[Pokémon] World of Battle (PG-13)

"In the Johto Region, at Violet City's school, a day was passing with relative normality."

"But one thing happened that day that would never happen again in the history of the region."

"No, the history of the world!"

A teenage girl raised her hand, "Ah, please wait, I can't copy this fast enough!"

The other students in the study group chuckled as she raced to catch up with her note taking.

"Are you ready for me to resume Rune?" The teacher asked.

Rune nodded, "Yes" she said, holding her pen ready over the large notebook.

"Well then" the teacher said, "This happens to be a story that goes back to the days of my youth. I was even younger than you at the beginning of the tale."

The teacher closed his eyes in thought and then began to speak again after a minute.

Chapter 1
Autumn Wind

1: Battle vs. the Tactics club chief

"So Brent, you think you my class is the time for sleeping?"

Brent opened one eye and stared at the noisy teacher.

"Huh?" He yawned, "Its math class right? I'm good enough already so couldn't you just focus on the other students?"

The teacher grabbed Brent by his long, greasy brown hair and pulled his head up.

"You have such potential Brent and you waste it" the teacher said. "You may ace tests but ignore the homework and you end up with…"

The teacher held up a mark-update.

"Huh, 57%?" Brent asked looking at the test, "Well I'm passing so whatever."

He slumped back down on the desk, annoyed that he couldn't sleep due to the teacher's attention.

For the rest of that class Brent's mind wandered away from the lesson.

After school that day, the clubs began. Sports, games, academics, Pokemon, they were all available to the students.

One girl, Jenny, found herself wandering into a Pokemon club room without realizing it.

A boy with glasses glanced up from a large pile of papers that had been spread out across a two-person sized desk.

"Oh, are you interested in joining the Pokemon Tactics club?" he asked. "I'm the club chief, my name's Ajay."

"I thought the Pokemon club was bigger than this" Jenny commented, looking around, "and shouldn't you have a battling area."

Ajay ran his hand through his short blond hair and looked at the ground.

"You're thinking of the Pokemon Battle club" he said, "Tactics club focuses more on strategy analysis and development than on competitive play."

"Although I did create this club to get into tournaments…"

Jenny looked confused.

"Ah, I'm sorry" Ajay said, "You see the Battle club is popular so many people join, and only the best players can represent the school."

"I don't really stand out that much but I still wanted to play."

Jenny tilted her head, "Then isn't this club kind of the same thing?" she asked.

Ajay shrugged, "Well by saying that we focus on tactics I was able to convince the activity council that this club was different enough from the Battle club."

"Oh!" A look of realization suddenly crossed Ajay's face. "Did you want to join?" he asked.

"We have one member already other than me; he's a ninth grade student, so he's in his first year."

"I guess I could" Jenny said, "I wanted to join a Pokemon club, but now that you mention it, the Battle club is a bit too big."

"Tell you what" she said, "Battle me one on one. If I think the club chief is good enough then I'll join!"

Ajay nodded, "Since we don't have use of the official arena we'll have to battle outside behind the school" he said.

Ajay walked to the window and opened it, he climbed out and Jenny followed him.

Jenny was glad she had chosen to wear her uniform with pants today; if she had been wearing a skirt, climbing out the window with Ajay around would have been impossible.

The area behind the school was shaded by many trees and was so remote the she wasn't sure if she would be able to find it by taking any route other than the clubroom window.

"One on one, a single battle right?" Ajay asked, "Well since I'm club chief, you should get the honour of creating any extra rules before the battle starts."

Jenny nodded, "Fine" she said, "I have to send out my Pokemon first then."

She threw a Pokeball forwards and her partner Sneasel appeared.

"It's the Tactics club, so let's see how the chief responds when he knows my Pokemon beforehand" Jenny said.

Ajay nodded and rested his chin on his fist for a few minutes, looking from Sneasel to the female trainer; she had long brown hair that reached slightly past her waist.

"Alright" Ajay said eventually, "Then my choice is Chikorita!"

Ajay's Pokemon was Johto's grass type starter; green with four legs and a large leaf growing from its head. It also had a ring of dark green bumps around its neck.

"Huh, but Chikorita is a bad matchup against Sneasel" Jenny said out loud.

"Well she's actually my only Pokemon so I really had no choice" Ajay responded.

"Why did you take so long to decide then!?" Jenny shouted in frustration.

"I'll tell you some other time" Ajay said, "Chikorita, use your Razor Leaf!"

"Fury Swipes Sneasel" Jenny countered.

Sneasel shredded Chikorita's leaf attack, but in the confusion lost sight of the grass type for a moment.

"Agility" Jenny shouted quickly.

Sneasel boosted its own movement capabilities just in time as Chikorita attacked from the side.

The ice type Pokemon dodged to the side, narrowly escaping thanks to its agility.

"Nice" Ajay said, he realized that Jenny's Sneasel was slightly stronger than his Chikorita, and with its type advantage the odds were against him.

"Well I don't have to win to get her to join" he thought, "I just have to prove that I'm good. I'll need to pull off a risky move or two for that to work."

"Reflect on the right!" Ajay shouted.

Jenny immediately realized that right for Ajay was her left.

"Sneasel dodge to the right" she ordered.

Sneasel jumped right and slammed headfirst into an invisible wall.

Jenny suddenly realized that after its sneak attack, Chikorita had ended up facing the opposite direction as its trainer.

"So 'right' actually meant Chikorita's right and my right as well" Jenny said, well I messed that one up."

Chikorita used Sneasel's mistake as an opportunity to Tackle it, the grass Pokemon immediately sprang backwards after the attack and prepared to leap in for another Tackle.

Sneasel recovered at the same moment and bent its legs, ready to strike forwards with its claws.

"Low Kick!"

A yellow and black Pokemon suddenly leapt from the trees and landed between Jenny and Ajay's Pokemon.

It swung its leg in an arc close to the ground, hitting both Pokemon and tripping them.

Sneasel was knocked out by the single hit due to its extremely bad matchup and the earlier damage caused by Chikorita, but the grass type was not completely beaten.

The yellow Pokemon put its hand on Chikorita's back and forced the grass Pokemon to the ground, holding it down and preventing it from moving.

Ajay realized that it was an Elekid.

"How pathetic are you two?" a boy commented, stepping out of the bushes. "You guys are supposed to be the Tactics club?"

He looked at Jenny and then Ajay.

"This moron tries to make a direct attack against an opponent that's stronger and faster" the boy commented looking at Ajay.

"And the other one jumps forwards with a Reflect behind her Pokemon" he said looking at Jenny. "Where would your Sneasel be if he had thrown a second Reflect in front of it?"

"Stuck between two walls" Jenny said, realizing her mistake. "Sneasel would have become nothing but a target."

The other boy returned Elekid to its Pokeball, "Yet neither of you saw the moves open to them" he said.

He turned to walk away, "You're both big losers at battling" he said.

"Hey!" Jenny shouted.

"If you're so smart then why don't you try joining the Tactics club?"

The boy looked over his shoulder and scowled. "I don't need any club holding me back" he said.

"Besides, why would I join a club with a girl?" He asked, "Girls can't be good trainers anyways."

The boy disappeared into the trees.

"That jerk!" Jenny shouted, dashing towards the trees after him, "I'll beat him with his own fists until he cries like a Bonsly for saying that!"

"Chikorita, Reflect!" Ajay ordered quickly.

Jenny ran headfirst into an invisible wall that stopped her from entering the wooded area.

"Don't bother chasing after Brent" Ajay said, "Anything you did wouldn't make a difference."

"It's not like people haven't beaten up that guy because of his comments before" Ajay said, "It doesn't change things."

"Then we'll just have to beat him a different way" Jenny said.

"Chief, you've got a new member for your club" She announced loudly, "We're going to prove that guy wrong and show him that the Tactics club is the best!"

2: Training battle in the rain

"Ajay said he couldn't be here today because it's his sister's birthday" Jenny announced, "So I'm leading things today."

"Right second chief" the other club member of the club said, "Let's do our best as always!"

"Ollie what's with the 'second chief' thing?" Jenny asked.

The third member of the club was a short boy with brown skin and messy red hair, whenever he looked at anyone he always had an expression that looked amazingly impressed.

"Ajay started the club so he is Chief" Ollie said, "I'm the weakest of the three members so I'm third chief. That makes you second chief Jenny."

"Isn't it just simpler to think of us as members?" Jenny asked.

Ollie shook his head.

"Competitive play is in teams of three" he said, "A club's chiefs would be the one's representing the teams as captains."

"There's also individual competition, but that's less fun" Ollie added.

Jenny picked up the club schedule.

"Let's see, today is open discussion so we can pick any topic and focus on it."

Ollie nodded but was looking out the window, "Look at that" he said excitedly.

Jenny walked to the window, unsure of what he was seeing.

"Since this opportunity doesn't come along every day, can we make it the discussion topic?" Ollie asked.

A drop of water slid down the window and Jenny suddenly realized what Ollie had seen. It was raining.

"How about we make it a battle" Jenny suggested, "You against me, we'll record the battle and discuss it later."

Ollie looked as though he would faint from happiness. "Well it is the first time he'll be battling as a member of this club" Jenny realized.

"I have the perfect Pokemon for this" Ollie said happily, gripping his Pokeball.

"Hold on" Jenny said, "The battle will be outside remember."

She picked up her umbrella, it was yellow.

"I'll set up the waterproof video camera outside under those trees" she said. "You set up the other one so that it faces out the window."

Ollie nodded and moved a desk close to the window so that he could place the camera and have it pointing outside.

Jenny met Ollie outside and sent out Sneasel. "So the battle will be a one on one single battle" she said.

Ollie nodded, "Go!" he shouted.

From Ollie's Pokeball, a Pokemon that looked like a raindrop sitting on dark clouds appeared.

"Castform!" Jenny exclaimed, startled by the appearance of the foreign Pokemon.

"This is what you meant by having the perfect Pokemon for this weather"

Ollie nodded, "I'll start" he announced, "Use Ember Castform!"

Jenny cringed as Ollie's weak attack was easily dodged by Sneasel.

She understood why he had chosen it; the fire type did have an advantage against her Pokemon after all, but in this downpour…

Ember was pathetic, weak enough that it could have been completely ignored!

"Try to avoid using fire type moves in rain like this" Jenny called to Ollie, "They aren't as effective."

Ollie nodded, "Right, then Powder Snow Castform!"

Castform blasted a light flurry of snow at its opponent but did almost nothing.

"That's…" Jenny muttered.

Ollie was an awful battler; Jenny wondered if she should call off the battle right away, Ollie still needed basic battling skills before he could begin work on weather tactics.

"Aw, that didn't do what I thought it would" Ollie said, "Well then I'll have to go with Weather Ball!"

Castform created an orb of water and shot it at Sneasel; the attack was strong and looked like it did decent damage.

"Ah, so he's got some good moves" Jenny realized. "Maybe he was just testing the effectiveness of each of his moves in the rain."

"Agility" Jenny ordered.

"Thunder Wave" Ollie shouted at exactly the same moment.

Castform's electric move jumped quickly through the rain and hit Sneasel before Agility was complete.

"Did he predict Agility coming?" Jenny wondered. "Using Thunder Wave in the rain and boosting the speed of a normally slow move was smart of Ollie."

"Wow" Ollie laughed, "I didn't realized Thunder Wave would be so fast!"

"He had no idea" Jenny muttered, "He's just using random attacks and hoping something works…"

"Alright Sneasel, move in with Fury Swipes" Jenny ordered.

Castform's moves appeared to be all ranged, if Sneasel could bring the fight close to it and keep it there Jenny was sure she would win.

But Sneasel was slow.

"Paralysis" Jenny gasped, "How did I not think of that?"

"Water Gun!" Ollie shouted.

Castform shot a strong jet of water that damaged Sneasel and knocked it to the ground.

"Try to finish it" Ollie shouted.

"Use Thunder!"

A giant bolt of lightning dropped from the sky, Sneasel tried to roll to the side and avoid it but the attack changed direction slightly and hit anyways.

"Thunder never misses when it's raining" Jenny said, "The weather turns a normally inaccurate move into a deadly one."

She smiled, "That's enough for me Ollie" she said, "I've lost."

"Then…" Ollie hesitated. "That means I won?"

Jenny nodded!

Ollie cheered with joy and jumped forwards onto the ground. He laughed happily with his first win.

"Eww, Ollie you're all covered in mud now" Jenny exclaimed, "You can't come back into the clubroom like that!"

Jenny sighed, "It's okay, I guess we should head home anyways" she said, "I'll put away the video cameras and bring your stuff out from the clubroom."

Jenny and Ollie's routes home were in the same direction for two blocks, so they walked together for that portion.

"Hey Ollie" Jenny commented, "Your opening moves seemed like mistakes, it was like you didn't know how battles worked. But you pulled off a good win later."

"A good win?" Ollie asked, "You mean by using moves like Weather Ball, Water Gun, and Thunder in the rain?"

"Well I kind of figured those ones would be good" Ollie said, "So I started the battle with some other moves to see if a combo I came up with would work.

"A combo?" Jenny asked.

Ollie nodded.

"Ember and Powder Snow" he said, "I was trying to heat the air enough to make Powder Snow melt before it reached you."

"Then it would've been like a water type attack right" Ollie said, "If something like that was used against me I would be surprised."

Jenny thought for a moment.

"That could actually work" she said, "Since air moves around a lot; you couldn't concentrate enough heat but…"

"If Castform's power were to increase enough or if Powder Snow could be launched faster then it might work!"

"So I should keep that in mind?" Ollie asked.

Jenny nodded.

"Of course" she said, "We are the Tactics club after all so a combo like that is exactly what we would be focusing on improving."

"You should definitely remember it."

Ollie grinned.

"Then I'll make sure to do that second chief" he said. "Tomorrow is Friday so I'll see you then at the club."

Ollie turned right while Jenny went left, still heading for home.

"Hey" Jenny called out, "Make sure to clean off that mud when you get home. This rain won't get rid of all of it!"

Ollie nodded.

"Okay!" he shouted back, "I'll do that."

Once she got home Jenny was able to heal Sneasel. She had ended the battle before Ollie had knocked out her Pokemon so she hadn't needed to go to a Pokemon Center.

"We might actually have a chance if we enter a club tournament" Jenny commented to Sneasel.

Sneasel nodded.

"But first we should test out the Tactics team players" Jenny said, "We've only really been battling each other, so if it turns out that we're all below average then…"

Jenny sighed and Sneasel yawned.

"Well we should find some opponents outside of the club" Jenny commented.

Sneasel nodded.

"I'll ask Ajay about it tomorrow once club activities are done" she muttered.

Jenny fell asleep at her desk; a book about battling written by a famous trainer lay open to a page about rain.

It was her pillow that night.

3: Tactics club, Team battle

"So yesterday you had a battle in the rain" Ajay said after watching the video.

"Good job on winning Ollie"

Jenny opened her mouth to speak about the subject of team battles.

Ajay didn't notice and continued talking.

"Well today I was thinking we could review some old famous battles" he said, "I've got a few videos of people challenging champion trainers."

Ajay walked to the window and opened it.

"It's nice outside so we may as well let some air in."

Ajay held up two videos, "I have a video challenge against Steven of Hoenn and one against Cynthia of Sinnoh. Which should we watch?"

Outside the school, a group of three boys ran at full speed around the corner.

"Michael they're circling the school in both directions" one of the boys said as he ran.

"We're gonna get caught at this rate" the second boy said.

The third boy; Michael, led the group. He was the fastest and tallest of them and his black hair spiked defiantly outwards on both sides and to the back.

"I'm not getting caught" he growled. "Open window on the right, go!"

As Cynthia defeated her opponent's first Pokemon, three boys suddenly dove through the open window of the Tactics club.

"Yo, hide us!" The one in the center said."

He and his companions flattened themselves onto the floor below the window just as a teacher ran by.

The teacher saw the window and ran over, leaning into the clubroom.

"I'm looking for three boys from the baseball team" he said, "You didn't happen to see them run by did you?"

"N-no we were watching the video" Jenny said as the teacher looked left and right.

If he were to glance down he would see the three baseball team members hiding right below the window.

"Alright thanks then" the teacher said. "If you do see them watch out, they're bad news."

After the teacher left the baseball team members stood up.

"Geez, try to ditch for one day and they're chasing after us" the one in the center muttered, putting a cigarette in his mouth.

He glanced over at Jenny "What are you looking at?" he said, "It's not like I'm dumb enough to actually start smoking at my age."

The cigarette was indeed not lit.

"Whatever" the boy said, "We'd better run anyways."

"Hold it" Jenny called, "We helped you out."

"Yeah, so?" The tall boy muttered.

Jenny noticed that each of the three boys carried a Pokeball.

"So you have to help the Tactics Club with training to pay us back" she said.

"A team battle between our three members against you guys should be fine."

The tall boy shrugged, "Pokemon? How boring" he said arrogantly.

"You three aren't actually trying to be trainers are you?"

He held up his Pokeball.

"Well whatever, I'll win anyways. C'mon, battle on the roof" he said, leading them to a stairway.

"So seeing as I'm the strongest, I'll be the captain of my team" the tall boy said.

"Right Michael" one of his teammates said, "I'll take the second captain spot then."

"Alright Josh" Michael said, "And that leaves Jun as third captain."

"You guys know team battle rules I hope?" Michael said, "It's the captain's battle that decides the starting moves."

Michael and Ajay stepped forwards and played Rock-Paper-Scissors with Michael winning.

"Alright then you have to reveal your Pokemon first" Michael said.

Ajay nodded, "Right, that means me and Ollie have to send out Pokemon before our opponents do."

Michael nodded, "Yeah, and since the second battle alternates from captain's rules Josh has to send out his Pokemon before she does" he said indicating Jenny.

"So, go ahead" Michael said. "To save time we might as well do all three battles at once rather than one at a time."

"All three at once!?" Ollie asked in surprise.

"What something wrong with that?" Michael asked, chewing on his cigarette, "Official team battles work like that you know. Or maybe you're all too lame."

"We're fine with it" Ajay said. "Go Chikorita!"

Ollie nodded but looked a bit uncertain. "Go Castform!" he said.

Jenny waited for her opponent. She only had Sneasel to choose from so it didn't really matter that she would see his Pokemon first, but she had to follow the rules.

"Go Cyndaquil" Jenny's opponent Josh shouted.

His Pokemon was Johto's fire type starter, and Jenny knew that against it Sneasel would have trouble.

"Well isn't this interesting" Michael laughed, "Jun, care to show them why?"

The third captain of the opponent's team nodded and threw his Pokeball. A small blue Pokemon with a big, tooth filled mouth appeared.

"With Chikorita, Cyndaquil, and Totodile it looks like all three of Johto's starters have made an appearance" Michael said with a grin.

"Sneasel!" Jenny said, calling out her Pokemon.

"Oh is that all you have" Josh asked. "What a waste, being able to see my Pokemon first and still forced to use a weak matchup."

"Well it looks like I'm the only one here with multiple Pokemon" Michael said. "So I'm the only one who can take advantage of knowing my enemy!"

"Go Paras!"

Michael's Pokemon was a bug, and a great choice against Chikorita with its giant resistance to grass type moves.

"X-Scissor!" Michael shouted.

Jenny watched Chikorita get hit, it had thankfully dodged most of the attack but still looked as though the hit had hurt.

"Hey" her opponent yelled, "Focus on your own battle or I'll wipe the floor with you!"

"Flame Wheel!"

"Run towards it and jump" Jenny shouted.

Sneasel dashed forwards and leapt over Cyndaquil's attack, the hot air was enough to push Sneasel above it long enough for Cyndaquil to pass by underneath.

"Now attack with Fury Swipes!"

With Sneasel directly behind Cyndaquil, there was a moment when they fire type had to completely stop spinning and turn around.

At that moment, the flames around it disappeared and Sneasel struck!

Castform and Totodile both attacked with Water Gun and neither made an impact, the attacks cancelled each other out as they hit.

"Rain Dance" Ollie shouted.

Castform shot a blue sphere into the air and rain began to fall. Castform transformed into the raindrop shape that Jenny had fought the day before.

In Jenny's battle, Cyndaquil's flames suddenly weakened.

"Hey no fair" Josh shouted, "He's affecting our battle!"

Chikorita and Paras jumped apart from their close-quarters fight and the two team captains looked over.

"That's one of the dangers of team fights where all three battles happen at once" Ajay commented, "Since it can't really be helped that the other battles are affected there's no rule against it."

Michael nodded, "So suck it up Josh, and win anyways."

Josh nodded. "Right, then use Swift Cyndaquil!"

"Sneasel Faint Attack" Jenny shouted.

Both moves were a kind guaranteed to hit, and Cyndaquil and Sneasel cried out in pain when they each took an attack.

"Guaranteed to hit" Jenny thought, she looked at Ollie's battle in the corner of her vision and wondered if he would see his opportunity.

"Thunder!" Ollie shouted.

"Yes" Jenny thought, against Totodile it's a great move, and in this rain there's no way to dodge Thunder!"

"Protect" Ollie's opponent Jun ordered.

Thunder fell onto a shield that Totodile had created and didn't do a thing! Castform and Ollie both looked shocked and didn't respond.

That gave Ollie's opponent just enough time to attack.

"Totodile use Aqua Tail!" he ordered.

His Pokemon jumped forwards and hit Castform with its tail, which had become surrounded with water.

Ollie lost.

"Sneasel" Jenny focused back on her own battle, "Use your Screech!"

Sneasel ignored Embers from Cyndaquil as it made a harsh noise. The fire type moves were still weak in the rain, which hadn't yet stopped.

"That's Screech" Jenny said, "It messes up an opponent's ability to defend."

"Use Fury Swipes Sneasel!"

"Flame Wheel!" Josh countered.

Sneasel tore through Cyndaquil's weak fire with its claws and defeated the fire type.

"That's one win each" Jenny said, "Now it's up to the captain's battle."

4: The captain of the Tactics club

"Reflect Chikorita" Ajay shouted.

His Pokemon created a shield just in time to block Paras' slashing move.

"Now Synthesis!"

Chikorita recovered slightly and glowed with faint light.

"It's not much because the rain is still falling" Ajay commented, "But at this point I need to heal."

Michael laughed.

"Well at least you can see how awful your own strategy is" he said. "Paras use your Leech Life!"

Paras sucked health from Chikorita with an effective attack.

"And that it how you recover" Michael said. "Now Brick Break!"

Paras shattered Chikorita's shield and hit it with a chop, knocking the grass starter to the ground.

"X-Scissor!" Michael shouted.

Before Paras could hit, Ajay called Chikorita back into its Pokeball.

"That's enough" he said, "You've beaten me."

"Then we win 2-1" Michael said.

"My win was obvious of course" he said confidently, "It's not like any of you have the skill to even come close to beating me after all."

"Your captain wasn't completely horrible to tell the truth though" Michael said.

"I kind of expected Jun to win too" Michael continued, "His Totodile was given special training by his parents after all."

Michael looked at Jenny.

"I'm surprised at your win in the second captain's battle though" he said.

"It's too bad for you guys but it looks like your strongest member is the one that can't enter tournaments."

He looked at the confused expressions of the Tactics club members.

"Don't tell me you didn't know" Michael laughed, "School sports are divided by gender, and Pokemon isn't an exception."

"Unless you can actually get two more decent female members by tournament day she'll be missing the first one."

"Same goes for male members" Michael added, "It's three to make a team after all and you're stuck at two."

"Maybe they should just leave tournament play up to the Battle club" Josh laughed.

"Eh?" Michael scratched his head. "Naw, that group is too good for their own good. They get overconfident from being such strong trainers and end up losing."

"You know a lot about them?" Ajay asked.

Michael pointed at himself.

"Ex second captain of the Battle club standing right in front of you" he said.

"They didn't make me captain even though I was the best among them, so I got a bit angry and trashed their stuff."

Michael shrugged, "The losers kicked me out for that" he said, "Stupid of them huh? Oh well, the baseball team is more fun anyways."

Michael leaned on Ollie's head.

"Come to think of it though, the first school tournament is pretty soon" he said, "It's probably some time next week."

"You guys want to enter?" Michael asked with a grin.

Jenny thought of the kid named Brent who had attacked with his Elekid, she wanted the club to do well and prove him wrong.

"Yeah we want to enter and win" Jenny said.

"Then you have a third member for the boy's team, me!" Michael said, "Of course since I'm still the strongest that makes me the captain."

Michael glanced at Ajay.

"It's not like I want to join your club or anything though so you can still be club chief" he added.

The door to the roof suddenly opened and the teacher who had been looking for Michael and his friends stepped out onto the roof.

"There you are!" He shouted, "You three are in trouble now!"

"Ahhhh, run!" Michael shouted.

He, Josh and Jun split up in different directions, distracting the teacher and then sneaking past him down the stairs.

"See you guys on tournament day" Michael shouted.

The first tournament was on Wednesday of the next week and Violet City's school was hosting the event.

Sixteen boy's teams and eight girl's teams showed up for the event, the tournament would be played in ladder style team battles.

"So you guys need four wins to become the champions" Jenny said.

She had come along to watch the battles even though she wouldn't be able to play.

"I hear that the big competition this year comes from Olivine City's teams" Ajay said.

"Currently, the boy's and girl's teams of Violet City's Battle Club are considered the strongest in the region but Olivine is the defending champion in both ladders."

"Ah, so you've heard that we're good have you?"

Ajay Ollie and Jenny turned around. A girl with long black hair wearing a white sweater that looked like a school uniform was the one who had spoken.

"You have the look of entrants" she said, "But not from Violet's famous Battle club."

"Are you perhaps from the new Pokemon club that just opened at this school?"

Ajay nodded, "I'm chief of the Tactics club" he said, "Second captain of the team."

"I am Olivia of Olivine City's Battle club" the girl responded, "Second captain of the girl's team."

"But how interesting that the chief isn't the captain" she said, "Could it be that you have somebody even stronger?"

"Pretty and smart" Michael chuckled, walking around Olivia to stand beside Ajay.

"Captain of the Tactics club boy's team at your service beautiful" he said, "I'm Michael."

Olivia looked at Michael for a moment.

"I had better return to my team" she said.

"Make it to the finals and I'll be sure to watch your battle" she said to Ajay.

She then glanced at Michael, "I won't be watching yours either way however."

"Wowie" Michael said after Olivia left, "I'm glad we don't have to face any girl's teams. I'd be too distracted to even think about battling."

As he was speaking, Michael's gaze drifted to the Azalea girl's team who wore cute pink uniforms.

"Gotta love em" he muttered dreamily.

Jenny realized suddenly that Michael was only interested in girls from other schools.

The fact that he had almost no chance with them seemed to ignite a passion in his heart that didn't exist for other girls.

"Ah, by the way" Michael said, "We're in block C facing Cherrygrove's boy's team in the first round."

"Cherrygrove's team is the weakest one in Johto isn't it?" Ollie asked.

Michael nodded, "Yeah, they're close enough to Violet City that any good trainers they've got transfer to our school.

They're stuck with losers as a result and haven't gotten past the first round of any tournament in years.

Michael glanced at Ajay and Ollie.

"My win against them is guaranteed, so as long as one of you manages to not mess up we'll be fine."

Jenny went to check on the tournament ladder as the team prepared.

BOY'S TEAM MATCHUPS FIRST ROUND:

BLOCK A – Mahogany Battle club
BLOCK B – Ecruteak Battle club

BLOCK C – Violet Tactics club
BLOCK D – Cherrygrove Battle club

BLOCK E – New Bark Battle club
BLOCK F – Cianwood Trainers club

BLOCK G – Cianwood Battle club
BLOCK H – Blackthorn Trainers club

BLOCK I – Goldenrod Coordinators club
BLOCK J – Violet Battle club

BLOCK K – Goldenrod Battle club
BLOCK L – Ecruteak Pokemon club

BLOCK M – Olivine Battle club
BLOCK N – Azalea Battle club

BLOCK O – Saffron Battle club
BLOCK P – Goldenrod Trainers club

GIRL'S TEAM MATCHUPS FIRST ROUND:

BLOCK A – Olivine Battle club
BLOCK B – Blackthorn Trainers club

BLOCK C – Goldenrod Coordinators club
BLOCK D – New Bark Battle club

BLOCK E – Violet Battle club
BLOCK F – Goldenrod Trainers club

BLOCK G – Ecruteak Battle club
BLOCK H – Azalea Battle club

"Everyone quiet down" called out the teacher in charge of the Violet Battle club, he was supervising the event.

"The first two battles will now begin" he said, "Blocks A and B for the boy's and girl's team tournament will now begin their battles!"

5: Teaching battle

The Tactics club boy's team was busy watching the first round of the boy's battle.

It was understandable; if they made it to the second round then their opponent would be one of those two teams after all.

Jenny decided to watch the girl's teams battling.

She hoped to have a girl's team in the Tactics club by the time the next tournament arrived, and seeing the average strength of the competition would be helpful.

Olivine's girl's team was in the first battle.

"Let's see, Olivia said she was second captain, so she'll be at field E" Jenny said, aiming herself towards that field.

"Ah, they haven't sent out their Pokemon yet" Jenny said in surprise when she arrived.

"They're waiting for the teachers signal" said a boy who stood beside her. "At that point the captains will determine the opening moves with Rock-Paper-Scissors."

"Is this your first time at a tournament?" the boy asked.

Jenny nodded, "Yes, but I'm not competing, just supporting some friends. We didn't have enough members for a girl's team."

"Ah, so you must be from this school" the boy said.

"I know that Violet's Battle club has more than enough members so that makes you a member of the newly created Tactics club right?"

Jenny nodded.

"I'm Demetri, third captain of Blackthorn City's Trainers club boy's team" he said.

"I'm Jenny of Violet's Tactics club" Jenny responded.

The teacher gave a signal at that moment and Olivine's captain won Rock-Paper-Scissors against the Blackthorn captain.

"That means Olivia has to send out her Pokemon first" Jenny thought.

At that moment Jenny realized that Demetri must be cheering for Olivia's opponent.

"By the way" Demetri said, "You're cheering for Sandy's opponent aren't you? Olivine's second captain."

He saw Jenny's startled and guilty expression and chuckled.

"If you weren't cheering for any particular side, or if you just had a random friend from Olivine, you would have gone to the captain's battle" he explained.

"Since you came here instead, you must be cheering specifically for Olivine's second captain."

Olivia threw her Pokeball and a yellow Pokemon with thin, shut eyes appeared.

"So her Pokemon is Abra?" Demetri commented, "It's not a horrible matchup for Sandy, but not a good one either."

Blackthorn City's Sandy then threw her Pokeball forwards and a large purple Pokemon, one that was slightly taller than its own trainer appeared.

"Wow, she has a Pokemon like that!?" Jenny gasped.

Demetri shook his head. "Don't be fooled" he muttered, "Sandy's Granbull is timid and not the strongest. That's why she's only second captain."


"Still" Jenny said, "There are some tough opponents that I'll have to deal with in the future."

"Granbull, start with your Scary Face attack" Sandy ordered.

Granbull attempted to look intimidating but didn't seem to succeed.

"That wasn't too good" Jenny commented, "Granbull didn't have enough confidence to pull it off. Not to mention Abra's eyes are closed."

Demetri nodded, "True, but keep that quiet. It's against the rules to interfere with a battle so if you're talking strategy then do it quietly."

"Abra's eyes are closed" Olivia said suddenly, "That attack won't work."

Abra sat unaffected by the move.

"Now Teleport and Focus Punch" Olivia ordered.

Abra appeared suddenly at Granbull's side and punched the purple Pokemon.

"To defend against that try a wild swing next time" Olivia suggested, "Just making contact would be enough to stop Focus Punch after all."

"She's playing a teaching game" Demetri gasped.

"What's that?" Jenny asked.

"A teaching game is something that usually only pros will do" he explained, "They battle to make their opponent stronger rather than to try and win themselves."

"An obvious direct attack won't work on a teleporting Pokemon" Olivia said as Abra dodged Granbull's Thunder Fang attack.

"You need to use an indirect move or try to throw the opponent off before the hit."

"To battle like that during a tournament" Demetri muttered, "She thinks she can win without trying!"

Granbull landed a hit and knocked Abra to the ground.

"Follow through before your opponent gets a chance to recover" Olivia said as Abra teleported away again.

"I don't think she plans to win at all" Jenny said, "Look at the other two battles."

Demetri looked to field D and was shocked to see that Olivine had already won the captain's match!

At field F, Olivine's third captain was using a Yanma to battle Blackthorn's third captain's Heracross. Blackthorn had a horrible type matchup.

"She doesn't care about winning at all" Demetri realized, "As soon as the Pokemon had appeared she was sure that her teammates would get the two victories that Olivine needed!"

Granbull caught Abra's head in its jaws suddenly by predicting the spot that the psychic Pokemon would teleport to.

Granbull's hold on Abra's head seemed to be stopping it from teleporting away.

"Now bite down" Sandy shouted.

"Power Trick" Olivia responded.

Granbull bit Abra again but seemed to do almost nothing.

"Not good for Sandy" Demetri said, "Power Trick leaves Granbull stuck with Abra's lame attack power and gives Abra Granbull's huge natural strength!"

"If Granbull had a special attack or two he could take advantage of Abra's natural skill with those moves but…"

"Focus Punch!"

Abra punched Granbull in the jaw and knocked the Pokemon out.

"Catching Abra in Granbull's jaws was effective, but also left you open for attack" Olivia said. "Good game."

"Um, right" Sandy responded, "Thank you."

Olivia nodded and walked away to where her other two teammates were.

"She didn't even fight seriously and her team won 3-0" Demetri said, "And what's worse is that the Blackthorn girl's team is out in the first round!"

"Well I guess it's up to my team then" he said. "Your club's boy's team is in Block C right?" he asked Jenny.

"If we both hold on to wins I'll end up fighting your teammates in the semifinals!"

"Oh, I'd better go watch the boy's battles" he said.

"My teammates said that they would pay attention for Block A vs. Block B, but since I'm done watching here I may as well head back."

"The next battle is going to be your friends isn't it?" Demetri asked.

"All three battles happen at once you know, which one are you going to watch?"

Demetri grinned and hurried back to where his teammates were.

Jenny went to find the rest of the Tactics club.

"Neither Mahogany nor Ecruteak did very well in the first battle" Ajay explained to Jenny when she found him.

"Though Mahogany won with a 2-1 score it wasn't an impressive fight from what I saw."

"The Ecruteak second captain was a decent battler but got stuck with a poor type matchup" he said, and Mahogany took a win. "They probably wouldn't have if not for the types."

Ollie ran over to where they were, "Hey, I've finished taking notes on the third captain's battle" he called to them.

"Neither side was strong; it was a really close fight though because they were both pretty much even. Ecruteak won eventually though."

Ollie looked over his notes again.

"From what I saw, I can probably beat either of those two third captains, though not by too much."

"Then Mahogany must have taken a win in the captain's battle as well" Jenny said, "Is their captain any good?"

"Hardly."

Michael rejoin the rest of the group, he looked bored.

"Mahogany used a throwaway strategy" he said, "They put the weakest of their three team members in the captain's spot."

"Ah, I know that strategy" Ajay said, "They usually lose in the captain's battle as a result, but because their true captain is then playing in a lower spot they become more likely to win the other battles."

"One mistake in the second and third captain's battles and it becomes an almost guaranteed loss for the team though" Ajay added.

"So how did Ecruteak's captain end up losing then?" Jenny asked.

Michael shrugged, "I wasn't really paying attention at that point in the battle" he said.

"From what I did manage to see though, Ecruteak's captain just messed up really badly."

"Mahogany's captain may have known that he was in the throwaway spot but he saw the opportunity for a win and went for it."

Michael glanced at Mahogany's team.

"It's a good thing he did too or they would've been embarrassed big time."

"Of course it was still an embarrassment for Ecruteak" Michael added.

"Attention everyone" the teacher called out. "The second set of battles are about to begin!"

6: The Weakest Team

The Girl's team battle this time would be Goldenrod Coordinators club against the New Bark Battle club.

This time however Jenny wouldn't be watching them.

It was time for the Tactics club to battle, and Jenny positioned herself between fields B and C so she could watch Ajay and Ollie's battle.

Despite Michael's bad attitude, Jenny was sure he had the skills to win and wouldn't need her in the audience.

She didn't really want to watch his battle anyways.

"New Bark apparently has a good team" she heard somebody in the audience comment to a friend; they were talking about the girl's battle.

"You wouldn't expect it from such a small town, but it's because of the Pokemon lab being there."

"They may be small, but the students they have train under Johto's Professor Elm himself!"

"Cherrygrove on the other hand is one of the worst teams in the world!"

The person's friend laughed, "Yeah I only came to watch this battle to see how pathetic it would be."

"I hear that this new Tactics Club has so few members that they could barely form a team. Their third captain is probably the weakest member of the club."

"This battle is pointless except for proving who the weakest club in Johto is" the first friend agreed.

"Whichever of these two teams wins will be out before they reach the finals."

Michael won Rock-Paper-Scissors, so Ajay had to send out his Pokemon before the Cherrygrove second captain.

"Go for it Chikorita" Ajay yelled, throwing his Pokeball.

In Ollie's battle, the Cherrygrove's third captain sent out a Sentret. Ollie responded by calling out Castform.

Ajay's opponent grinned, "Go Bayleef" he yelled.

Jenny remembered Michael commenting that at least one of the other two boys had to not mess up for the team to advance.

It wasn't really messing up, but against a Bayleef Ajay's Chikorita would have trouble.

"Come on Ollie" Jenny whispered, "This might be up to you."

"Sentret, use Scratch" Ollie's opponent shouted.

"Ember" Ollie countered.

Sentret had difficulty attacking through the fire and pulled back to change direction for its next attack.

"Weather Ball" Ollie shouted.

Castform's signature move, when used in an indoor arena with no weather conditions, looked like a cloudy white orb.

It exploded on contact with Sentret and covered field C in a thin haze.

"Now Thunder Wave!" Ollie shouted.

"Ollie's fighting well" Jenny thought, "He's stringing together good move combos and forcing his opponent to leave openings that he can exploit."

The fog cleared and Sentret could be seen balancing on its tail which was extended straight downwards and acting like a pole that the Pokemon could sit on.

"Sentret stayed above the electricity by doing that" one of the audience members commented.

"That's a pretty good move, but it looks like the Pokemon came up with it and not the trainer."

In Ajay's battle, Bayleef was easily knocking Chikorita's Razor Leaf attacks aside with Vine Whip and was slowly getting closer.

"Bayleef beats Chikorita when it comes to bulk alone" Ajay realized, "I have to stay back or I'll just be overpowered."

Bayleef leapt forwards, ignoring the Razor Leafs that hit it as it stopped defending, and Chikorita was barely able to dodge.

"But Cherrygrove is supposed to be the worst team" Ajay thought, "Could it be that all the teams are so good that even the worst one is above our level?"

The Cherrygrove second captain had a determined expression.

"No" Ajay realized, "They're fighting to make us the worst team instead of them!"

Bayleef slashed Chikorita with vines and Sentret slammed into Castform.

"We won't be the weakest team" Ajay growled.

"Chikorita, Reflect!"

Bayleef slammed headfirst into Chikorita's invisible shield.

"Castform, use your Sunny Day" Ollie ordered.

Castform lit up the indoor arena with sunlight and transformed into an orange sun shape.

"Synthesis" Ajay yelled.

Chikorita began to glow, and in the strong sunlight was able to completely recover its health!

"Nice teamwork" Jenny whispered, "Since there's no rule against weather moves, Ollie can help Ajay out!"

"Hey" Somebody ran up to the people in the audience beside Jenny.

"I just watched the captain's match" he said, "It's over already!"

"Seriously!?" One of his friends gasped, "That was so quick!"

"The captain of Violet's Tactics club dominated the battle" the boy said, "Even when it was obvious he would win he still went all out and totally destroyed his opponent!"

"So Michael won after all" Jenny thought, "It looks like he didn't stick around to watch Ajay and Ollie's battles though, he probably doesn't even care."

"Castform, use your Ember" Ollie ordered.

With Castform in the shape of a fire type and the sunlight boosting Ember, Castform's attack was enormous and powerful.

Sentret couldn't dodge and seemed to be taking heavy damage in the fire.

Chikorita charged recklessly and hit Bayleef with Tackles, forcing the larger Pokemon backwards and not giving it a chance to attack.

When both Pokemon were out of breath, Chikorita quickly jumped back and used Synthesis to regain energy; it then began to attack again.

"Looks like Cherrygrove might have to wait until another team comes along" one of the guys beside Jenny said.

"These Tactics club guys aren't half bad."

Sentret burrowed into the ground suddenly.

"Uh oh" one of the guys commented, "Against fire type Castform that attack will be even more powerful that usual."

Sentret hit with Dig and did powerful damage to the surprised Castform.

At the same moment, Bayleef fired a huge Solarbeam that knocked Chikorita backwards. The evolved Pokemon then dove forwards with a strong Tackle.

"No, Cherrygrove is coming from behind" Jenny whispered, "Come on guys, you can win!"

Castform fired large Embers at Sentret but the normal type responded with a Flamethrower that was even stronger than normal in the sunlight.

"Heh heh, Cherrygrove's team is fighting better than I've ever seen" one of the guys beside Jenny commented, "Could it be that they've gotten better members?"

"No, those three on the team today were here last year too" somebody responded. "Maybe they just trained a lot or something."

Bayleef chased Chikorita in a wide circle around the arena, it took all of the smaller Pokemon's effort to stay ahead and avoid taking anything more than the edges of attacks.

Chikorita ducked suddenly and Bayleef crashed headfirst into an invisible Reflect-wall that had been made earlier in the battle and forgotten.

"Synthesis" Ajay yelled.

"Flamethrower" shouted Cherrygrove's third captain.

"Move back" Ollie ordered.

Castform backed quickly away from Sentret's flames as Chikorita healed in the sunlight, but the attack kept moving towards it.

"Now Rain Dance" Ollie shouted as Chikorita finished healing.

The power of Flamethrower was cut suddenly as rain began to fall inside the building, Castform also morphed into its raindrop form with the weather.

As a water type in rain, Castform was able to take the hit from Sentret's weak fire attack without much effort.

"Now Weather Ball" Ollie shouted.

"Reflect" Ajay ordered.

Chikorita created a second shield between itself and Bayleef, trapping the larger Pokemon between two invisible walls.

At the same moment Castform fired a powerful sphere of water at Sentret and knocked it out!

"That's our second win" Jenny said in excitement, "We're moving on to the next round!"

Chikorita flung Razor Leaf attacks at Bayleef who could do nothing while trapped between the two Reflect-walls.

Eventually the larger Pokemon fell to the flurry of leaves and lost the battle.

"Violet city Tactics club boy's team wins 3-0" the teacher announced.

"Hey great win guys" Jenny said as Ollie and Ajay met up with her between the two fields.

"Using the weather like that was great teamwork!"

Ollie laughed happily, "I guess it was what would be expected of the Tactics club though right chief?" he asked.

Ollie looked at Ajay, "We used great tactics to win the fight!"

Ajay nodded and looked around, "Where's Michael?" he asked.

Jenny shook her head, "He wandered off after a quick win, I don't know where he went."

"Attention everyone" the teacher called out. "The third set of battles will now begin!"

7: Power-hungry tactics

The third set of battles passed with a win for New Bark Battle club's boy's team and Violet Battle club's girl's team.

Despite New Bark's decent reputation, the audience for that match had been almost nonexistent.

Everyone had chosen to watch Violet Battle club's girl's team instead, and they weren't disappointed.

The win was 3-0 with almost no struggle; Goldenrod's Trainers club was destroyed without hesitation.

Jenny had been amazed to see that the Battle club team fought with ferocity that was on par with Michael.

It made sense though since Michael had been second captain of their boy's team at one point.

Ajay and Ollie had continued to watch their competition in the boy's team ladder so only Jenny had watched Violet Battle club's girl's team.

She thought she had seen Michael in the audience across the field at one point though.

The fourth set of battles would be Cianwood Battle club against Blackthorn Trainers club in the boy's team ladder and Ecruteak Battle club against Azalea Battle club for the girl's team ladder.

Although this would be the final match for the first round of the girl's team Jenny decided to watch the boy's team battle instead.

She was interested to see how Demetri, the third captain of Blackthorn Trainers club's boy's team would battle.

She had talked to Demetri during Olivia's first round battle but hadn't learned anything about his Pokemon at the time.

Since it was the third captain's battle, Ollie watched the match alongside Jenny.

The first thing they noticed was that Demetri had two Pokeballs, so when his captain won Rock-Paper-Scissors and his opponent from Cianwood had to send out a Pokemon first, Demetri had the advantage.

"Go Phanpy" Demetri shouted in response to his opponent sending out a Pichu.

"Ah, they've both got small Pokemon" Ollie commented.

Demetri's battle was the last one to end, and although he had a type advantage and fought defensively he ended up losing.

Blackthorn's captain and second captain won their battles though so Demetri advanced along with his team.

"It seemed like he was being too careful" Ollie said after the battle, "Even though this is a tournament and you don't want to lose, he also didn't try enough to win."

Jenny nodded, "Right, but if you battle him don't immediately think that you'll win or that he'll do that same thing. That could end up leading to a loss for you after all.

"Right second chief" Ollie said, "I'll remember that whether we make it to that round or not!"

"Since the girl's team first round is done, both fields will now be used by the boy's teams" The teacher announced.

"In fields A, B, and C the Goldenrod Coordinators club will battle the Violet Battle club, and in fields D, E, and F the Goldenrod Battle club with battle the Ecruteak Pokemon club."

"Two Goldenrod teams are battling at the same time" somebody commented as they walked by, "That's a bit interesting. They can't even cheer each other on."

"I'm not sure if they would even if they could" another person responded. "Clubs from the same school often have big rivalries."

"Oh yeah" the first person responded, "I saw the captain of Violet's Tactics club heading over to where Violet's battle club was hanging out and he didn't look too friendly."

"Too bad that the Battle club is the only one people are interested in" the first person responded.

Ollie looked at Jenny, "They just said Michael went over to the Battle club's place" he said.

"Since there's a bit of a break to get organized you don't think he's going to do anything bad do you?"

Jenny remembered Michael's comment the week before about trashing the Battle club's equipment before they kicked him out.

"Maybe we should check" she said, "They would be around field A or B."

Jenny and Ollie saw Michael arguing with the captains of the Battle club's boy's and girl's team near field A, they began to go over but somebody stopped them.

The person was an adult.

"You two are from the same club as that guy aren't you?" the adult asked, "Don't try to interrupt what's happening right now."

"They look like they're about to fight though" Ollie said.

The adult shook his head.

"Your captain is pretty riled up right now but he won't fight if you leave him alone. Trying to talk him out of a fight on the other hand might just encourage him to start one."

Michael stormed away from the Battle club in a different direction.

"So you two are from the Tactics club" the adult said, "It's interesting to finally see a good rivalry for the Battle club."

"Who are you?" Ollie asked.

"My name's Martin" the adult responded, "I was a part of this school's Battle club in my younger days.

Martin had short blond hair and wore a purple sweater, he looked to be in his early twenties and not out of his 'younger days' yet but neither Jenny nor Ollie said anything.

"I got a bit nostalgic so I came to watch the year's first tournament" Martin said. "I was a bit unimpressed by the Battle club girl's team unfortunately.

Jenny remembered the girl's team battle that had finished earlier; she had been very impressed with it.

"They just use the same violet power-tactics that they always do" Martin said.

"I managed to get past that style after going pro, but I'm afraid that a lot of kids in that club will grow to think that power is the only answer."

Martin's words sunk in after a second.

"You're a pro!?" Ollie asked in shock.

"Martin JTO 96 of Violet City" Martin responded, "I made it last year and am currently ranked 96 in the region."

"Wow, I didn't think a pro would come to see something like school tournaments" Ollie said, "Aren't most of us kids beneath your level?"

Martin shrugged, "Always watch the ones behind you" he said, "That's where the really tough people are."

Jenny thought of the Cherrygrove boy's team and how they had battled with all their might despite being thought of as the worst team.

"People at the top" Martin said, "They're good now but sooner or later they fall and there's somebody new taking on the throne, desperately trying to defend that spot."

"The ones who are attacking from below are the nasty tough trainers" Martin said, "Your team for example."

Jenny looked to Violet's Battle club who had begun their battle, "You mean them?" she asked.

Martin shook his head. "No I mean your club's team." He nodded at Ollie, "If any of you three guys were to go pro in the future I would be a bit nervous."

"Really!?" Ollie asked in shock.

Martin nodded, "Yup" he said, "Kids don't realize at their young age, but there's tons of potential in them. With hard work and good teaching they can soar really high."

"Oh, but look at that" Martin said. "The crowd doesn't support Goldenrod."

The opponents of the Violet battle club boy's team were the Goldenrod Coordinators club boy's team, and the audience didn't seem to approve of coordinators in the tournament.

"Coordinators are tough as nails and nasty creative" Martin said, "Plenty of pros train as coordinators for a bit just to help improve their own style."

Violet's Battle club won in the second captain's battle at that moment, and then the third captain's battle. The captain's battle was won soon afterwards.

"Well that's too bad" Martin said, "I was actually hoping for Goldenrod to move to the second round."

"Violet wins 3-0"

Michael was standing beside them, Jenny hadn't seen him arrive and nearly jumped in surprise, Ollie did jump.

"It stings that those guys won but I'll be looking forwards to the sweet satisfaction of beating them up myself" Michael said.

"Oh?" Martin said, "From what I saw of your battle earlier you use a similar style."

Michael grunted in annoyance and opened his mouth to speak.

"Michael this guy is a pro" Jenny whispered, "Don't try to fight him!"

"I know who he is" Michael muttered, surprising Jenny.

"Martin JTO 96, don't compare me to the Violet City Battle club" Michael said.

"Their captain is a power-hungry fool, and the members are just as bad."

Martin sighed, "You're different and yet the same" he said, "It's interesting, but also a bit depressing to think about how you might turn out."

"I said stop comparing me to them you dumb pro" Michael yelled.

The yelled words got the audience's attention and Martin was quickly surrounded, being a pro made everyone focus on him.

"Serves him right" Michael said.

"Jenny, we're battling outside" Michael added, turning towards the exit, "I want to get in some practice before the second round."

"Aw, but the foreign team from Saffron is battling next" Ollie protested, "I want to watch their battle."

"Is your name Jenny you little shrimp?" Michael yelled, "I didn't say you had to go!"

Jenny followed Michael through the school to the stairway and up to the roof where the Tactics club had battled the Baseball team members the week before.

She had wanted to stay and watch the other battles too but decided that it would be fun to have a battle herself rather than do nothing but watch others fight.

"Here's the deal" Michael said, "You get a handicap since I'm the better trainer."

Michael called out Paras and Jenny called out Sneasel.

"I'll be playing blind" Michael said, turning to face the opposite direction. "I won't see the battle at all while it's happening!"

umm, you have way too many parenthasis. you start one sentance, stop it without sayig anythng in between and then continue i.e. "no! dont do it!" "you'll get killed!" where it should be more like: "no! dont do it!" he shouted. "you'll get killed!" or "no! Dont do it! you'll get killed!" you also skip a line btween every sentnce, it should ony be between paragraphs.

other wise it got a neat story line.

(Yeah... Sorry about that. The format of spacing causes the story to sound like that I know. I chose to go with that spacing though because I really didn't want to end up with giant walls of solid text, and considering the length of the chapters, it would have happened if I didn't organize things like this. In the end I just decided that writing it like this, with the nice spaces, was easier on the eyes of the reader.)


(Also, parenthesis are brackets, like the things this bit of text is contained within. I'm not quite sure what you were referring to when you said parenthesis, so I can't really say anything about it, sorry.)



8: Blind battle

"Paras, X-Scissor" Michael said without looking at the Pokemon.

Paras attacked but Sneasel dodged.

Jenny realized that since Michael's Pokemon could still see the battle he wasn't at too much of a disadvantage.

Paras could still aim and attack and Michael could hear Jenny so he would know what attacks she would be using.

"I'll have to make this even tougher for you" Jenny called to him.

"Sneasel, this means Scratch" Jenny said, holding up one finger, "This is Leer" she held up two fingers.

Jenny quickly assigned each of Sneasel's attacks to a finger combination.

"Now when I give an order I'll just call out your name Sneasel" Jenny said, "Michael won't know what attack is coming."

"Sneasel" Jenny shouted, holding up four fingers, the signal for Quick Attack.

Sneasel quickly struck Paras but the bug deflected the attack with one claw.

"Poisonpowder" Michael ordered.

"Sneasel" Jenny said quickly, holding up eight fingers meaning Agility.

Sneasel took a moment too long to look back and make the connection between eight fingers and Agility, and Paras' attack mad contact!

"Shoot" Jenny thought, "Now he doesn't even need to see, he just has to stall until Sneasel faints."

Jenny suddenly realized that Michael had no way of knowing whether Poisonpowder had hit or not.

"He'll keep attacking" Jenny thought to herself, "He'll leave an opening at some point and I'll attack."

"Sneasel!" Jenny held up six fingers for Faint Attack.

"No matter how good Michael is, he can't fight perfectly in a blind battle" Jenny thought.

"Paras Counter" Michael said.

Paras was hit by Faint Attack, but struck back immediately with twice the power, knocking Sneasel onto its back.

"X-Scissor"

The bug jumped at Sneasel and slashed it as it stood up, nearly knocking Jenny's Pokemon out.

Sneasel rolled to get away from Paras and jumped to its feet.

Jenny quickly signalled for it to use Screech.

"I heard that" Michael said when the attack ended.

"You're afraid of Counter because Sneasel has nothing but physical moves. Because of that you're trying to drop Paras' defences and win with one hit."

"That hit will be Faint Attack because it never misses right?" Michael said.

Sneasel shuddered and fell in pain from poison.

"I win" Michael said before turning around.

"Well it was a better battle than those guys Ajay or Ollie could have given, so I guess I'm happy" Michael said.

"Since I'm warmed up now, it's time to get started."

They returned to the fields to find that Olivine and Saffron had each won their battles and the fields had been cleaned at the end of the first round.

The second round was now about to begin, the Tactics club would be in the first boy's team battle and Olivine's battle club would be in the first girl's team battle.

Jenny wanted to watch the girl's team battles again but knew she had to cheer for her own club.

She was about to go to the spot between Ajay and Ollie's fields when Jenny saw Michael tie a black scarf over his eyes.

"He's planning to fight blind" she realized, "That's why he practiced it against me!"

Jenny picked a spot between Michael and Ajay's fields instead and watched as he played the opening Rock-Paper-Scissors blindly.

Michael was silent when he won and the opponent's captain had to tell him after a moment that Michael's paper had beaten rock.

"Mahogany's captain was a throwaway" Jenny realized, remembering Michael's comments about it from the last battle.

"Michael doesn't want a boring battle" Jenny said, "So he's putting himself at a disadvantage."

However based on the way Michael had beaten her even while blind, Jenny doubted that the Mahogany throwaway captain would be a challenge at all.

The other captain would probably not think to use hand signals for his moves like she had after all.

At that moment Michael took two earplugs from his pockets and inserted them into his ears.

"He's fighting blind and deaf" somebody in the audience gasped.

Most of the people had gone to watch Olivine in the girl's battle, but those who had stayed were all clustered around Michael's field.

"Playing like that is a big insult to Mahogany" somebody said, "but it's also pretty impressive."

"It will be if he wins" somebody said, correcting the first person.

"If he loses it just means he's dumb."

"Go Growlithe" the Mahogany captain shouted.

Jenny knew that Michael was lucky; because he had just finished battling her and had not yet healed his Pokemon he would not unknowingly send out Paras with its huge disadvantage to fire attacks.

"Go Poliwag" Michael said, throwing his Pokeball forwards and calling out a round blue Pokemon with a pink nose and a black and white spiral pattern on its belly.

Michael caught his Pokeball when it flew back to him despite being unable to see it.

"Ember" Growlithe's trainer yelled.

"Belly Drum" Michael shouted.

Poliwag hit itself with its tail, a move that would boost its own power to great heights in exchange for causing self-inflicted damage.

Luckily Growlithe's Ember wasn't very strong against Poliwag.

"Now use your Waterfall!"

Michael still had no clue which Pokemon he was fighting, and yet had picked the perfect move, Growlithe dodged left but was still hit by the side of the attack.

Waterfall had gained such massive power from Belly Drum that even just the edge of the attack nearly defeated Growlithe!

"Ice Beam!"

Everyone in the audience realized at that point that Michael was just using all of his attacks.

He still didn't know how well Waterfall had worked so he didn't have any reason to use it again.

Growlithe did a good job of resisting Ice Beam and was able to get to its feet and jump at Poliwag with a Bite attack.

"Use Wake-up Slap" Michael ordered, "Hit it out of the park!"

Poliwag spun and Growlithe made contact with its tadpole-tail. The puppy Pokemon was defeated by the attack.

The person nearest to Michael tapped him on the shoulder to let him know that the battle was over.

Michael nodded and immediately moved to a spot between Ajay and Ollie's battles.

Ajay was facing Mahogany's second captain who was using a Zubat. In the first round Mahogany had apparently won the second captain's battle due to good type matchups.

Against Chikorita it was once again a good matchup, and the Mahogany second captain was constantly using Leech Life to keep Zubat in perfect condition while damaging Chikorita.

Ajay had to make frequent use of Synthesis to keep from losing and it looked as though the battle might go on forever.

Eventually though Zubat's Leech Life seemed to stop taking effect.

"If you use an attack too much your Pokemon will just run out of energy for that attack" Ajay said, "I was waiting for that to happen."

"Use Tackle Chikorita!"

Zubat fought back against Tackle with a weak move called Astonish, but eventually lost.

The third captain's battle ended in a tie due to Ollie's opponent ordering his Pineco to Selfdestruct when the battle turned in Ollie's favour.

Due to the tie, the Tactics club walked away with a 2-0 win and moved on to the semifinals.

The Olivine girl's team beat their opponents from Goldenrod with a 3-0 victory and moved to the finals. Olivia had apparently fought seriously in the second round.

"The opponents are going to get tougher as we reach later rounds" Ollie said.

Jenny nodded, "You guys face Blackthorn next" she said, wondering how well the Tactics club would do against Demetri's team.

Ajay glanced at Jenny, "You mean Blackthorn or New Bark" he said, "We don't know which of them will be in the next round."

BOY'S TEAM MATCHUPS SECOND ROUND:

BLOCK A – Mahogany Battle club
BLOCK C – Violet Tactics club

BLOCK E – New Bark Battle club
BLOCK H – Blackthorn Trainers club

BLOCK J – Violet Battle club
BLOCK K – Goldenrod Battle club

BLOCK M – Olivine Battle club
BLOCK O – Saffron Battle club

GIRL'S TEAM MATCHUPS SEMIFINALS:

BLOCK A – Olivine Battle club
BLOCK C – Goldenrod Coordinators club

BLOCK E – Violet Battle club
BLOCK H – Azalea Battle club

(Wow, that's pretty good for just skimming, very nice. Things like grammar mistakes are sometimes just typos, whereas other times I do get it wrong while thinking that I'm correct. I go back and read the story over and over pretty frequently and correct mistakes that I may have missed previous times, but since it's a pretty long story I'm sure there are still plenty of little annoyances like that in there. I'll keep looking for them and correcting them as I find them as always. As for the specific issue of punctuation before quotation marks, that was to get around my word processor's overly-sensitive auto correcting. It doesn't particularly work with the specific quote you provided, Ollie's name is capitalized so it wouldn't get picked up, but generally when I try to include the punctuation before the quotation marks, the sentence structure of everything I type gets mangled up by the auto-correct. I have no idea of how to change the settings of that, although just knowing how to turn off auto correct would be nice, but since I don't know I developed that system to get around it. It basically just saves me one giant headache of having to type every line with quotation marks multiple times, but I'm sorry that it's incorrect with grammar. As for thoughts... I didn't particularly like the way I did it either. I considered italics, but because different forums use different coding for stuff like that it was a hassle to post it at multiple places. I actually didn't think of single quotes though, and its a great idea! I'll see what I can do about fixing up thoughts using single quotes like that as soon as I can, although not right now, it's late and I'm kind of tired... Oh, but I'm always thrilled to see people checking out my story of course, so thanks!)



9: Fighting over weather

Jenny was right that Blackthorn would move to the next round. Demetri's team lost the captain's battle but still won 2-1 to move on.

The Violet Battle club's girl's team also won 3-0 and moved to the girl's team finals.

Since the semifinals of the girl's team battle were complete, the final two boy's team battles would be held at the same time.

Michal, Ajay, and Ollie all chose to watch Violet's Battle club while Jenny chose to watch Olivine's boy's team take on the foreign Saffron boy's team from Kanto.

Jenny ran into both Demetri and Martin watching the Olivine vs. Saffron Captain's battle.

"This will be interesting" Martin said, "I'm sure both teams are nervous facing a team foreign to them."

"It's lucky that our regions are close together and share a language" Demetri said, "The pressure of having to face on opponent while not knowing what they're saying would be…"

"It's tough all right" Martin agreed, "I've dealt with it before and it can completely throw you off your game."

Olivine's captain sent out a Miltank while Saffron's chose a Snorlax.

"It looks like this will be a battle all about bulk" Demetri said as the two big Pokemon appeared, "I say Snorlax comes out on top."

"Maybe" Jenny said, "But Miltank is a type of Pokemon that can know some tricky moves."

Jenny knew that was a fact because her grandfather owned a Miltank which had won several awards for battling.

Martin nodded, "We'll see when we watch the battle" he said. "It's usually possible to determine a Pokemon's strength after it uses five moves and has five used against it."

"Miltank, use Rock Smash" Olivine's captain ordered.

"Focus Blast Snorlax" Saffron's captain countered.

Miltank punched through Snorlax's attack, a sphere of concentrated power.

"They aren't waiting" Martin said, "Both of them have jumped directly to the effective fighting type moves."

Miltank continued its attack with Focus Punch but Snorlax countered with the same move, the two hit each other at the same time.

The cow Pokemon then hit Snorlax with its Brick Break while Snorlax struck back with Rock Smash.

Both Pokemon then tried using their Rock Smash attacks at the same time, and immediately afterwards Miltank threw Snorlax with Seismic toss.

Snorlax attacked with a Focus Blast while in the air and hit the unsuspecting Miltank, but took damage on the landing.

"Miltank will win" Martin said suddenly.

"I can tell their power and the strength of the trainers and Pokemon well enough now" he said, "The battle will seem close for awhile but in the end it will be a total victory for Olivine's captain."

Miltank punched Snorlax and its opponent punched back.

"I'm disappointed by Olivine's boy's team" Martin said, "Their girl's team was much stronger."

"The second captain of Olivine's girl's team was even able to play an excellent teaching game earlier" Martin said.

"She battled at a level clearly capable of becoming pro, although perhaps it was an inappropriate time for such a battle."

Miltank used its Milk Drink move late in the battle to suddenly restore its own energy and gained an easy win against the exhausted Snorlax.

After the win however, everyone watching the captain's battle learned that the second and third captain's battles had both been won by Saffron who advanced with a 2-1 win.

"Next up will be the boy's semifinal matches" the teacher said, Violet Tactics club against Blackthorn Trainers club, and Violet Battle club against Saffron Battle club."

"Hey, good luck to your team Jenny" Demetri said, "But don't think I'm going to lose to your third captain."

Michael, Ajay, and Ollie faced the three captains of Blackthorn City's Trainers club boy's team, each on their separate fields.

Michael wasn't blindfolded this time, but he chewed on a toothpick.

"Did a teacher yell at him for having that cigarette in his mouth during the tournament?" Jenny wondered.

Michael looked annoyed as he waited for the teacher's signal.

"Begin"

Michael lost Rock-Paper-Scissors so he and Ollie had to send out their Pokemon first.

Michael chose his Poliwag while Ollie had to go with his only Pokemon, Castform.

Ajay's opponent sent out a Delibird and Ajay was forced to respond with Chikorita.

Demetri then sent out his Phanpy while Blackthorn's captain chose a Gloom to battle Michael's Poliwag.

Gloom was the first to attack, using its Giga Drain which Michael immediately used Ice Beam to counter.

Phanpy prepared a Defense Curl while Castform made it rainy and transformed into its raindrop shape.

"After Defense Curl Phanpy will probably go into Rollout for the extra power boost" Jenny whispered.

"Demetri is jumping right into battle just like the Olivine and Saffron captains did."

"You sure?"

Martin was standing beside her.

"I think Demetri learned something from that battle and won't try something so obvious" he said.

"Rollout" Demetri ordered.

"I was right" Jenny said as Phanpy spun at high speed and crashed into Castform, "Now he'll just keep using Rollout."

"Tackle it Phanpy!"

"Tackle it Castform!"

Phanpy and Castform slammed headfirst into each other.

"Why would he do that?" Jenny wondered aloud.

Demetri ordered Phanpy to use Growl next.

"Why would he do that?" Martin responded. He smirked knowingly, "Clearly it's because Demetri has a different strategy in mind."

In Ajay's battle Delibird made it hail suddenly and Ollie's Castform changed into a wispy ice type form.

"That makes you weak to Rollout" Ollie shouted, "Rain Dance to change it back!"

"Odour Sleuth" Demetri called out.

"He's using useless moves" Jenny said as the hail changed back to rain, "I don't see the point."

"Don't you?" Martin asked.

Phanpy slammed into Castform using Take Down as Delibird changed the weather back to hail in Ajay's battle.

Castform then changed the weather once again back to rain.

"They're fighting over the weather and not getting anything from it" Jenny said.

Delibird changed the weather back to hail and then, almost as if to prove Jenny wrong, hit Chikorita with a Blizzard attack that instantly defeated Ajay's Pokemon!

Castform then made it rain again, and Ollie immediately used a Weather Ball attack to hit Phanpy with powerful water.

Phanpy used its Endure move to stop the attack though.

"One more hit and Ollie should be able to win it!" Jenny said excitedly.

"Flail" Demetri ordered.

At its extremely low health, Phanpy was able to use an amazingly powerful attack, but still couldn't quite finish Castform off.

"One more attack Ollie" Jenny whispered.

Martin shook his head, "No Demetri has won it" he said, "The purpose of those useless moves earlier is…"

"Last Resort Phanpy!" Demetri yelled.

Phanpy charged with reckless power and defeated Castform before Ollie could respond.

Blackthorn City's Trainers club won 2-1 and would advance to the finals to face the Violet City Battle club, who won 3-0 against Saffron.

"You idiots both lost" Michael grumbled afterwards, "Whatever, I don't care about your club anyways so I'm going home."

"Keep in mind that I was the one who never lost once though" he muttered.

"That leaves us without a team again" Jenny commented as Michael left.

"But the school's Battle club made it into the finals for both the boy's and girl's ladders" Ollie pointed out.

"Well it's not like we're rooting for them" Jenny said.

"Jenny you should at least show school spirit" Ajay mumbled.

"No way" Jenny retorted, "I'd rather cheer for Blackthorn and Olivine's teams."

"In fact that's what I'll do" she said, "The girl's finals start first so I'm going to see how well Olivia does."

"Eh, that girl from earlier?" Ajay asked, "I haven't been paying attention to the girl's battles. Did she make it to the final match?"

"The girl's team ladder has come to its final match" the teacher announced.

"The Violet City Battle club girl's team will now face the Olivine City Battle club girl's team!"

"Olivine is the defending champion" Ajay reminded them, "So I think it's likely that they'll win."

"I'm not so sure" Jenny said, remembering something Martin had said earlier.

"People at the top are desperately trying to defend that spot, and sooner or later they fall" she said. "It's the ones who attack from beneath that are scary."

"We'll see" Ajay said, "They're about to start."

10: Olivia's Desperate Fight

The Rock-Paper-Scissors game to decide the opening moves tied three times before Olivine eventually won.

"That was pretty stressful" Ollie said afterwards, "I'm tense after just the opening setup."

"I understand that" Jenny said, "Just wondering when it would be decided was nerve-wracking."

Because her captain won, Olivia had to send out her Pokemon first. She used the Abra that Jenny had seen in the first round.

Olivia's opponent from the Violet Battle club sent out a Misdreavus.

"Prepare for a nasty battle" Ajay said quietly, "Our school's Battle club is always brutal."

Ollie looked at him.

"But won't this be a bit better?" Ollie asked, "I would think that the girls would be a bit nicer than the boy's team right?"

Martin laughed from behind them.

"You haven't seen a girl get really serious have you kid?" he asked, messing up Ollie's hair with his hand.

"They can get a hundred times scarier than any guy ever could if they try to."

Ollie looked back at the battlefield.

"So this is going to be…"

"Brutal" Martin finished, "Just like your friend said."

The teacher signalled to start battling as Martin finished his sentence.

"Perish Song" Olivia's opponent immediately yelled.

Misdreavus shrieked horribly and the Olivine Pokemon, even those in the other two battles, cried out in anguish.

"Why aren't the other Violet team Pokemon being affected?" Jenny asked, needing to shout just to have her voice heard by the people beside her.

"Take a look" Martin" shouted back, "The Violet captain has an Exploud and the third captain has Mr. Mime, both of those Pokemon are immune to sound based attacks!"

"That's cheating isn't it?" Ollie yelled.

"It's the same as the weather based moves" Ajay shouted, "There's no way to get around it so it isn't banned!"

"Now all three of Olivine's Pokemon are guaranteed to faint quickly" Martin yelled, "But that's just backup I think."

"The Violet Battle club still plans to attack without mercy!"

Exploud, Misdreavus and Mr. Mime all started to attack from a distance.

Misdreavus was trying to hit Abra with Shadow Ball attacks but was missing as the psychic type teleported constantly away to seemingly random spots.

"She isn't predictable at all" Martin commented, "Even in a pro match her opponent probably wouldn't be able to determine where Abra was going to appear ahead of time."

Abra appeared behind Misdreavus and punched it with an ice coated fist.

The psychic type then attempted to attack with Iron Tail but was hit with an unexpected Astonish from Misdreavus.

"Energy Ball" Olivia ordered.

"Shadow ball" the opponent countered.

The two Pokemon fired green and purple spheres at each other, most of the attacks hit each other and exploded before reaching their target, but some still made it through.

"I guess this isn't the time" Ollie said, "But that purple and green glow from the explosions looks pretty nice."

"You're right that it isn't the time" Jenny muttered.

"Sorry" Ollie said guiltily, "I'll keep watching the battle."

Abra and Misdreavus switched to electric attacks, Shock Wave from Olivia's Pokemon and Thunderbolt from the ghost.

In the captain's battle, Exploud was overpowering a large Kingler who, even with giant pincers, was struggling to keep going.

The third captain's battle seemed to be even at the moment with Olivine's Yanma fast enough to avoid the bulk of attacks from Violet's Mr. Mime.

Ajay reminded the group that Perish Song's effect would kick in sooner or later however.

"At this point it's like a desperate one-sided speed battle for the entire Olivine team" he said.

Mr. Mime's strategy of drawing out the battle with defensive moves seemed as though it would defeat the Yanma, which seemed to be only capable of using fast but weak attacks.

"From what I can see so far" Martin said, "Violet is very likely to win the captain's and third captain's battles at the moment."

Abra was hit by a Shadow Ball at that moment.

A Confuse Ray then shone over it.

"Olivia has more of a chance that her teammates" Martin said, "But not much more of a chance based on how things are right now."

Abra assaulted Misdreavus with various elemental punches.

Fire, ice, and thunder. Abra couldn't make use of Focus Punch due to Misdreavus' type, but the other punches were doing well.

"Misdreavus, use Pain Split" the Violet Battle club's second captain ordered.

Life energy was pulled from both Pokemon and mixed together, it then returned to the Pokemon, each one gaining half of the total taken.

"What does Pain Split do?" Ollie asked.

"It's a tricky move" Martin responded, "Pain Split leaves each Pokemon affected with half of the total health that the two Pokemon combined possessed."

"That means that the Pokemon that had taken more damage, in this case Misdreavus, will heal, while the other Pokemon loses health."

Exploud grabbed Kingler in the captain's battle and charged a Solarbeam while refusing to release Kingler from its grip.

Exploud released Solarbeam from right above Kingler and knocked the Pokemon out.

Violet's Battle club earned its first win with Kingler's defeat.

"Exploud has a good natural selection of moves" Martin pointed out.

"Its ability to attack with almost any type gives it a nice advantage in battle."

"Abra, Teleport" Olivia yelled as Misdreavus charged forwards.

Abra kicked itself in the face instead of obeying Olivia's command.

Misdreavus came to a stop as it reached Abra and fired a Thunder Wave at close range.

"They're both confused and can't understand the trainers" Ollie said.

"It gets worse for both of them right here" Jenny said, "Abra's paralyzed now so…"

Misdreavus suddenly seemed to slow down and become tense.

"The ability Synchronize paralyzes them both" Ajay finished.

"At this rate the battle is likely to end in a tie with both sides collapsing from the Perish Song" Martin muttered.

They all glanced to where the third captains were battling, neither one seemed to have done much, making even more likely that Perish Song would end things there.

"Abra" Olivia yelled as Abra suddenly teleported.

"If it goes into one of the other fields that's a forfeit for the entire Olivine team" Ajay said, "Let's see if Olivia is lucky or not."

Abra appeared directly above Misdreavus and punched it to the ground with a fiery fist.

"Shock Wave" Olivia shouted.

Abra seemed to recover from its confused state and fired electricity down at Misdreavus.

"Pain Split" Violet's second captain yelled urgently.

Misdreavus floated upwards and then suddenly stopped moving.

"Paralysis" Martin said.

Misdreavus suddenly collapsed and fainted from Abra's shock wave.

Only moments later, both Abra and the Olivine third captain's Yanma flinched at what seemed to be nothing and fainted suddenly.

"Perish Song kicks in at last" Martin said, "It's still a win for Olivia, but Violet takes it overall."

"The champions of the autumn tournament girl's ladder are Violet City's Battle club girl's team" the teacher announced.

"Congratulations to them and to their opponents from Olivine who put up a good fight."

Everyone could tell that the teacher was a bit happy that it was his own team that had won.

Jenny was the first one to find Olivia after the battle.

"Hey, good job in the battle" Jenny said, "You did really well against a tough opponent."

Olivia nodded solemnly, "Maybe I did" she said, "Although we did still lose."

"It was partially my responsibility to help my teammates train so I am not exempt from blame for the loss."

"Try thinking about it differently" Jenny suggested.

"So far today, both of the Violet Battle club's teams have taken nothing but 3-0 victories. Your team was the first one to give them a loss."

Olivia nodded, "That's a good way to think of things" she said.

"Since my battle is done I suppose we had better watch the boy's championship battle."

Jenny nodded and they began to head back towards the battlefields.

"Promise me one thing though" Olivia said.

"What?" Jenny asked.

"Get a girl's team for the Tactics club by the time the next tournament comes, and battle me then."

Jenny nodded.

"I'll look forward to it" Olivia said.

"Same for me" Jenny responded.

"The boy's team championship battle between Violet Battle club's boy's team and Blackthorn Trainers club's boy's team is about to begin" the teacher called out.

11: Family battle

Violet City's Battle club's boy's team.

Blackthorn City's Trainers club's boy's team.

The battle was completely one-sided, and Violet won 3-0 with no trouble at all.

Demetri had been destroyed in the battle and had left with his team after Violet City's Battle club boy's and girl's team received their awards.

Olivia left too, heading back to Olivine, and Martin said he had a pro battle later in the week and had to leave as well.

"Now we're back down to three members" Ajay said as they met at the Tactics club the next day without Michael.

"We should all keep doing our best to get people to come to the club."

"I'm not really popular enough to get support from people" Ollie said.

"Most of my class is already in the Battle club" Jenny added, "And those who aren't don't seem interested in joining any Pokemon club."

Ajay nodded, "I have similar problems" he agreed, "Still, let's keep pushing forwards."

"So we'll be ready for the next tournament" Ollie said with a nod.

"Be prepared for the girl's team to charge ahead of you guys when that time comes" Jenny said.

"Keep dreaming" Ajay laughed, "You still need two more members and both of them have to have time to prepare."

Jenny nodded absently.

"It's still quite awhile before the next tournament" she said, "Our lack of team members isn't the only thing I was concerned about either."

"There's no real point of deciding opening order in battle" Jenny said simply, "We all have only one Pokemon each."

"Even winning the initial play can leave you with a disadvantage anyways since you have to send out a Pokemon weak to your opponent's one."

"I'm going to catch a second Pokemon" Jenny said.

Ollie nodded, "Tomorrow is Friday" he said, "On the weekend after that we'd each be free to search for Pokemon around the city."

"With the number of places around Violet available there's bound to be lots of option too" Ajay added.

"Alright, this is an individual activity" Ajay announced, "Capture tactics!"

Ajay held up the club's two video cameras and placed them in Jenny and Ollie's hands.

"I'll buy a third camera on Saturday that I can use" Ajay said, "We should each film the battle in which we capture a Pokemon."

"And we can review on Monday" Jenny finished.

She glanced at the videos they currently had, there were a few taped challenges against Champions and Gym Leaders that Ajay had recorded from TV.

There were also the battles that the Tactics club had fought; Jenny's first battle against Ollie had been the first of them, the team's battles from the tournament had come next.

Other than that the collection was lacking.

Jenny had five choices of places to catch Pokemon around Violet city.

She could head east to find the easiest to handle Pokemon. The ones in that area between Violet and Cherrygrove were small-fry though and Jenny decided against that area.

The second choice was Sprout Tower, which was actually in Violet City.

However the tower's main Pokemon was Rattata and catching one wouldn't help Jenny's team very much.

The third and fourth options were south of the city, Union Cave, like most caves, had some strong Pokemon.

The route beside it had great diversity of species.

Last was the option of heading northwest and in the direction of Goldenrod City.

"Since Grandpa lives in Goldenrod, I'll go there over the weekend" Jenny decided.

She realized at that moment that she hadn't been paying attention to the teacher's lecture, she had been daydreaming about the weekend in class!

Jenny rushed to fill in her notes on the subject with information from the textbook and neighbours' notes.

After school Jenny informed her guardian; her older brother Clancy, that she would be going to Saffron over the weekend.

Clancy agreed on the condition that he could make sure that both Sneasel and Jenny were prepared for any trouble.

Of course that meant a battle.

Clancy and Jenny held the battle in the backyard; Clancy had to tie up his hair before going on to the lawn behind the house.

Despite being the brother, Clancy's brown hair beat his sister's in length by far. While Jenny's hair was slightly past waist length, Clancy's reached the floor.

"Remember, it'll take skill to impress me in this battle" Clancy said, "I'm going to have to be even tougher on you because you're my sister too."

"Go Houndour!"

Of Clancy's three Pokemon, he had picked the one that had an advantage against Sneasel, and a good one too.

"Hey don't worry if you lose" Clancy said, "I do have a lot more experience after all. If I win I'll still let you look for a Pokemon to catch closer to Violet City"

"Nope" Jenny said, "I've already settled on Goldenrod."

"Oh there's no way I'm holding back against that attitude" Clancy chuckled.

"I'm weaker right now" Jenny said, "But all I have to do is get stronger than you before the battle ends!"

"Sneasel, Agility!"

"Houndour, Howl!"

Sneasel shot forwards as Houndour boosted its own confidence and power with the chilling sound of a Howl.

"Houndour, use Fire Fang!"

Houndour leapt at Sneasel, but the ice Pokemon dodged to the side and pushed Houndour to the ground.

"Fury Swipes" Jenny ordered.

Sneasel used Houndour's current position to its advantage and slashed the dog rapidly before it could properly get to its feet.

"Smog" Clancy ordered.

Thick smoke poured from Houndour's mouth and blocked the battlefield from view.

"You can't see now" Clancy said through the smoke, "But I assure you that Houndour just escaped from Sneasel."

"So we're both fighting blind?" Jenny asked. "Alright then…"

She thought back to when Michael had battled blind against her and closed her own eyes.

"Use Screech Sneasel!"

Sneasel let out a high pitched shout in the smog; Jenny immediately heard the faint sound of Houndour responding to it.

"Jump" Jenny shouted.

Sneasel leapt into the air just in time for Houndour to sail past underneath and out of the smoke on Jenny's side.

Jenny's eyes snapped open, "Sneasel" she shouted, holding up seven fingers, her old signal for Fury Swipes.

The Pokemon took a moment to make the connection, but the wasted time didn't matter. Clancy still couldn't see the battle at all.

Sneasel slashed Houndour to the ground and defeated it with a flurry of Fury Swipes.

After the battle with Clancy, the trip to Goldenrod City the next day was almost completely uneventful.

Jenny found her grandpa's house immediately; the old man was still an enthusiastic trainer and was ready to go catch Pokemon as soon as Jenny arrived.

The place they chose was south of the city, the grass patches here were known to hold some interesting rare Pokemon.

"This'll be your first Pokemon catch right Jenny?" her grandpa asked.

Jenny nodded.

Her grandpa chuckled, "Based on the Pokemon in this area, you'll be the first of your generation in the family to catch a non dark type Pokemon.

"With Sneasel being your first one, and Clancy having Houndour, Murkrow and Nuzleaf, it seems like you kids just love that type."

"Even your cousin Annette has Crawdaunt doesn't she?"

Jenny pointed forwards to a yellowish Pokemon.

"Drowzee" she said, "That one is strong, I can tell from here."

"Are you sure you can handle a Pokemon like that?" her grandpa asked.

"You know we could find a slightly easier one to catch instead."

Jenny chucked and stood up, catching the Drowzee's attention.

"If I'm going to catch a Pokemon, it might as well be the strongest one I can find" Jenny said, "I have multiple rivalries to deal with after all."

With Drowzee as part of her team Jenny would prove her strength against Olivia in the next tournament.

She also had Ajay and Ollie to deal with; Jenny couldn't stand falling behind them.

Of course there was Demetri too, and the pro trainer Martin.

Jenny threw Sneasel's Pokeball forwards.

Even Michael and Brent, two people Jenny despised to different degrees, would admit her strength.

"Although Michael already said I was the strongest member of the Tactics club" Jenny muttered.

"Well what can I do? I'm competitive after all" she laughed quietly.

Drowzee raised its arms and Sneasel readied its claws.

"Time to catch a Pokemon Sneasel" Jenny said, "Let's get started!"

Please add description.

It puts less strain on the reader to make up images in their head if you tell them how it looks.

The structure itself reads like a script at the moment. Paragraphs are more aesthetically pleasing and crafting them to suit your style always helps. The problem with a few sentences per stanza style you have right now is it causes the reader to unnecessarily pause in the middle of the action.

(Adding description after I've already written is unfortunately a bit harder when my writing progress is already quite so far ahead of my posting. It might start to be a bit more noticeable in there in about 30-40 chapter parts, which is where my current writing progress is but before that, not really...)


(Oh, and unfortunately, posting this at so many places has been to much of a hassle lately, so I'm cutting back the number of places where WoB will be posted. I'll be sure to finish up chapter 1 before I stop posting it here, meaning that there should be three more parts after this one before Ch 1's conclusion, that way at least the full fifteen parts of the first chapter will be up here.)



12: Pokemon catching, the three battles

Ollie sighed as he entered Sprout Tower with his mom; she had refused to let him look for a Pokemon outside of the city so the tower had been his only choice.

Even here he was supervised.

"Aw this stinks" Ollie muttered, "Sprout Tower in the middle of the day, there's going to be nothing good here…"

"Ollie" his mom said, "I'm going to take a tour and learn about the history of this tower."

"So you're going to leave me alone in this place for a few hours despite your previous obsessive supervision?" Ollie asked.

"Don't be cheeky" she said, although she nodded in agreement as well, "Stick to the first and second floors and DO NOT leave the tower, I'll find you when I'm done."

Ollie sighed and nodded.

"Rattata" he said with a sigh, "Well at least if I work hard to find a tough one I should be able to get a decent Raticate eventually."

Ollie climbed the stairs to the second floor, where wild Pokemon would be found.

One of the monks of Sprout Tower was talking to a Bellsprout on the second floor.

"Well Bellsprout" he said, "Your training is complete, and you are now much stronger than the Pokemon I first met who would run scared from his own shadow."

"It's time for me to release you Bellsprout" the monk said, "One day you may even be captured by another trainer."

"Do your best in life little one" the monk said.

The Bellsprout turned to leave and found itself facing Ollie.

"Sorry" Ollie said, "But if this Bellsprout is a wild Pokemon now then…"

Ollie gripped Castform's Pokeball.

"I'm going to try and catch it!"

The monk nodded, "Good experience for a young trainer and a young wild Pokemon" he said. "Bellsprout, this battle is yours alone, I will not be giving orders."

Bellsprout nodded and Ollie threw Castform's Pokeball forwards.

"Castform, use your Ember!"

Bellsprout tried to whip the fire away with its arms but failed and got singed.

"Hey that isn't going to work" Ollie said disappointedly, "Try dodging instead; you look like you'd be good at bending away from attacks."

"Ember again Castform!"

Bellsprout twisted sideways to avoid the fire and then jumped at Castform to attack.

"Powder Snow" Ollie ordered.

Bellsprout was blown back by ice and Ollie hurled a Pokeball, pulling it in.

"This Bellsprout reminds me of me" Ollie laughed, "I'll work hard to make both of us great!"

The Pokeball pinged and Ollie picked it up, happy to have his new Bellsprout joining him.

At around the same time that Ollie finished the capture of Bellsprout, Ajay had entered Union cave.

The video camera he had bought was brand new and worked even in darkness so he had decided he might as well go to the cave.

Ahead of Ajay a battle was going on, an Elekid tripped an Onix with Low Kick, knocking the much larger Pokemon to the ground.

Elekid's trainer was on the other side of Onix and Ajay didn't see him until he threw a Pokeball.

Onix was pulled in and Ajay realized that the other trainer was Brent, the boy who had insulted Jenny on the day she had joined the Tactics club.

The Pokeball successfully contained Onix and Brent began to walk towards the exit.

A small crowd of Pokemon; Geodude and Zubat mostly charged out of hiding towards Brent.

One Sandshrew which looked slightly stronger than the rest jumped at Brent to attack but Elekid kicked it aside.

"Why are those Pokemon attacking?" Ajay wondered aloud.

"Duh" Brent said, "Because I captured their leader of course. That Onix was the strongest Pokemon in this cave so I decided to make it mine."

Sandshrew growled at Brent and the trainer scoffed.

"You have no hope weakling" Brent said, "Compared to Onix your strength is nothing, same goes for every other Pokemon here."

"Tell you what" Brent said, "Destroy this guy's Pokemon in a battle, if you can manage that I'll come back and fight you in a week."

Sandshrew nodded and angrily turned towards Ajay.

"Later losers" Brent muttered, exiting Union cave.

"Chikorita" Ajay said, calling out his Pokemon to battle Sandshrew.

"Razor Leaf!" Ajay yelled.

Sandshrew countered by firing numerous Poison Sting needles at its opponent, the two attacks tore each other apart before reaching their targets.

Sandshrew tunnelled into the ground at that moment.

"Jump up Chikorita" Ajay shouted.

Chikorita leapt into the air just as Sandshrew burst from the earth beneath it.

"Reflect on the ground!"

Sandshrew aimed to land back in the hole it had dug but instead crashed into an invisible Reflect wall that Chikorita had created parallel with the floor.

The grass type landed directly on top of Sandshrew, knocking it to the ground.

"Jump again, and Reflect" Ajay said.

Chikorita hopped off of Sandshrew and this time landed on an invisible Reflect wall that it created above Sandshrew's head, once again parallel with the floor.

"Sandwich tactics successful" Ajay said triumphantly, "Now box it in!"

Chikorita surrounded Sandshrew on all four sides with more reflect walls, trapping the ground type in a cube made of Reflect!

"Razor Leaf!"

Unable to move out of the cube, Sandshrew was unable to fight back against the Razor Leaf. After a few seconds of attacking, Ajay threw a Pokeball.

"Capture complete" Ajay said when he caught his new Sandshrew's Pokeball as it flew back to him.

"Oh wait…"

"I forgot to film the battle!" Ajay groaned.

Jenny's Sneasel had been battling the powerful Drowzee for quite awhile, and neither side was ready to give up yet.

Sneasel's speed and Drowzee's psychic abilities had allowed each Pokemon to avoid most major damage.

Drowzee exhaled Poison Gas but Sneasel blew it apart with Icy Wind, a new move.

"There" Jenny said, "Attack with Faint Attack!"

With Sneasel's speed boosted by earlier uses of Agility, and Drowzee slowed by Icy Wind the attack was able to make contact.

"Don't give it time to recover" Jenny yelled, this had been the first time in the battle that she had been able to get an advantage.

Sneasel attacked with Fury Swipes but Drowzee knocked it away with a strong Headbutt.

"That did a lot of damage" Jenny muttered, "Sneasel may not be able to hold on much longer."

"I've got no choice" Jenny muttered, grabbing a Pokeball and hurling it at Drowzee.

The psychic type caught the Pokeball in the air using its powers!

"Darn, I should have attacked first to distract it" Jenny groaned.

Sneasel leapt forwards and grabbed the Pokeball that had been floating in midair.

It slammed the sphere directly against Drowzee's nose; the move was essentially a punch with an added effect.

Drowzee was pulled into the Pokeball and the sphere started to shake.

The Psychic type fought against the Pokeball for so long that Jenny almost thought it would break free.

Eventually though the Pokeball sounded a "ping" and Drowzee was caught.

"I'll stay in Goldenrod until tomorrow evening" Jenny said as she walked back to where her grandpa was.

"Since you know this city better, are there any fun places for trainers?"

Her grandfather nodded.

"I can think of a few" he said, "I'll narrow it down to the best choices during dinner and on Sunday we'll go to some Pokemon event."

Jenny nodded and smiled, they then began to go back to her grandfather's home.

Jenny hadn't seen any of his Pokemon in a long time, not since before she became a trainer, and wanted them to meet Sneasel and Drowzee.

"I think my capture video was pretty good" Jenny commented as they left, "I wonder what kind of Pokemon Ajay and Ollie caught though."

"They probably got pretty cool videos too."

Ajay sat with Chikorita and Sandshrew at his house.

"I can't believe I forgot to make a video" he muttered, "It's embarrassing for the club chief to mess up like that."

Sandshrew sighed.

"Don't worry" Ajay said, "We'll get stronger together, even more so than Brent."

Sandshrew nodded with determination

Meanwhile Ollie walked home with his mom.

"You know I was supposed to film my battle" Ollie told her, "But instead the camera has nothing but your Sprout Tower tour on it."

"I'm probably the only one who didn't film a capture" Ollie groaned.

Bellsprout nodded as it walked beside him.