among the room, which Jon expected. He wasn’t even sure if Steven knew Victini well enough to be able to pick why this move was genius.

“Victini has two signature moves, the main one people know about is V-Create. And V-Create is immensely powerful, however, has a cost. After being used, it reduces Victini’s speed and resilience,” Jon explained. “Speed Swap only switches the core speed attribute. If a move slows down the speed, that doesn’t transfer. Trick Room however completely twists the dimensions, so by using V-Create inside Trick Room, it is actually speeding Victini up, as long as Trick Room is active.”

Jon pressed play again.

“Justin kept trying to push his original plan, by using Cosmic Power again to increase Alakazam’s resilience, and I think this is because he knows that Victini is making itself more susceptible to be knocked out by using V-Create,” Jon explained. “And Victini used V-Create again. And so it continued. Alakazam used another Cosmic Power, and Victini used V-Create, which was probably the last one it could handle. At this point, Justin needed to buy time for Trick Room to run out, however, under the pressure he made a mistake, though I am not sure it would have made a difference at this point, because Abbee seemed to know how to capitalize on it.”

“Alakazam used Rest, which may have put it back to full health, however put it to sleep. Abbee took advantage of this, by having Victini use Encore…” Jon said, pausing the video. “This was brilliant, because firstly, it prevents Alakazam from using Sleep Talk and dishing out damage like it normally would. And secondly, Alakazam was going to wake up before the effect of Encore wore off, so the moment it did wake up, it would put itself back to sleep. And if she timed it right, she could repeat this as many times as she wanted. She essentially bought herself enough time to give herself every edge she wanted.”

Jon’s grin widened as he pressed play again.

“Victini managed to use Work-Up twice, before Alakazam woke up, however was forced to use Rest again, and Victini then used a third Work-Up, before using Guard Swap, switching Alakazam’s highly boosted defence for its own weakened constitution,” Jon explained. “At this point, both Encore and Trick Room wore off, and Alakazam was able to start using Sleep Talk, however the move it ended up using was Psychic, and did nearly nothing to Victini. Victini used Trick Room again to make itself faster, before using Flame Crash to knock Alakazam out cold.”

“So at this point you have a Mythical Pokemon that has most of its energy, as well has its offensive and defensive power cranked like crazy, and Justin knew his best bet was to try and level the playing field. Anyone know why he sent out Greninja?” Jon asked as he paused the video again.

“It has some higher priority moves that can bypass Victini's speed and Trick Room?” asked Melissa, the sixteen year-old who battled with Charlotte during Capture the Flag.

“That would definitely help if Justin’s plans succeeded, but right now, the damage those moves did would be negligible at best,” Jon answered. Rose was the next to speak up, knowing that Jon would be looking for something specific.

“Does Greninja have a move that would get rid of Victini’s buffs?” she asked.

“Only one move exists to do that, and Greninja knows it. Haze,” Jon explained pressing play. “The only thing is that Victini is in a position to knock Greninja out in a single hit, and is currently faster, so Justin opted to stall until Trick Room wore off again.”

On the screen, Victini used Thunderbolt, which was blocked by Protect. Greninja then dodged another Thunderbolt, before Jon paused it.

“Here is where Abbee’s bond with Victini helped her,” Jon explained. “Abbee told Victini to use Thunderbolt, because Victini telepathically told her to give that order. Justin heard it, and had Greninja use Protect in anticipation, except Victini didn’t use Thunderbolt. He used Future Sight. Then Abbee turned the tables by using Taunt.”

Jon pressed play again, where Victini appeared to fail to use Thunderbolt, and Greninja protected against nothing. After Taunt was used, Greninja used Hydro Pump, which hit Victini directly, though didn’t deal much damage given the boosts to defence.

“Now Abbee had blocked Justin from wiping Victini’s stat boosts, and had set up an attack that would knock Greninja out, and just had to buy time,” Jon explained, as Greninja used Hydro Pump, which was then blocked by Victini using Protect. “Buy time for Future Sight to hit.”

On screen, Greninja was hit by an attack out of nowhere, and knocked out, before Jon on screen explained what happened so that it wasn’t assumed Abbee had cheated. Then Justin sent out Regieleki.

“And here is when it all pays off,” Jon explained. “Regieleki uses Zap Cannon, which in all honesty, was its best bet, as even if the damage was negligible, it would paralyze Victini if it landed, and potentially prevent it from moving. On top of that, if it hit, this would provide Victini with paralysis, that would not transfer to Regieleki, via Victini's stolen Synchronize ability.”

Regieleki launched a powerful bolt of lightning that Victini was not able to dodge. However it wasn’t enough to knock Victini out, and whilst Victini was paralyzed, it didn’t need to move to use its final move.

“Who knows exactly what Stored Power does?” Jon asked, as Abbee gave the command on screen.

“It converts buffs into psychic power,” Max answered.

“Correct. In terms of sheer power, that attack was stronger than an Explosion attack,” Jon explained. “On top of that, it was a Psychic move used by a Psychic Pokemon that increased its offensive output. I did the maths, and I am pretty sure that one attack was four times as strong as an Explosion attack. Regieleki never stood a chance…”

There was a moment of silence, before Jon continued.

“So those are Abbee’s strengths. She can take a small bit of new information, in this case, some moves that she didn’t know Victini could use, and come up with something completely new. And she has a partner Pokemon that has a killer instinct, can think for himself, and communicate with Abbee quickly during a battle,” Jon explained. “But she has her weaknesses, and now we are going to talk about them.”

“The day before, Abbee lost against Dylan, for two main reasons. The first, was that she relied too much on Victini making calls for himself in a pinch, and in this case, Victini made a decision that was detrimental,” Jon explained, pressing his clicker. The screen shifted to a short video of Dylan about to have his weakened Dusknoir use Destiny Bond, but Dusknoir being knocked out by a V-Create from Victini before it could use the move. “Any idea what mistake Victini made here?”

“V-Create was overkill?” Elsie asked, “Dusknoir seemed pretty weak.”

“Exactly,” Jon answered. “Most of Victini’s moves could have knocked out Dusknoir, but Victini was most comfortable with V-Create and it was the move it could use easiest at a moment’s notice. So Victini used that, slowing itself down, reducing its own defences, and putting it that much closer to its limit. Abbee lost this battle, and one reason was that Victini entered the final match up weakened, and with one less V-Create in its arsenal, when it really didn’t need to. Had Victini used Flame Crash on Dusknoir, Victini would have then been up to beating Metagross next and winning the battle…”

“Granted, I told Abbee and Victini of this, and I know they’re working hard to get Victini just as capable of using other moves as he is V-Create, but that sort of thing would take months, and the more pressure Victini is under, the more likely he is to slip and do something over the top,” Jon continued. “Abbee’s other weakness in battle is actually quite common amongst trainers. If she gets rattled, she is liable to focus on the wrong parts of the battle.”

The slide shifted to Dusknoir using Curse on Poliwrath, and Poliwrath convulsing from it. It was the same scene that they had seen when Dylan battled Chris on the first day.

“One of Abbee’s Pokemon was cursed during the battle, and went down quickly after that,” Jon explained. “So when Victini was battling Metagross, disadvantaged by its liberal use of V-Create, Abbee was shaken by the curse, and when Metagross, started to stall and went on the defensive, it caused Abbee to focus too much on that, and just try and knock Metagross out with desperate, brute strength, when really she was capable of beating it in a less direct, more effective way, even if she wasn’t aware of some of Victini’s moves herself.”

“What would you have done?” Sean asked, thinking Jon was being a bit critical of Abbee.

“Victini had all its energy for most of the battle with Metagross,” Jon explained. “If I were in her position, and weren’t aware of the moves she used to win against Justin, I would have used Work-Up, and then Final Gambit.”

“But doesn’t that knock out the user?” Jude asked.

“It does. But I’d take a tie over a loss, and if I were convinced I couldn’t win it, I’d settle for a guaranteed tie over a win if I were lucky.” Jon answered, before turning his attention to the rest of the class. “Based on what I have just told you, what would be a good strategy to beat Abbee?”

“Put the pressure on her?” Alicia replied.

“That’s half of it. You want to put as much pressure on her as you can. The other half is to get into her head. Rattle her,” Jon explained. “Once you have done that, wait for her to make a bad call, and use that to blow the match right open…”

Jon paired off the students to focus on tactics that are designed to put pressure on their opponent. The most common tactic employed was to poison the opponent and stall for time, however Jon found himself impressed by Rose, who had her Sableye use Mean Look to prevent its opponent from leaving the battle until one of them faints, before using Will O Wisp to burn the target, Detect to dodge any incoming attacks and buy time, and Disable to prevent the opposing Pokemon from healing itself or recovering health. All of these moves acting first by Sableye’s Prankster ability.

“Are you sure you aren’t going too far with this analysis?” Steven asked later that afternoon, as he helped Jon put away the foldable chairs the students had been sitting on. “The advice you gave them for beating Abbee is pretty brutal…”

“They’re my students, and I want them to improve,” Jon said simply, as he folded another chair, though Steven remained unconvinced.

“So are your interns. They’re your students too…” Steven replied, sighing.

“That’s what I just said…”

Steven raised his eyebrows hearing this, and turned to face Jon.

“You’re trying to teach the interns a lesson or something?” Steven asked.

Jon remained silent as he put the chair he was holding into the store room, knowing it would drive Steven crazy to now know what Jon was planning.

“Okay, I admit I may have been a bit too critical,” Steven said, though wishing he didn’t have to give Jon the satisfaction to get any answers. “Remember, now they are my students too.”

Jon barked out a laugh.

“Touche…” Jon retorted.

“So what’re you really doing?” Steven asked. “While you’re pretending to be teaching the others how to beat them?”

“Firstly, no pretending about it. I want the other students to be able to beat them. Knowing tactics is one thing, but implementing them takes a serious degree of skill, since your opponent isn’t going to do what you want them to,” Jon explained. “The interns are strong. Much stronger than I was at their age. But they do have some pretty major weaknesses that if identified, can be exploited by any trainer that is good enough to compete against them.”

“And if you tried to make them aware by battling yourself…” Steven continued, realizing where Jon was leading.

“They would see the loss as nothing but the difference in skill and experience,” Jon explained. ”Yeah, Jon beat me, but what else should I expect?”

“So humble,” Steven teased.

“Truth is they’re a lot closer to my level than they realize. I’ve just had more time to analyse their battling than they have mine. I mean, Justin thrashed me back when he first arrived, and I hadn’t seen his new way of battling,” Jon explained. “Anyway, if I make these weaknesses obvious, they wouldn’t see the loss as a result of their weakness, but instead my supposed strength. But if these weaknesses were exploited by someone that they are ahead of…”

Steven thought over what Jon said. Especially for Charlotte and Chris, Steven knew this would motivate them to improve.

“It’s a win-win,” Jon explained, having a hunch this is what Steven was realizing. “The students will learn the value of analysis and ingenuity, and the interns will realize exactly where they need to improve.”

“You know it drives me up the wall when you do that?” Steven asked.

“Do what?”

“Hold back just the right amount of information for me to think you’re being an idiot or an a**hole…”

“Maybe I thought you’d know me well enough by now to just bypass the whole idiot and a**hole assumption, and know I have a plan,” Jon retorted.

“I would, except you do act like an idiot and an a**hole enough of the time that I can’t really rule out completely…”