[PKMN OPEN] The Pokémon Trainer Academy (T) [Best Veteran 4Q '11]

It worked and Jack smirked as he was all the clones and the original Monferno being blown away. Jack did respect the kid for taking advantage of what was supposed to be a bad situation and Jack watched as the Monferno landed a solid hit with his Fire Punch attack. Blade wasn't able to dodge the attack and the most he could do was try to block the attack using his blades which wasn't very effective either. Blade was panting heavily but as his nature didn't plan on giving up anytime soon and set off without instructions charging towards the Monferno with blades surrounded by a purple aura "Yeah, use Night Slash" Jack said nervously since Blade was doing it anyway.

Monferno was quick but Jack was still very confident in his pokemon and Blade was confident in his own skills and quickly looked to recover after Monferno used Double team another time in the battle. Blade then slashed his blades in an X like motion and the same purple aura 'X' shaped energy was released from the tips of its blades towards the majority of the clones but obviously didn't hit the real one. "Ok Blade lets calm things down a bit" Jack shouted out which Blade agreed with completely flying back to Jack ignoring the Monferno completely. "Good now Focus Energy" Blade was completely still and he shut his eyes and was in a total motionless state.

Blade wasn't focusing for no reason he could sense as the Monferno was approaching but he couldn't fight much longer and had to attempt to finish the fight with his final actions of the battle. Jack waited until the last moment before given the instructions or else it wouldn't work and as the punch was about to land Blade opened his eyes as Jack shouted "Use Counter" Blade's body began to glow red and he embraced the Fire Punch and countered quickly with a blade directly to the back of Monferno. He knew that Blade was out but Jack watched to see if the Monferno was also unable to battle.

(Just one more since it is supposed to be night time anyway"

Jack looked up at the moon "Crap" Jack's best pokemon was out of the fight how could things get any worse, the fact that the place was near pitch black didn't help but Jack had to rectify the situation some how. He returned Blade to his pokeball "Sorry buddy" Jack looked over at his other two pokemon Rocky the Onix may have been two big to match the speed of the Monferno so the only other option was young Blaze the Charmander. "Ok Blaze lets go" Blaze rushed to the battlefield seeing a pokemon he looked up to getting beat like that can have an effect on a pokemon but Blaze knew he could take this chance to make an effect on Jack and finally be considered the powerhouse of the team.

Jack knew Monferno was going to be easy to take down after the last battle so he wanted to get over with it quick. "Smokescreen and Dig go!' shouted Jack as he watched Blaze release a dark smoke out of his mouth then dove into the ground unbenounced to the opponent. Blaze popped out of the ground behind Monferno and attempted to ram him in the back.

"It's okay, it's only us and the pokemon," Selene said quietly, holding out a piece of popcorn for Ri and jumping slightly as Blu swooped down off the wardrobe and grabbed it, earning a dirty look from Ri and a small giggle from Selene as Blu snickered to himself. "You can tell us anything and we can promise it won't leave the confines of this room."

She wondered why Valorie was so withdrawn and found it difficult to confide in people - she didn't think it was a question of trust, otherwise she didn't think Valorie would have agreed to stay over at hers in the first place. She hoped that in the end Valorie could open up to her, if only because she saw the potential that she and Mark had and knew they could be happy together. If there was one thing that Selene liked it was happiness, angst and drama had their very confined place in her life but generally she was happy and wanted to spread happiness. If she could help Valorie and/or Mark be happy in anyway she wanted to.

Ri sat back, having nabbed the whole bag of popcorn whilst Sel wasn't looking, and settled himself on her pillow cross-legged, swatting Ryan's hand away when he went for some popcorn. "Oi, I'll have none of that," Sel said curtly, looking at Ri out of the corner of her eye - of course she'd noticed the fighting pokemon take her popcorn, but she knew that he wouldn't be particularly open to sharing it. "You have it, you share it." Ri pulled a face, but he knew he wouldn't be able to get his own way ultimately, so he offered the bag to Ryan who took two large handfuls and poked his tongue out at Ri. Selene rolled her eyes and grimaced at Valorie apologetically, "Sorry about that...pokemon..." she shook her head.

"What... huh...?" Mark said. Everything was dark. He was sleeping earlier but for some reason he couldn't open his eyes. He tried to gasped for air, but couldn't. There was water everywhere. He was drowning. Something was dragging him underwater and keeping him from going back to the surface... it was like what happened earlier today except nobody was there to help him... Mark was moved deeper and deeper underwater until...


"AHH!" Mark screamed as he forced himself awake. He looked around the room and held onto his own shoulder. "I...it was just a dream... y...yeah... a dream... w...what am I afraid of a little water for? H...haha... erm..." That night he continued to have trouble sleeping... he didn't have the nightmare but he kept on thinking... what if something like that happened again? What if nobody was watching him? He was slowly developing a fear of the ocean...

It worked and Jack didn't care about this guy thinking his tactics were dirty since he disagreed completely he knew the moves why not use them. He sent out a Piplup another pokemon from Sinnoh, obvious were he's from isn't it, and the little penguin started straight away with a Bubblebeam attack. No way I can let that hit Jack thought as the stream of bubbles closed in on Blaze "Dragon Pulse lets go" the move was experimental at the moment Blaze didn't have a great handle on it at the moment and it shown Blaze created a green ball of light from his mouth which was able to burst the bubbles but exploded itself soon after "Uh" Jack moaned hoping that the attack would have been launched at the Piplup. "Now use Flamethrower" Type advantage didn't matter a hard hit from a Flamthrower attack would hurt anyone.

Jack caught on to the plan but Blaze's effort to let out his most powerful Flamethrower had kept him at a disadvantage and BOOM!! it went off just like the other guy had planned. Blaze wasn't completely out of it but the hit was hard and Blaze needed a little time to recover after the explosion. "Ok dig" Jack ordered as Blaze burrowed into the ground and just stayed there for a moment trying to regain a little strength before even thinking of facing the water type again.

"Hm" Jack smirked this guy thought he had won for sure but did he really think some ice balls would take out Blaze so easy. Almost instinctively Blaze used Flamethrower to melt the incoming ice balls. Jack smirked again when he heard the guy say "It's either bubbles or wind!" what sort of amateur move was that to have your pokemon to stay and use icy wind sooner or later he would have to stop but Jack was in no move for the waiting game. "Focus Punch" Blaze dug until he thought he was at the right spot under Piplup before charging up his fist and punching through the ground under Piplup.

The tension and uncertaintly was practically rolling off Valorie in waves...and Sel just didn't get it. She didn't understand why Valorie couldn't fully relax with her...all Selene wanted was for Valorie to feel at ease with her. She sidled off her bed and sat next to Valorie on the blow up bed and reached a hand out tentatively to put over Valorie's as a gesture of friendship and to try soothing her somewhat. She made sure she didn't accidentally knock Dratini, she didn't want to startle the Dragon pokemon.

"Well that's a start...you know Val, you don't need to be all strong and closed-off here," she said quietly, slowly choosing her words with more consideration than usual so she didn't phrase it wrong and cause any offence. Normally she wouldn't care about this and would just spill out whatever words came into her mind first, however it was really important to her that Valorie could talk to her.

She didn't really know why. Yeah, Sel loved making new friends, but she never really retained them very well. She was somewhat of a flighty character, and could move on to the next friend if they were just a passing acquanitance. But any true friends, any friends that she really wanted to get to know and to be close to, they could ask anything of Selene and if she could she would do it. Valorie fell into the latter category - and she couldn't quite put her finger on why.

"I'm not saying you need to spill your innermost secrets and thoughts here, but you know, anything you WANT to talk to me about you can, even if it's something you feel initially awkward and embarrassed about...if you trust me enough then you can tell me anything, and if not then you can tell me what you want and either way is cool. What were you feeling overwhelmed by? Would I be accurate in thinking it's something to do with Mark?"

Seeing Valorie's panic, Selene suddenly wondered if she had in fact totally misjudged the situation and said something completely wrong. She had made a judgment on Valorie based on the girl she had grown to know so far, from their first battle through to now, and to her it always seemed like Valorie had to be in control of her emotions, she could never just let loose and let it all rip. Maybe it wasn't that at all...maybe she just didn't like talking to people about things...if so was she pushing her too far? Sel figured that she had been pushing Valorie in the first place...but it was only because she figured if she could break through that initial barrier Val had erected then they could get somewhere. When Valorie looked at her with frustration and crossed her arms, she thought that was the end of the slumber party, but then she finally expanded and told her more about what she was thinking.

So it was Mark. That much she suspected...but it seemed as though it was just too rushed for Valorie, which I suppose she could understand. If you weren't used to opening up to people too much, it was kind of forced...and she kind of agreed - it was a major thing. Even if she'd known HOW to do CPR, Sel probably wouldn't have WANTED to do it. Not for the same reason, granted, but even in first aid it was a very intimate gesture.

"No, I totally understand," she found herself finishing that train of thought out loud, looking up at Valorie and squeezing her hand a little, "I suppose...it's something very intimate, even though it was first aid, so seeing as you actually do have feelings for Mark you're bound to feel awkward about it..." she coughed slightly, reddening, "and my teasing wouldn't have helped. I'm sorry about that, I guess I'm just a bit...tactless usually. I never thought it would have affected you this deeply, I thought you were just in shock at what had happened. But you did amazingly well, as much as I helped dragging him out of the sea, if you hadn't gotten him breathing again I don't think he'd still be here...unless Jack or Bri knew first aid, we couldn't have gone to a teacher in time...no, you did really well. And you know what? I KNOW Mark likes you...I think, if anything, he likes you even more after today!"