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

Dawn · Jun 29, 2011

Valorie's expression turned sour. Why did it know blizzard?! Flying pokemon weren't supposed to be so fluent in ice attacks... Meanwhile, Dratini is assaulted with high speed snow. Normally, blizzard is supposed to manifest itself in a more focused manner, namely a powerful, aimed blast of extremely heavy snow and wind. However, the high speed snow still hurt Dratini, and prompted it to attempt to dodge, only to find out it had nowhere to go.

Meanwhile, Valorie held out her hands, observing the snow melting on them. Her face became pale, and she seemed to zone out a bit before giving her attention back to Dratini. She didn't seem to mind the cold.

Dratini writhed in the air momentarily before abruptly firing off a flamethrower into the blizzard. The more focused fire attack easily pierces and could outlast the blizzard attack, shielding Dratini from some of the already diluted damage. After what seemed like an eternity to Valorie, Dratini abruptly nose dived through the air down back towards the ground. Needless to say, it was one angry dratini, which was reflected in it's glare. White streaks of energy began to shoot off it's body before a light blue aura manifests itself, and made Dratini somewhat resemble a shooting star. The clones simply follow along, emulating the attack visually. It was Dragon Rush, an extremely powerful dragon attack. As Dratini falls lower during the attack, its' speed picked up rapidly. It was not going for subtly. That was for sure.

SelenaStar · Jun 29, 2011

"We aren't out of this yet Blu!" cried Selene, shocked that such a powerful ice attack that completely surrounded the Dratini failed to do as much damage as she had anticipated. And the dratini knew flamethrower...turned out Selene wasn't the only one who was handy with a TM. That was a really smart move of the pokemon though, melting the snow like that. It appears that her tactic of surrounding Dratini wasn't working either, the direct and aggressive approach seemed to be the only one that could win her this battle now. It helped that Dratini was resorting to aggressive physical attacks in its frustration.

"Dratini needs to come close for her attack to hit - with your safeguard you should be okay from a completely physical dragon-type attack, it isn't your type weakness...ICE BEAM, FOLLOW THAT DRATINI WITH IT WHATEVER YOU DO."

Swablu stayed exactly where she was, launcing a powerful direct ice beam at Dratini, following Selene's orders and maintaining a steady stream of ice, throwing everything she had into the attack, ready to change direction if Dratini attempted to circumvent her ice beam. If Dratini wanted to hit Blu with this attack she would have to charge through this ice beam first.

Dawn · Jun 29, 2011

The first Dratini that was struck simply became engulfed in the beam. As would be expected, it was a clone. When ice beam was fired though, all four dratinis start rapidly circling around the beam, making themselves difficult to hit. They were far enough apart that they simply danced away from the beam, letting it chase them. The closer they got, the farther they spread out. They had split up!

Suddenly, one of the dratinis attempted to attack Swablu from the left as they got close, coming from the air with great speed. It was a clone, a decoy if you will, and posed no danger. Then, a second Dratini came low, coming at Swablu from the front. It too was a decoy. The third clone approached from the right, but the the real Dratini was above, and attempted to take advantage of the chaos by trying to smash into Swablu at an arch before the third even attacked. All of them made their attempts almost simultaneously, with only a slight delay between each attack. All Valorie could do was stare, waiting to see the results of the ploy. This was Dratini's best shot. Not to be underestimated, dragon rush was an attack to be feared regardless of typing, especially coming from a dragon itself.

SelenaStar · Jun 29, 2011

Selene was watching closely, and she noticed that the Dratini coming from above was glowing slightly brighter than the others. She found it strange that the double team had lasted all this time, Dratini must be very good at that move. "BLU, ABOVE!" she yelled, but it was too late, the clones had attacked and passed through Blu and Dratini slammed into him, engulfing them both in the aura.

"NO BLU, STABILISE!" yelled Selene as Blu began to fly backwards, somersaulting backwards. Blu stuck his good wing straight out abruptly and stopperd himself mid-somersault, his bad wing almost sending him upside down as it couldn't stretch itself as well. However, Blu recovered quickly, although one of his legs looked badly injured, and he seemed disorientated. "BLU, NOW, DRATINI IS VULNERABLE AND IN RANGE, ICE BEAM!" Now there was only the one Dratini and it was right in front of Blu there was no way Blu could possibly miss. His ice beam wasn't as powerful as it had previously been but he was so close Selene couldn't see how it wouldn't do a lot of damage.

Dawn · Jun 29, 2011

Dratini attempted to spiral away from the attack, still moving relatively fast after having built up all that speed. The ice beam clipped it however and Dratini then let out a brief cry before dropping like a rock, and just sort of fell to the ground bodily.

"No!"

Valorie saw her dratini fall, and became alarmed when it hit the ground. She knew that a dratini hitting the ground was generally a very bad sign. She ran out to dratini, who wasn't getting up. Valorie got down on her knees and scooped the small serpent pokemon up. She then stood up, staring down at the Dratini in her arms with a deflated expression on her face. Dratini appeared to have lost consciousness.

"..."

Megaman765 · Jun 29, 2011

Mark spectated the entire battle until finally, Dratini was the one to finally fall. Selene's loud voice still pierced through Mark's ears. Valorie ran over to Dratini and scooped him up in her arms. Except Dratini wasn't getting up... Maybe they overdid it in battle? Mark couldn't help but get involved. He ran over to Valorie to check Dratini's condition.

"He sure took a beating out there. Think he's alright?" Mark asked. Len looked up at Dratini, giving off a worried expression as if it were going to die or something. He only lost consciousness, but as cheerful as Len was, he was a real worry wart.

Snype crawled up onto Mark's shoulder and looked down at the fainted Dratini. ["Kehehe. He'll surely be fine. A night of rest and he'll be good as new Len."] Snype told him so that he wouldn't worry too much more about him. He hoped he was alright that is...

SelenaStar · Jun 30, 2011

"Oh no..." said Selene quietly, completely forgetting her own pokemon for a moment as she ran over to Valorie and Dratini, kneeling down in front of them. "Is she okay? Is she moving? I am so so sorry, I didn't think it had hit her fully, I didn't expect it to do so much damage, it was the only attack I had left that could possibly work, I had to use it!" she pleaded, looking imploringly at Valorie and then Mark and then back to Valorie. She didn't ever want Dratini this hurt...

Swablu flew over slowly, his head bowed from exhaustion. He landed next to Dratini and let out a loud wailing cry, and Selene felt truly awful - she took no pleasure from this victory as she thought she would...She scooped Blu up and stood up, her head bowed as Ri and Ryan looked first at Valorie and Dratini and then to Selene anxiously. "We should get them to a pokemon centre and then finally get some sleep...it's late, and we're out way past curfew." She held her hand out to Valorie, head still bowed.

Dawn · Jun 30, 2011

Valorie looked up at Mark. She still seemed kind of deflated to say the least, and found she had a knot in her throat preventing her from answering. She'd lost, and the shame she felt was great. She was... not exactly a graceful loser. She felt the urge to flee the area. The only thing that kept her from doing so was the fact that she had no clue where to go. Selene approached, and Valorie briefly glanced at her before averting her gaze down to Dratini, where they would remain. She swallowed the knot in her throat, and spoke in a rather quiet, shaken voice.

"I-I need to get her healed..."

She had subtly told Mark that her Dratini was in fact female, though it was of little importance at the moment.

Megaman765 · Jun 30, 2011

Mark felt kinda emberessed mistaking Dratini for a boy but male and female weren't exactly easy to tell apart for him. Nonetheless, Dratini was hurt and it needed something quick, at least to last till they get to the pokemon center. Mark scurried around his pockets and found a slightly full potion. He remembered he usually carried one around for emergencies and hell this was an emergency.

"...I usually don't use these but this thing should help it until we find a Pokemon Center. It'll sting but I'm sure it'll get it moving again." Mark said kneeling down and aiming the spray toward Dratini. "Just trust me, its the best option we got right now.

Mark sprayed the potion on Dratini hoping it would have an effect. Afterwards he put the empty potion in his pocket and got back up, smiling at Valorie. "Um, I'm sure they should have big signs that lead to a Pokemon Center. Maybe in bright red. Lets look around, It shouldn't be far." Mark said to her.

"Selene, Come along with us to. Blu could use some healing to..." Mark offered.

SelenaStar · Jun 30, 2011

"Y..yeah...he needs to be taken in for sure..." said Selene shakily. If Mark had thought she was loud before, she was the polar opposite now. She couldn't find her voice, her legs were trembling and she thought she was going to be sick. When had she ever felt like this after winning a battle..? Must be first-battle-at-academy nerves, she thought as she carried Blu, walking along with Mark and Valorie. She felt a little awkward...Valorie had barely acknowledged her when she went over...surely she would understand that it was just the battle, nothing personal or that she didn't have any intent to hurt Dratini.

She looked down at Blu, lying in her arms, exhausted. His eyes were closed and his breathing was shallow. She sighed and shook her head. "I think I pushed him too hard...he's never been this bad before..." She coughed and shot a sideways look at Valorie, smiling slightly. "That was an amazing battle though Valorie...I thought you had me so many times...if it wasn't for Blu ignoring me then we'd be out of there, this is Blu's victory, not mine," she said, shaking her head. "No bad feelings hey?" she asked tentatively, hopefully. She'd hate for there to be any animosity between them.

Dawn · Jun 30, 2011

The potion seemed to do wonders on the bruises and burns Dratini had suffered. Seeing as Dratini had already fainted, however, it did little to wake the Pokemon up. Valorie had known the moment it had hit the ground that it was done. Dratini and it's evolutions did not even need to move to stay afloat. They used limited telekinetic powers to travel through the air. Hitting the ground had told Valorie pretty loud and clear that Dratini had lost consciousness, which generally indicated fainting or worse. Of course, the implications that a Pokemon could die were partially lost on Valorie. She was very concerned for her Dratini, but simply did not think something such as Pokemon death could happen to /her/!

Valorie looked up at Mark, into his eyes this time. Originally she had wanted to flee, to be alone so that she could mope without fear of ridicule. He seemed to want to help, though, and seemed like a nice guy. In her relatively short time training before the academy nobody had really showed that much concern for her pokemon. Her eyes said she was silently acknowledging Mark. That she had seen him in a new light that sat well with her. It was a nice look, to say the least. Valorie was a rather vulnerable person after losing a pokemon battle. To say the least, this was an excellent way to start a potential friendship.

Then of course, Selene had spoken to her. She attempted to glance at Selene very briefly, trying to avoid eye contact whilst doing so. She became aware that Selene was not in fact enjoying her victory, or looking down on her, or bragging like she might've feared. She actually didn't seem happy at all! This confused Valorie. She wondered why Selene wasn't happy.

Then Selene actually complimented her! Valorie became confused by this as well. During her relatively short time training not a whole lot of people had complimented her on her battling. Most of the time it was bragging, and the other half of they would be condescending. She herself wasn't any better. She was a braggart and she knew it.

Valorie's cheeks flushed pink as she looked up at Selene. Out of sheer embarrassment she would avert her eyes after a moment, but this time she spoke.

"R-right..."

She had more she might've said, but she simply felt too awkward and embarrassed to continue on her own. Valorie was not exactly a mean person. She had an admirable code of honor with the exception that it sadly did not include modesty. She simply had an extremely passionate desire to earn the respect and admiration of others by being the best at what she does, and every loss felt like reality slapping her across the face and telling her she wasn't good enough.

That being said, what Selene had said had rubbed her well, all things considered. Meanwhile l, while Valorie dealt with her emotions, one of her other Pokemon abruptly shot out of it's pokeball. Said pokeball was in the satchel on Valorie's arm and thus the beam of light ached out and onto the ground. It was a character! The small fire lizard pokemon simply tapped on Valorie's leg before pointing up at a red sign intended to lead people to a Pokemon Center. Valorie seemed surprised by her Charmander coming out of it's ball on it's own, but said nothing. Following it's pointing, Valorie spots the sign, though she doesn't immediately say anything about it, her mind having been elsewhere.

Megaman765 · Jun 30, 2011

Valorie stared into Mark's eyes for awhile but didn't say anything. Sheesh she was a shy one. The look she gave him seemed to be an approving one though as she wasn't mad that Mark used a potion without even asking. Mark was actually blushing a little. "U..um, Your... welcome..?" He said, smiling back to her. Snype Chuckled again and gave off a bright smile.

Selene gave off her own share of compliments and appologies. She wasn't the kind of trainer that would be a total jerk after winning. It was good to be in a school full of at least some decent folks. A charmander suddenly appeared from one of the Pokeballs Valorie owned and was pointing toward a sign leading to a Pokemon Center.

"Good eye. Comon I'll tag along with you two." Mark offered as he already began walking alongside the two girls.

jackblaze · Jun 30, 2011

After watching the pokemon battle between the dratini and the swablu watching the strategies of his fellow trainers seeing if there was anything he could learn from the lovely ladies. They battle finished with dratini losing to Jack disappointment he would have loved to see the battle go on a little longer for his enjoyment. Jack went to the pokemon center to be with his Charmander after it was poisoned in the battle.

When he arrived he pulled up a seat beside Charmander's bed "Don't worry buddy I'll stay with you tonight" Jack leaned back and looked out into the night sky

---------------------
Blade lvl 15
Rocky lvl 10
Blaze lvl 10

curiousnathan · Jul 1, 2011

Nathan had fiercely lost track of the time. He noticed he had been sitting there watching a battle in which had finished an hour ago. Luckily another battle just finished so it didn't look so awkward. "Hm.." Nathan groaned. "Let's go guys." He said to his pokemon as he started walking to his dorm with them following closely behind.

Arriving at the dorm wasn't so spectacular know, since he had become used to the dorms entrance and the scenery. He looked again, however for his number 17 dorm and after a couple of minutes found it. Click! Nathan opened the door with his key. A bright light shone through his window, most likely it was from the bustling pokemon center. He walked quickly towards it, curious to find out what was happenning. He could faintly see a charmander and another trainer sitting together. The charmander looked quite hurt, but he knew it'd be alright in the hands of a proffesional like Murse Joy. Satisfied, Nathan retreated and opened his laptop. "Let's seee..." he stretched on. He swerved through his various emails to find his timetable for tommrow. "Ugh. It hasn't been updated yet." Nathan complained. "Turrrrrrrrr." Turtwig yawned. "Haha you're tired turwig? Well I think it's time to retreat and hit they hay hey!?" "Tur tur." Turtwig replied slowly and tiredly, almost falling asleep smack bang in the middle of the doorway. "Come on guys." Nathan got changed and brushed his teeth and hoped into bed. "Do you guys want to stay in or out?" Nathan asked. "Chim, GIB!" They both replied they'd prefer their pokeballs. But turwig didn't reply at all. Nathan glanced over a the bottom of his bed. "Turwig?" "Tuur.. zzz.. tur.. zzz." Turwig had already fallen asleep. "Well goodnight then" Nathan finally said. His head slowly hit the pillow, his vision slowly turning black.

VOOSH, CLINK, CLINK!

An eerie sound erupted through Nathan's ears. It suddenly got quite cold. But nothing was in his cabin. Nathan glanced around once more. To his horror he found a scary looking ghastly starring through his icy cold-frosted window. He could see the darkness in it's eyes, the mysterious sneakiness it embodied. They both stared at eachother for a few minutes before the ghastly depatured in a quiet blink. Only leaving small wafts of purple smoke trainling through the air outside, under the stars, behind his window.

--

Current Pokemon:
Piplup level 15 - with his mother.
Chimchar level 15
Turtwig level 15
Gible level 16

Wild pokemon encounters:
Starly -> Staravia (Level unknown)
Ghastly (Level unknown.)

NightOfRemorse · Jul 1, 2011

Alice looked around the gym, noticing how large and empty it was. Was this the physical fitness gym, or a Pokémon gym? Alice switched on the lights and walked to the middle of the gym. There were folded up basketball hoops, so it was most likely a fitness gym. However, it was large enough for a good Pokémon battle to be fought here. At the back of the gym was another door with a sign just above it.

The sign read, "POOL" in capital, bold blue letters. Alice ran over, just to take a look. She wasn't in the mood to swim, nor did she have any water Pokémon who would enjoy the pool much. Kicking the door open, the usual way she enjoyed opening them, she walked inside. It was so hot in here! Obviously, they heated the whole room up to prevent anybody from freezing.

"Vulpix!" Jem said, enjoying the warmth. "I should throw you into the pool," Alice joked, knowing Jem really did not like to get wet. After a while of quiet admiring, the pool and gym became dull. There wasn't much else to explore here, so Alice quietly exited at the back door. The first thing that came into view were some of the classrooms.

Alice sneaked over and peered into one of the open doors. There was a teacher working at his desk, but his back blocked whatever it was he was doing. Alice moved her head from side to side until she could finally see that the teacher was working on his computer. She stared for a few moments, unimpressed.

She made her way to the next door and looked to her left. Three shadows seemed to be walking over to… to… Alice looked up at the glowing letters. They were on their way to the Pokémon Center. Because she couldn't tell who it was, she didn't really care about what happened that made them go over there. Maybe a battle, but it wasn't like it mattered. Alice returned undivided attention to the door she stood at. She turned the knob and walked in. There was nobody here, and so she walked around to view the lined up student desks. Suddenly, Alice heard the doorknob turn again and she quickly hid under a computer table.

Dawn · Jul 2, 2011

Valorie walked with Mark (and assumedly with Selene) on their way to find a pokemon center. For a moment she would remain quiet, brooding over the recent battle. Did she need a different strategy? Seeing as she assumed she would need to put Dratini hack in it's ball to be healed amyway she then returned Dratini. After said moment she looked over to Mark.

"So... um, was that your only potion?"

She seemed curious. the question was the only non-awkward thing she could think of to strike conversation. She was not good at this whole taking losing with strides thing, but she was trying. After all, they hadn't given her a reason not to. Whether by coincidence or observation they had both managed to evade any serious problems.

Meanwhile, Valorie's Charmander followed close behind. Had it been any less of a rash pokemon Valorie might've been disturbed that it had simply left its pokeball when it felt like. She found it's intelligence impressive, though. It had managged to figure out what they had been talking about.

Megaman765 · Jul 2, 2011

Mark walked alongside Valorie and stared at the ground when he asked if he had more potions. "...As dumb as it sounds yeah. Maybe thats kinda stupid of me. Considering all of the battle going on maybe it would be better if i carried them around a bit more often. Still... pretty convenient that I'll be haveing a class about using items tomorrow. I'd love to learn more about what all this stuff does." Mark said to her.

Eventually they arrived at the Pokemon Center. It was pretty quiet but everybody was sleeping anyways. The trainers that were here probably stayed so that they could keep an eye on any Pokemon being cared for in the back.

"Well here we are. You should be able to leave your Dratini here to rest for the night and by morning it should be good as new." Mark said. Snype began reaching over toward Valorie's hair and attempted to play with any bits of hair that were draping over the sides of her head.

"Snype... comon be nice." Mark said to Snype. He quickly stopped gave off a cheerful smile. "Heh, Don't mind Snype over here. He loves meeting new people." Mark said, pointing at his Sableye, hanging over his shoulder.

Dawn · Jul 2, 2011

Valorie went silent again, considering something. Of course, her thoughts were interrupted by a pokemon center. She couldn't help but express relief. Getting lost was such a pain. Of course, she seemed a bit put off by the idea of leaving Dratini there for the night. Never-the-less, such was only expressed on her face, not by her words.

"Alright..."

She proceeded in, giving Dratini's pokeball one last look before handing it to the nurse. She clearly didn't like being separated from that pokemon. Yet, she felt as if there was no real choise.

Charmander meanwhile takes her place by Valorie's foot, seeming to become frustrated by how short she was. She then became aware of a pokemon playing with her trainers hair and peered up at Snype, her expression somewhat haughty, all like: Psh, you think you're so tall!... or at least that's what she might say.

Valorie smiles lightly, adjusting her beanie. Having her hair played with honestly annoyed her a bit, but she'd found it cute in the moment. Her hair was of course slightly hard to keep under control, which was the reason she wore a beanie in the first place. She had long blonde, wavy hair that threatened to cover one of her eyes on the right side, though it hadn't quite done so.

"It's okay."

Valorie then paused momentarily.

"Thanks for all the help getting here..."

She averted her eyes, looking down at the ground. She was still smiling lightly, despite this.

"I, ah..."

She then reached into her satchel, pulling out a single potion. Valorie came from a relatively wealthy family, and had plenty of money to spend on items for her pokemon, nick nacks, and the like.

"I'd like you to have this."

It was a full potion, unlike the half he had given her. The exact meaning of the gift was not clear, and whether the symbolism was intended or not was also ambiguous, but it was definitely done out of kindness.

-------------
Charmander ♀ Level 14
Dratini ♀ Level 16
Trapinch ♀ Level 15

Megaman765 · Jul 2, 2011

Mark looked at the potion that Valorie had offered him. He was confused... she could have used the potion herself... but considering whatever thoughts were going through her head she was probably under too much pressure to think about it. Nonetheless, he accepted the gift. He reached and grabbed the potion, touching her hand a little, and put it into his pocket.

"Um... thanks. Heh..." Mark said, scratching his head nervously. He smiled at her again. It was getting really late... He didn't even know if trainers were even aloud outside of their dorms so late at night.

"So.. I guess we should head back huh...?" Mark asked.

Dawn · Jul 2, 2011

Valorie turned her head to look at Mark again. This time she was smiling more confidently. ~~Insert potion of courage joke here.~~ Whatever just went on, she seemed to feel better as a result of it.

"Yeah! Training at the pool, right?"

Charmander became aware of the change in Valorie's attitude, and seems slightly confused herself about it. Meanwhile, Valorie knew she needed to get to bed soon, but didn't worry too much about it.

-------------
Charmander ♀ Level 14
Dratini ♀ Level 16
Trapinch ♀ Level 15

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

[span="font-size:180%;font-weight:900;color:#a568f

Who says you're not perfect?

[span="font-size:180%;font-weight:900;color:#a568f

Who says you're not perfect?

[span="font-size:180%;font-weight:900;color:#a568f

Really wants shiny Porygon Z:3

Who says you're not perfect?

[span="font-size:180%;font-weight:900;color:#a568f

Really wants shiny Porygon Z:3

Who says you're not perfect?

[span="font-size:180%;font-weight:900;color:#a568f

Really wants shiny Porygon Z:3

Starry-eyed

my anxieties have anxieties

[span="font-size:180%;font-weight:900;color:#a568f

Really wants shiny Porygon Z:3

[span="font-size:180%;font-weight:900;color:#a568f

Really wants shiny Porygon Z:3

[span="font-size:180%;font-weight:900;color:#a568f