COMPLETE: Pokemon Academy Year II: Second Year Rhapsody

[Flaze]

@Tsutarja; @AetherX; @Tophat Dragoneye; @System Error; @Thabet; @Chaosj2; @Gotpika; @Thundagere;

I know it's been a really really really long time. As I expressed in the last post that I made I went through a sort of a bad break up kind of thing, and then after that I had to worry about school, like a lot so I didn't have much time to write. Again I'm sorry and I don't even know if you guys still want to read but if you do then please post a review, so all I have to say is that the king is back baby!

Chapter 29: Claudia’s and Allison’s Abilities

It had now been an hour since the group started their rummaging through the academy’s library. Needles to say they had all but given up, Allison was sitting down in a couch, a bored expression on her face as she passed threw the pages before throwing a book to the floor; which in turn made Liza gasp before being stopped by Freed.

“Fin you suck.” Miko frowned, her eyes looking over the book she was reading so that she could focus her attention on Fin. Fin, like the others was searching for the quote, he was standing on a wooden stair case and was searching through the bookshelf, like Allison he was also throwing books to the floor.

“Hey, it’s not my fault she holds a grudge.” Fin pointed out with a bored expression before throwing another book out.

“It’s your fault she has the grudge in the first place idiot.” Valerie frowned before closing a book and gently putting it on the pile that was standing next to her.

“Come on Liza, you hate me but do you seriously have to punish us with this!” Fin exclaimed desperately as he turned to the girl. Liza scoffed and adjusted he glasses before she glared at him, causing Fin to move back a little.

“This is all your fault to begin with, leaving me for no reason and then not calling me at all!” she exclaimed, her glare intensifying.

“In my defense, you were boring.” Fin deadpanned; this in turn made everyone in the room gasp. “You only wanted to read books all day sheesh.”

Liza’s face turned red with anger now, her fists clenching in frustration before she stomped on the floor. “Maybe you should’ve taken some interest in what I was reading, maybe you shouldn’t think that people will just do what you think is fun!” she screamed, her calmness beginning to fade slowly.

“No I’d rather keep doing things my way.” Fin stated with a bored expression on his face. Miko sighed as she put another book on top of the stack that she already had around her. They needed to think of a way to find the quote or else their only choice was to give up the challenge. Lisa seemed to be enjoying herself though, as a grin was plastered across her face as she saw the group desperately trying to find the quote.

“This is boring.” Allison whined before throwing another book away, she leaning against the couch. “I’m tired of looking.”

“We can’t give up though.” Valerie shook her head before sighing in frustration. “If we want to face off against the Enforcers then we’ll have to win.”

Then the tension was cut by the sound of a door opening. Everyone turned their heads around to look at the person that had just come in. Claudia was standing by the doorway, shyly looking into the room before waving at the others. “I’m sorry I’m late, I had to finish doing some things.” She noted nervously while adjusting her glasses.

The group smiled at each other, each of them thinking the same thing as they saw Claudia. Fin immediately got down from the wooden steps and walked towards Claudia. “It’s so good that you came here.” He beamed, causing Claudia to raise an eyebrow.

“We’re kind of stuck because of the challenge that she gave us.” Valerie interrupted before she pointed over at Lisa; who was now staring at Claudia, almost as if she was wondering whether she should let her participate. “We have to find a quote in a book and since you’re the expert in books maybe you’ll know.” She nodded her head with anticipation.

Miko turned to Lisa for a moment, a determined expression on her face. “So, can she participate as well.”

“Well…” Lisa stopped for a moment, she eying Claudia once more before grinning. “She’s a part of the Media Club so I guess she can participate, I don’t think that’ll help much though.” She pointed out before putting her hands on her hips. “It’ll be just futile.”

“We’ll see.” Claudia adjusted her glasses once more before she turned to Fin. “So what’s the quote.”

“Um…” Fine shifted his gaze to Valerie and chuckled nervously. “What was the quote again?”

“You were looking for it and you don’t remember it!” Valerie exclaimed in disbelief before sighing and turning to Claudia. “The world can be cold and yet people still live, still persevere, because that is the heart of man…”

Claudia looked at Valerie for a moment before blinking twice. She nodded her head solemnly and raised her hand. “That quote was said by the character Alkion in the action and sci fi book Lost Life, the book was written by Matthew Prayer in the year 2016 and it’s known as one of the greatest book of that decade.’ She then lowered her hand and pointed at Lisa. “And the book is the one she’s holding in her arms right now.”

The rest of the media club as well as the two teachers turned to look at a now embarrassed Lisa. “You cheating bit…” Fin spoke but before he could finish Valerie had slapped the back of his head and made him bite his tongue slightly. “Ow!” he whined.

“Why did you do it Lisa?” Miko asked while looking at the girl.

“I just wanted to get back at Fin.” Lisa looked down at the floor in embarrassment and shame before holding the book out. “It’s just…I’m tired of people always thinking that books don’t matter, that what I do isn’t important so I wanted you guys to realize that books do have some sort of importance.” She walked over to Claudia slowly and handed her the book. “I’m glad there’s someone in this academy that likes books as much as me though, I remember I always see you around here checking out books…but I was shy of talking to you.”

“She was shy to talk to Claudia…that’s the first I’ve heard of it.” Fin muttered, causing Valerie to glare at him with disdain.

Claudia grabbed the book gently before smiling at Lisa. “I know how you feel honestly.” She nodded her head before handing the book back to the girl. “I know how it feels when no one appreciates what you do, but don’t beat yourself over it.” She giggled slightly and stepped back. “And if it helps, I can always come over and talk to you about books or anything.”

Lisa nodded her head in agreement. “I would like that.”

Freed smiled warmly at the sight of the two girls talking, almost like a father that was proud of his daughter. “You seem cheerful.” Stacy interrupted; causing Freed to look down at her.

“It’s just, I’ve gotten to know Lisa pretty well since I started managing the library club.” Freed pointed out while keeping his arms crossed. “Lisa’s the only member that took the club seriously, she was always taking care of things and making sure that everything was okay with this place so it’s nice to know that she found someone that she can connect with.”

Stacy turned back to the two girls; she still looking a bit confused before putting her hands on her hips. “Well, I don’t really understand it but I do know that it’s nice to find someone that shares your interests.” She smiled. “Also, what’s my price for winning.” She grinned slyly.

Freed chuckled a bit as he smiled at her. “Well technically it was the kids that won wasn’t it.” He pointed out with a grin.

“True.” Stacy nodded her head in agreement. She then walked over to the rest of the group. “Congratulations guys, you did well!” she cheered, causing the others to nod and smiled.

“It was all thanks to Claudia though.” Valerie smirked before putting an arm around Claudia, causing her to blush. Allison just stared at the group for a moment, she opting to not say anything as she looked at the stacks of books. Once more she was unable to do anything to help them.

“Anyways guys let’s go!” Miko exclaimed, causing them to pay attention to her. “The day is still young so we should be able to take another challenge before it ends.”

***

The group had gotten out of the library and proceeded to make their way towards their next destination. They had now entered the academy’s main kitchen, also known as the cooking club’s clubroom. As soon as they went in they were hypnotized by the wonderful scents of all the food that was being made, something that caused both Fin and Allison to have to hold themselves back.

Miko noticed that the club itself seemed to be in a rush but it really felt like a restaurant’s kitchen rather than just a club room, order were being shouted all around, people were running around with plates and ingridients and rushing to cook what they were supposed to. “Um…excuse me, can I talk with the leader of this club?” Miko asked while raising her hand.

At that moment a girl turned to look at her, she was wearing a white colored shirt with a long white apron around her body. She had red colored hair that was tied in a ponytail and was wearing a chef’s hat. “You guys must be from the Media Club.” The girl spoke before bowing simply. “I am Olive and I am the co leader of the Cooking Club.”

“It’s nice to meet you.” Miko smiled at her and held her hand out. “We came here to challenge your group.”

“Yes I understand.” Olive nodded her head; though she ignored the handshake. “We’ve already dealt with about three groups but we were left in charge of today’s lunch by the principal so we’re in a rush.” She spoke calmly and orderly as she avoided all the people that were running past them. “As thus I can’t really spend too much time with you guys.”

“Well you could give us the wind and we’ll be out of your way.” Fin snickered, though this just caused him to get a glare from Olive.

“Just give us whatever challenge you think we can do and we’ll do it.” Valerie corrected.

The girl stopped walking and she was now standing in front of a large table. In front of the table were a pair of ovens as well as other kitchen utensils and ingredients. “So are these guys the next challengers.” The group turned around to look at the source of the voice.

Behind them stood a teenager wearing a chef outfit and black jeans. He; much like Olive, was wearing an apron. He had green colored hair and was also wearing a long chef’s hat. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Basil and I’m the other leader of the Cooking Club.” The teenager smirked with confidence before turning to Olive. “So what’s my task this time.” He grinned.

Olive looked at the table for a moment before grabbing some more aprons and handing them to the group. “The challenge will be simple, you guys will work together and cook something good enough for me to approve it, you’ll be competing with Basil.” she nodded her head and smiled.

“Hey wait a moment that’s unfair.” Valerie interrupted by raising her hand. She then looked at Basil once more before switching back to Olive. “How are we supposed to compete against one of the leaders, especially since the other leader is the one that’ll do the judging?”

“Well all right.” Olive said nonchalantly. “Then you pick a member from your team to do the tasting along with me, that way it should be a bit fairer.”

No one from the Media Club said anything after hearing this. Valerie stepped forward and went to join Olive but she still seemed to be insecure about the challenge itself. She knew that Miko was experienced in cooking due to living with many siblings, but she wasn’t sure about Claudia’s or Fin’s skill and was sure that Allison had now knowledge.”

“All right, You guys can cook whatever you feel like, once you and Basil are done we’ll sample it and decide who wins.” Olive explained slowly. “Because I know you’re amateurs I will give you two chances, if after using those two chances you’re still unable to win then you will lose this match.”

“We’ll just have to win the first time then.” Fin grinned confidently as he and the girls proceeded to put on the aprons. “So Miko, what are we cooking.”

Miko looked at her group carefully; she knew that they couldn’t go for something too advanced or else the chances of them getting it wrong would increase. She looked out of the corner of the eye, noticing that Basil had already started cooking his own dish. “Well, we should go with something that has a lot of taste and it’s simple to make but not too simple.” She scratched her chin carefully. “All right, Fin pass me some eggs, Claudia grab some of the frying pans and oils and some butter.”

“What about me?” Allison asked while raising her hand.

“Um…wash the eggs,” Miko said, though it was obvious that she was insecure about Allison. She walked over to her and patted her shoulder. “For now just settle on that and let us work okay?”

Allison looked down at the floor with resentment as she walked over to Fin so that he could give her the eggs. It was now obvious that the group saw her as the weakest link, and after seeing Claudia saving them earlier on in the library she felt even more insecure about her abilities.

***

The Media Club and Basil proceeded to each cook their dish, while Miko and the others had gone for a simple omelet Basil himself had decided to prepare a grilled sirloin steak along with some mashed potatoes. Needless to say the group had trouble even though they had a simple ordeal but they were able to prepare the omelet within the time limit.

Both Olive and Valerie stood in front of the dishes and tasted them carefully. Valerie turned to Olive and frowned. She wanted to support her teammate but it was obvious that Basil had won the first time, the skill he had displayed in making the steak as well as the taste was overwhelming when compared to the lower class omelet; and this was something that even the other members of the Media Club could see for themselves.

“Well.” Olive started as she pocketed her hands and looked at the others. “We have decided that Basil has won the first round, though you still have the second round I suggest that you at least try harder,” she said while displaying a sly grin.

Miko and the others didn’t say anything, instead they decided to start talking about what they should cook for their second plate. Allison looked at the table with a bored expression, wondering if the group even remembered that she was there. She frowned and stood up from her seat; managing to get the attention of the others.

“Miko pass me that chicken, Claudia you pass me some potatoes and some knives!” Allison exclaimed, getting the group to jump as they stared at her determined face. “Fin clean the pan and get me some more oil, also please start cutting some tomatoes for me.”

“What are you doing Allison we can’t just…” Miko started speaking but she was soundly interrupted.


“I know how to cook damn it!” she yelled suddenly, making Miko yelp back. “My parents work most of the day so I always have to cook for me and my little brother, I know that I like battles a lot but that doesn’t mean I don’t have any other interests.” She turned back to the cooking ingredients and proceeded to grab the chicken. “Cooking is a battle as well, you need to use your ingredients carefully and they have to match, what you use and how you use it could determined the taste of it it’s not something as simple as just picking ingredients and dishes out at random. You have to know what you’re doing.”

Olive and Basil smiled warmly when they heard her words, the two of them were obviously pleased by what she had said.

“Now pass me some bread and a shredder.” Allison ordered.

***

The two groups proceeded to start the second round of their challenge, this time with the Media Club under Allison’s guidance. Thanks to her the group was able to work more efficiently, though they were still shocked at how good Allison was as both a cook and a leading figure.

Once the two groups were done Valerie and Olive were called once more, this time with a plate of lasagna and a plat with fried chicken and fries in front of them, along with a small plate with some homemade tomato sauce on it. The two of them looked at each other once more before they each took a bite of their plate.

Both of them smiled at each other. While Basil’s dish still showed a lot more skill in preparation the way that the chicken as well as the fries had been cooked had given it a crispy yet soft taste, plus the way that both dishes matched with the sauce med everything more enjoyable. Olive sighed. “Well, it’s not as good as Basil but for someone without much experience to make something as good as this I’ll have to hand it to you.”

“Media Club, you win this challenge.” Olive announced happily.

The members of the Media Club all looked at each other and smiled before filling the room with cheers and screams. Allison didn’t say anything; instead she walked over to Basil and Olive and proceeded to shake their hands. “I will definitely beat you next time Basil.” Allison grinned with determination. “I will become the best battler and cook.”

“I’ll be waiting for ya then.” Basil winked at her as he shook her hand. “Maybe we can cook for fun sometime.”

Allison smiled and moved her hand back. “I’d like that.”

To be continued…

End of chapter 29
Next Time: Miko’s Love

 

[Kihote]

Nice chapter giving more attention to some of the side character which were ignored and giving them a chance to shine. It also gave them a little more depth than they had before.

There were plenty of grammar issues though, and spelling mistakes. Try running it through a spell check, or reading it over, and you'll be able to fix most, if not all, of them. The other thing which kind of irks me is that the challenges felt sorta..... anticlimactic. Another idea I got while reading was that maybe you could have had someone using random ingredients when cooking the omelet, putting more weight to Allison's words XP

 

[Flaze]

@Tsutarja; @AetherX; @Tophat Dragoneye; @System Error; @Thabet; @Chaosj2; @Gotpika; @Thundagere;

So here's chapter 30 I'll try to see if I can write the chatpers more quickly from no.

Now some definitions before the chapter starts.

InstaLink: A special mark that grants the bearer the ability to link with their Pokemon, through this the trainer is able to exchange their own energy to increase the Pokemon's capabilities; though it can also be vice versa.

Incendio: Kevin Blaze's pseudonym, he used to go by this name in the first fic back when he was one of the villains.

Now pay attention when you read and remember that there are two characters named Kevin due to my own mistake xD so pay attention to the last names.


Chapter 30: Miko’s Love

The group walked out of the kitchen shortly after winning their challenge. Smiles were plastered on their faces, especially Allison’s as she walked in front of the group. “I’m sorry for having treated you like that Allison.” Miko spoke with a soft tone to her voice.

“It’s okay,” Allison said cheerfully as she turned to look at her senior. “I understand, I know that I don’t usually show a lot of skills.” She nodded her head simply and kept walking.

“I bet you’re happy cause you hit it off with Basil right, poor Darren’s gonna get jealous.” Valerie teased, her words causing Allison to blush a deep red; though luckily no one was able to see it due to the fact that she was turned.

“Sh…shut up!” Allison exclaimed with embarassement.

The group’s conversation was interrupted by the sound of a pair of doors opening. The doors led into the Battling Club’s room.

However, the thing that alerted the Media Club the most wasn’t the doors opening; but rather the people that walked out. Standing in front of the group were the Enforcers, minus Zephyr. They all turned to look at the Media Club. “I see you guys have been doing some of your own challenges.” Stated Keith while pocketing his hands.

“And I see you guys have no shame.” Fin grinned before looking over at Tyson. “You just eliminated the club that used to be under your care like that huh?”

“I’m with the Enforcers now so it doesn’t matter.” Tyson shrugged simply as he grinned. “Besides, I wasn’t the one that took them down, that would be unfair you know,” he said while wagging his finger. He then proceeded to step aside, allowing a sixth member to take the place where he had been standing. “We let our new member take care of it.”

The Media Club gasped in disbelief as they stared at the new Enforcers member that was no before them. It was Kevin Samuel. The blonde teenager grinned, his green eyes gleaming with delight. “Long time no see guys, and Miko.”

Miko hadn’t spoken to Kevin since the time at Celadon, and she knew that he wasn’t happy about her leaving her for Reggie. “Same to you,” she said simply, though she seemed to be watchful now.

“Why so scared? Oh, are you worried cause of what happened.” Kevin chuckled gleefully before passing his left hand through his hair. “That’s okay; I don’t hold it against you, I mean it was your choice.” He nodded his head before smirking. “Though, that doesn’t mean I won’t enjoy beating your club down.”

“So you joined for such a reason.” Valerie hissed with disdain.

“Guys, can you please let me speak with her for a moment.” Kevin waved his hand around so as to signal for the other Enforcers to leave. Miko then turned to her own club, she doing the same thing for them; though they seemed hesitant to leave her alone.

Once both groups had left Kevin began to walk towards Miko. “So, how’s Reggie doing?”

“He’s doing well, we’ve been having fun.” Miko nodded her head, she staying vigilant about what Kevin did.

“Oh really?” Kevin raised an eyebrow. “I wonder how much fun you can have when your boyfriend spends most of his time doing some stupid training.” He grinned slyly something that caused Miko to look at the wall.

“Reggie’s dedicated and besides.” She then turned back to glare at him. “He wouldn’t use me like you did and I like him a lot.”



“Yes.” Kevin shrugged. “I know that you like him, and he definitely likes you.” He then put his left hand to the wall and leaned against it, causing Miko to step back a bit. “Miko. I know girls like you like I know the palm of my hand, just liking a guy isn’t enough for you.” He shook his head slowly and leaned closer to her. “The reason why you first came to me was because you wanted the attention. Having been born to a family with four older siblings, it’s obvious that you didn’t have that much attention put on you, so getting a chance to finally obtain the attention of people is something that you wouldn’t turn down.” He chuckled slowly and playfully.

“You’re wrong.” Miko looked away as she put her hands to the wall.

“Am I?” Kevin raised an eyebrow before grinning. “Are you telling me that you didn’t feel even a bit delighted when people saw you as the girl dating Kevin Samuels? Are you saying that you didn’t feel happy to have that attention put on you?”

“That doesn’t matter now.” Miko looked at Kevin with disdain now, she glaring deeply into his eyes as she clenched her fists. “I’m with Reggie, I rather be with someone that has deep feelings for me and that I like back than someone that just showers me with attention but has no intention to be committed.”

“Then…” Kevin leaned closer to Miko; so much that he was now whispering to her ear. “How come you just say you like him?”

This realization caused Miko’s eyes to open widely. Kevin was right, during the whole conversation she had only said that she liked Reggie, and she did but, for someone that she trusted and cared for so much, was it enough?

“Truth is that you yourself don’t know, maybe it’s because Reggie has saved you so many times and you know him so well, maybe it’s the fact that he too is one of the most famous students in this academy.” Kevin shrugged without a care in the world as he grinned at Miko. “But can you say that you feel the same way he feels about you? For real? Can you say that you didn’t just get carried away before because of your own feelings?”

Miko didn’t say anything, instead her lips just quivered as she looked at Kevin. “You should stop it Kevin.” Kevin and Miko both raised their heads and turned around to see Reggie standing only meters away from him. The boy walked towards the duo.

“Reggie, it’s been a long time.” Kevin snickered as he moved away from Miko. “I thought you were too busy these days.” He stated while staring at the boy.

“Not too busy to see you trying to make passes at my girlfriend.” Reggie frowned as he glared at Kevin.

“Now can you really blame me?” Kevin pointed out slyly before passing his right hand through his hair and brushing it back. “Maybe it’s your fault for not keeping track of her, I mean a boyfriend leaving his girlfriend alone so he can do some stupid training or whatever.” Kevin shrugged and scoffed. “What are you some cliché action hero or something, get a grip.”

Reggie didn’t say anything, instead staring at the floor for a moment before he looked at a now scared Miko. “Better than being a washed up actor.” He glared at Kevin; who had stepped back and clenched his fist after hearing Reggie’s comment. “Miko left you, end of story, so stop trying to steal other’s girlfriends.”

Kevin snickered and reached out before swiftly grabbing Reggie by the neck and pushing him against the wall; the subsequent action in turn caused Miko to jump back in shock as she saw him pinning her boyfriend against the wall. “You sure have a lot of heart to talk don’t you.” Kevin hissed. Reggie didn’t say anything, instead gritting his teeth. He was honestly scared now, especially since he had never seen Kevin lose his usual aloof demeanor before.

His breath was ragged, if quick and his eyes looked like they would pop at any given moment. However, Kevin eventually began to calm down as well as loosen his grip. “I guess you’re confident in yourself aren’t you. Getting a cute girlfriend, getting stronger or whatever.” He stated simply as he let go of Reggie and stepped back. “But that is but a mirage Reggie.”

“Getting your girlfriend stolen is something that could happen in the blink of an eye, it’s easier to lose something than to get it after all.” Kevin nodded his head and smirked. “And strength, well who cares about that, all that matters is power after all, what you can do with people is what matters not what you can do with your body.” He then pointed at himself with his thumb. “People like me are the ones that triumph. Why you might ask, because we don’t stare at the roof all day because we do things and think realistically, if I get a girlfriend then I am always going to be prepared to lose her or let her go, if I’m dealing with someone that’s stronger than me then I’ll just think of a way to make them fall.” He shrugged and patted the boy’s shoulder while leaning closer against him. “There’s always a way to strip a lion of its fangs after all, or in this case, a cub.”

“Okay you two have to stop this already.” Miko finally intervened, she putting her arms in between Kevin and Reggie so that she could separate them. “Kevin, could you just leave us alone, I already made my choice after all.” Miko frowned while looking at him.

“Sure you made your choice.” Kevin nodded his head and stepped back; though he didn’t seem to be all that upset or perturbed about the situation. “But I’m sure Reggie here still wants to tell me something.” He and Reggie stared at each other, their eyes never turning away as if they waited for the other to give up. “If you want to settle something then do it, once you face off against the Enforcers we’ll have that chance.”

“Reggie don’t let him provoke you.” Miko pointed out as she turned to Reggie; she gently putting her hand on his arm. “Just let it go.”

“I can’t.” Reggie glared at Kevin and clenched his fist, he noticing that Chigon was glaring at him as well. “I’ll take up your challenge then Kevin.”

“That faux confident again I see.” Kevin snickered and began walking once more. “Fine them, have it your way.”

***

“It’s been such a long day.” Kevin Blaze whined as he walked alongside Freed towards the principal’s office. Night had now fallen over the academy and as thus the lamps in the hallway were the only source of light left in the principal’s floor. “I wanted to eat something but the principal called all of a sudden.” He yawned.

“It seems that principal Jewel wants to show us his findings during the winter break.” Freed stated while walking; unlike Kevin he was actually anxious as to what the principal might’ve found during his travels. “It might give us a clue on how to deal with Memento Mori.”

“Shouldn’t an ex member of Memento Mori know more about that than him though?” Kevin raised an eyebrow while looking at Freed; who had become more adamant after hearing those words. “What happened anyway?”

Freed didn’t respond. There weren’t many people who knew about his reasons for leaving Memento Mori and aside from the principal he had already lost contact with all the others. However, he could tell that Kevin wasn’t one to just drop the subject. “You know you can’t hide it for long.” Kevin snickered. “If it comes to hiding pasts then my old boss was better at it and I eventually got him to talk so it’ll only be a matter of time.” He grinned slyly and stared at Freed from the corner of his eye.

Freed turned aside and stopped walking; now standing in front of the wooden doors that led to the principal’s office. “We shouldn’t focus on that subject for now.” He pointed out coldly and pushed the doors open, allowing him and Kevin a path inside of the room.

The two of them were greeted by Brendan who was, as usual sitting behind the principal’s desk staring at them. However, next to him stood a woman with long auburn colored hair, she was wearing a sapphire colored long sleeve jacket along with a white top underneath and a pair of black shorts that hugged her skin. “Who’s the babe?” Kevin whistled silently.

“That’s my wife Kevin.” Brendan coughed, causing the man to jump back a bit as he stood up. “Guys, I want you to meet May Birch, May, these are Freed and Kevin Blaze.” Kevin and Freed both bowed their heads respectfully.

“It’s nice to meet you both; Brendan has told me a lot about you.” May smiled warmly before looking at her husband.

“Cutting to the chase.” Brendan pocketed his hands and turned to the two teachers once more, his face turning more serious this time. “As you both know May and I came here to report our findings after investigating inside Tohjo Falls.” He clicked his fingers, causing a holographic image to materialize in front of the two teachers.

The image showed a large rock wall, the wall seemed worn out and some parts of it were already missing due to its age. There were multiple markings and drawings on the wall, though some of them seemed to have become blurry or had come off. Some of the images showed people and Pokemon alike, all engaged into battle with each other. However, there was something about the wall that jumped out to both Freed and Kevin.

Above the group of people, colored in jet black was the image of a large cloud shaped creature, the creature looked down upon the people in battle and parts of it extended down to the ground and attached themselves to the people’s bodies, taking the shape of marks. “Last year there was a large mystery linked to the Dragonic Archipelago, the being known as Shroud was a large part of this mystery…however…” Brendan spoke slowly and began to walk out from behind his desk.

“Where had Shroud gotten his power from, and how did that link up with the dragon that he had summoned, not just that but there’s also the secret behind the InstaLink.” Brendan nodded his head and leaned against the table. “This and a lot of other stuff are all linked with Memento Mori and this drawing, and sadly it is not farfetched to think that Memento Mori is much older than we believe it actually is.”

Freed and Kevin stayed quiet, though they were both overflowing with questions about what the principal had said. “We didn’t found a lot in the caves.” May shook her head. “But we believe that there is someone in this academy that knows something that could help us.”

“Darren Schifer.” Brendan stated simply. “A student known to have an InstaLink of his own, I believe that he may know more about Memento Mori than he lets on.”

“And you want us to talk to him and see what he knows huh?’ Kevin smirked and put his hands against his waist. “I guess that’s fair enough.” He nodded his head. He grinned confidently. “I’ll take care of the kid; I haven’t had a chance to stretch myself in a while.”

“If you can do it through means that aren’t violent I would greatly appreciate it.” Brendan deadpanned.

***

Reggie and Miko had gone to Reggie’s dorm room after the meeting with Kevin and were now getting ready to eat Dinner. Miko was playing with Reggie’s Pokemon in the living room while Reggie stayed in the kitchen cooking.

Azumarill and Chigon ran around the room, the two of them enjoying the time that they got to spend with Miko, on the other hand Donphan and Pidgeot both sat on the touch along with Fraxure, the three of them preferring to just watch TV. “I see these guys are as eager as ever.” Miko laughed. “Why don’t you take Monferno out though?”

“Well last time I did he kind of set the couch on fire.” Reggie chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his head. “So he’s not going to be coming close to the furniture for a little while.” He explained.

He stared at Miko, the words that Kevin had said still fresh in his mind. What if Kevin was right, that it was easier to lose Miko than it had been to get her; he couldn’t stop himself from thinking about that, part of him still didn’t even believe that he was actually dating Miko after so long. “You seem nervous.” Reggie turned his head around to look towards Miko, who was smiling and looking at him. “Is it cause of what Kevin said?” she asked as she stood up from the floor and walked towards him slowly.

“I just can’t get it off my mind.” Reggie replied quietly, embarrassed that Miko was able to read into him so quickly.

He then blushed when he felt Miko put her arms around him, causing him to raise his gaze and stare into her eyes. “Works every time.” Miko grinned before kissing his cheek. “Listen, if there’s something I’m sure of is that Kevin is completely wrong.” Her expression had become more serious now as she pulled him closer. “I picked you on that day for a reason Reggie…don’t worry.” She smiled warmly and proceeded to kiss him once more. “Though it is cute to see that shy face of yours.” She giggled.

This just caused Reggie to blush even deeper and to turn away in embarrassment. “I like that face too.” Miko laughed once more. “Now let me help you. I at least know that you’re not a highly trained cook so I won’t have to worry about my skills.” She grinned and stuck her tongue out at him.

***

“Come on it’s about to start!’ Fin yelled as he and the rest of the Media Club; with Reggie and Chigon in toll ran through the academy’s forest.

Valerie was on her cell phone, she trying to run while also texting frantically. “I can’t believe those two will have to face them, no one would’ve seen it.” She panted and looked around at the others, noticing that Claudia already seemed to be losing her energy.

Reggie and Miko didn’t say anything and instead kept running, their minds too preoccupied with the situation at hand.

Early in the morning Kevin Samuels had sent a message using the Enforcers name, the message said that they would be challenging the Gardening Club to a match. The reasons why this alarmed the school were multiple, with the two main reasons being that the Enforcers; at least until that point had been challenged yet had never challenged anyone themselves. The second reason was the fact that the gardening club had one of the strongest students amongst them, Jack Hart who had joined the club just recently was known for being a master strategist, someone who was only second to third year and Enforcer member Zephyr.

“Everyone’s saying that this could end up being one of the best battles in the academy, a battle between the two best strategists is something to look forward too after all.” Fin grinned with expectation as he saw the green house come into view.

“It’s not just Jack that worries me though, Marie worries me too.” Reggie nodded his head. He knew that Marie was a good trainer, more than she let on to others and it was because of that that he got scared, after all the Enforcers were people that even Darren couldn’t defeat.

They all gasped in disbelief as they walked into the green house. The once desolate house which only held plants was now filled with people in every nook and cranny; they all crowded around a patch of grass in the center of the house. The Media Group looked on as they saw Jack and Marie both standing in front of the rest of the girls and boys that made up the gardening club.

On the other side were the Enforcers, each of them standing next to each other as if scanning their prey. Reggie looked towards Kevin; who in turn grinned and waved at him halfheartedly.

“Well then.” Marie spoke suddenly, causing the crowd to finally quiet down and look at her. “I think it’s time we start this.” She said, a determined expression crossing her face; something that shocked everyone around her.

***

Darren looked towards the sea, ignoring the sounds of cheers as people walked into the forest. He didn’t understand why people were so interested in the battle; after all that didn’t have anything to do with their lives. For Darren it was just unnecessary, he had no interest in the Enforcers; only Keith.

“All I have to do is wait till I get my chance at revenge.” He stated simply. At that moment he heard a slight rustling from behind him; something that caused him to turn around.

Standing behind him was Kevin Blaze, a grin plastered across his face as he looked at Darren and walked over to him. “Well I know you aren’t one to socialize but I didn’t think the battle genius would miss this battle.” He said simply and stood next to him. “Or have you actually gone soft after accomplishing your goal of killing Zivok?”

“I have no business with you.” Darren hissed at Kevin. He, unlike the rest of the group had been able to figure out Kevin’s identity as Incendio and he, unlike the others wasn’t one to just ignore something like that. “I might’ve settled things with Zivok but you being his ex comrade also puts you in my bad list.”

“Calm down doggy.” Kevin laughed and pocketed his hands. “I just came here to ask you one thing is all.” He nodded his head and smiled at Darren. “Memento Mori. What do you know about it?”

Darren just stared at Kevin Blaze, bitterness clear in his eyes as he looked down at the water and grinned. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”


“Of course you don’t.” Kevin stated simply; though it was obvious that he hadn’t bought Darren’s excuse. “However that’s not my only question.” This caused Darren to clench his fists slightly as the teacher’s grin widened. “How did you get that InstaLink and how did your hair get white?”

“You’re snooping around a lot Mr. Teacher.” Darren slid his hand into his jacket and grabbed a hold of one of his pokeballs. “Just cause you’re a teacher doesn’t mean I’ll be scared.”


“And just cause you’re a student doesn’t mean I’ll go easy.” Kevin snickered and pulled out his own pokeball. “If you want a battle then let’s do it. If I win you tell me, if I lose I’ll leave and you can go back to doing all yer lone meditating crap and stuff.” He explained as he passed his hand over his head and rearranged his hair, now making it spiky and combed back. “And in exchange I will fight not as Kevin Blaze, but Incendio.” He grinned.

To be Continued…

End of Chapter 30
Next Time: Strategist Game


Now as an extra, this is a oneshot spin off for Jabber one of Memento Mori's agents, now this is just a special chapter so it's your choice on whether you want to read or not.

Now this is the first one what I hope I can keep up as a sort of series of special chapters.

Spoiler

Memento Mori Chronicles

The Kid with the Devil Mark

He could feel the rain droplets fall down on his face slowly. It was wet and cold, and yet he didn’t mind it, he just laid there on the floor; allowing the rain to fall down on him and take over. His messy black hair had been stained by the mud below him, if only he had been thrown in a better place he would’ve been able to at least come out with his clothes intact.

It was at this time that he noticed the absence of the rain drops and was forced to open his eyes. There was a pink colored umbrella towering over him along with a smiling girl, her short blond color hair combed to the sides to allow her warm smile to be seen by him. “You know, you shouldn’t be lying around on the floor like this during mid winter,”she giggled.

He noticed that she was dressed in a pink colored stuffed jacket along with some fur around the neck of it. He looked up at her, his black eyes never leaving hers as he sat up and groaned. “Very funny…guess you must’ve had a laugh, considering how I was thrown like an useless puppy back then.”

“Well you were making a lot of ruckus in that restaurant.” The girl gave him another smile, he was beginning to get annoyed by it though, a smile; it was the most uncertain and selfish expression that he could think of.

“Yeah, but those other people didn’t have to cheer that bastard on when he threw me here,” he groaned and stood up slowly; the feeling of mud now running down his legs. “Just cause I didn’t have any money to pay for the food I was thrown out into this stupid alley.

He noticed that the girl was still grinning at him, only to notice the handkerchief that she was carrying on her hand. “What is it?” he deadpanned.

“Your face is covered in mud,” she laughed gently, causing him to blush in embarrassment before swiping his hand around so as to grab the handkerchief. The girl’s eyes fell over his left hand, there was a black colored tattoo on it and it had the form of a dragon-like creature with a pair of horn on top of its head, it also have the number 4 in the middle of the creature’s open mouth.

“Why are you helping me anyway?” he asked, his tone of voice becoming more bothered now. “Or did you just want to be nice?”

“What’s wrong with having that as a reason,” the girl laughed and turned around, taking the umbrella along with her. “I just felt bad after I saw the way those people were treating you.” He didn’t answer this time, instead opting for looking to the other side of the alley. There were two guys waiting for her there, their faces falling over him as if he was a monster or some kind, they were probably worried about her friend’s safety after the problem that he had caused before.

“By the way, that tattoo looks really neat,” she winked at him. “It gives you a bad boy vibe, I like it.” The only thing he saw after that was a simple wave as she walked off.

“I bet you would,” He muttered, his words falling on deaf ears.

***


The young man was sitting down quietly on the floor, the sound of passing cars could be heard from above the bridge. “Roark.” He heard a low growl and immediately turned to look at the Zoroark that had been asking for him, it seemed to be worried about its master since its eyes had widened. “I’m okay Zoroark, just thinking.”

He looked up once more before taking out another pokeball and beginning to juggle it. “I was just wondering about it again…a human soul it’s a curious thing,” he muttered.

“Even you are getting curious aren’t you Jabber?” the young man, known as Jabber turned to the other side. He was able to see a large shadow spin around before showing itself to be a Banette; its eyes falling down on Zoroark and Jabber as it floated to the left side of its master’s shoulders.

There was a man standing in front of him now, he seemed to be in his mid forties and had a short black colored beard that matched with his low cut black hair. Jabber actually felt shocked and worried as he saw this man, as if he had just been caught doing something bad by a police man.

“Don’t worry young man, I am just trying to see how you are doing.” The man spoke with a calm and rough tone. Upon closer look Jabber was able to notice the wooden cane that he was carrying and was also able to see the man’s clothes. Unlike his worn down rags the man was wearing a fine tailored black suit that seemed to be nothing short of perfection, he was also wearing a black colored tie over a white button shirt which was in turn under the suit.

Jabber looked towards the man’s loose left hand, a similar tattoo was printed on the man’s hand, except that the dragon seemed to be thinner and have some wolf aspects; unlike Jabber’s mark it also seemed to have ram horns and the number 1 in the middle of the dragon’s open mouth.

“What’s a man of your caliber visiting a bum like me for?” Jabber spat out, clear disgust could be felt from his words.

“I figured that you might need some support since you just joined Memento Mori a few months ago,” the man laughed before he and his Banette walked closer to Jabber. “What is it that has you so worried?”

“Well…I think I might’ve found something interesting,” Jabber smirked as he looked up at the man then at Zoroark. “I actually found a soul that’s worth something is this world.”

“Really…you?” the man smirked. “Then what are you gonna do about it my friend?” he asked, his eyes falling down on the his young comrade now.

“I was thinking…that I wanna shatter that soul to pieces.” His eyes became solemn and stared into the distance as he lifted his body from the floor; passing his hands through his hair as he did so. “Time to go to work.”

***


“Hey Millie next time can you not take so long when you’re trying to do charity work.” Millie was walking alongside her two friends, two male teenagers that seemed to be around their late teens. One of them had short red colored hair and green colored eyes while the other one had long violet colored hair and blue eyes. She smiled and looked at the two of them apologetically.

After she had helped Jabber the three of them decided to eat in a different restaurant, since Jabber’s outburst had ruin the mood. “But seriously what was that guy thinking, no money means no food and he wasn’t even properly cleaned.” The red hair teenager pointed out

“Well he might have a shirt and shoes but he still wouldn’t get service anywhere,” the violet haired one laughed before he turned to Millie. “You didn’t have to help him though, what if he had attacked you or something.”

“You worry too much Clint,” Millie shook his head. “He was pretty nice, he didn’t deserve to be treated like that though.”

“Why not?” Clint asked with a raised eyebrow. “A guy like that deserves it, he just barges in and ruins everyone’s meal when he could’ve easily gone somewhere else,” he scoffed.

Suddenly he felt something soft fall on top of his face, he rubbed his finger against his cheek and noticed that it was a white powder-like substance. “Is it snowing now?” he and his two friends raised their heads as they saw more spores beginning to fall down from the sky. “What’s going…” he could feel his body getting weaker and his mind clouding more, as if he was being forced into a deep slumber.

He was right though, and soon the three of them proceeded to fall to the floor.

***


Millie opened her eyes slowly, her head was still feeling heavy and she couldn’t even move her body properly. “What happened to me?” she asked slowly, only to notice that she was sitting under a bridge now. “Where am I?” shock and confusion passed over her face as she started to move her head around to search her surroundings.

Suddenly a look of horror crossed her face. In front of her were both Clint and Julius their bodies lying beat up on the floor. But what grabbed her attention more was the blood under the two of them. She tried to move, to get up and run before something happened to her; but her body wouldn’t budge a single bit.

“Zor…”she looked on once more, this time coming face to face with a Zoroark standing in the shadows of the night, its claws and snout covered in blood.

“What’s going on?” Millie’s voice was beginning to break as she cowered back on the wall behind her. She still couldn’t move properly and the sight of the Zoroark’s menacing eyes falling over here were starting to create a realization in her, the realization of her imminent doom.

“Are you scared?” she heard a voice coming from inside the shadow, only to see a figure slowly walk out along with Zoroark. “It’s okay now,” she gasped as she saw the same boy from the alley staring down at her, a wicked grin on his face. “Sorry for the scare but…your friends were being annoying.

“Why are you doing this?” Millie’s lips quivered in fear, her eyes getting wider when she saw Jabber walk closer to it. She tried to move her body, her mind racing frantically as she saw him kneel down.

“Well.” He stretched his hand out to her and caressed her right cheek. His hand slid down onto her blouse slowly before it slide a button off; causing Millie to quiver once more. “You said you liked bad boys right? Then why I don’t show you,” he whispered into her ear slowly.

A grin crossed his face as he felt her body stop moving, as if she was accepting what was coming. “Hmp.”

***

The moon shown down onto the city, the light of it enough to clear the darkness that had now fallen down onto the city and the people. Jabber stared at the large moon, his eyes seeming mesmerized as he rubbed his left hand with his right.

“You seem to be in a trance today.” He turned his head around and turned to look at the same man from the afternoon; though he seemed to be smirking now. “You just couldn’t keep your hands off that girl. Did you kill her?”

“Nah,” Jabber shook his head, his eyes staring at the water in boredom. “She did help me out.” He pointed out before slowly taking a handkerchief from his pocket. “This handkerchief…her soul weights as much as a mere handkerchief.”

His hand began to softly let go of the object, letting it slowly move around with the breeze before it was blown into the air by the strong current. “Her soul and life wavers around with the wind, never truly deciding what to do for herself.”

“So you did kill her?”

“No,” Jabber shook his head. “But I did leave her in a state that wavers…if she wakes up or not will depend on the wind.”

“I guess you really are Memento Mori material,” the man chuckled.

“Of course,” Jabber smiled and raised his hand. “Cause no one knows hardship as much as I do.”

 

[Sweet Veil]

Chapter 28

Gonna try to be honest since my reviewing has improved, hope it doesn't come off as rude. I didn't really care for this chapter, it introduced Zephyr which was the high point of the chapter. I'm just wondering how she's going to impact the story in a significant way and why she had those interactions with Reggie, her personality wasn't really a huge stand-out either to be honest. Though she had a nice quirk with being a hacker, her fragility due to her insecurity regarding the wheelchair, etc. I wonder if we'll see more of that. The little spat by Fin at the end was a bit amusing. The constant spelling errors really got on my nerves, please remember to proofread, proofread, proofread. The fin scene made me literally blow milk out my nose XD

Fin beamed before taking a bite out of the corndog he was eating.

Corn dog is two words not one.

Fin smiledbefore

"smiled before"

The Pokemons eemed

"Pokemon seemed"

adde

Added

brown colore dhair

brown-colored hair

white long sleeved uniform

white, long-sleeved uniform.

definetily

definitely

“It’s oay.”

It's okay

on hiw own then people will just get scared of him.” Her face felled slightly.

his*

"fell slightly"

She winced as she felt one of the thorn

thorns

“Oh I know who y are.”

"You are"

Zephyr interrupted. “Reggie Damon age 17 af of December this year, from Celadon City, second year student, blood type A+.”

"Reggie Damon, age seventeen as of December this year,......"

Typically it's considered correct to not use "17," just write "seventeen." As that goes for all numbers.

Zephyr gasped, apparentlys hocked by Reggie’s respond. “You don’t find that disturbing?”

apparently shocked

exxagerating but I think he just wants to prepare you,

exaggerating

shortlya fter Fin and Reggie

shortly after


Chapter 29

TBH, I found this chapter kinda uneventful. The pacing was a bit too speedy and off, you did a lot of telling in scenes where it would have been more relevant to show. There were also some grammatical errors which I'm too lazy to go back and point out, I really feel like you should focus more on the story's main plot and advancing that. I don't quite understand, is the girl's name "Lisa" or "Liza" you referred to her as both and the inconsistencies coupled with spelling errors really got distracting. I feel as though this whole system of "challenges" in itself are a tad tedious and the fact they group won the cooking challenge that easily was kinda rushed. There was hardly any struggle either.


EDIT:I just reread this out loud, I sound like a complete dick, I apologize if I was too harsh, man. Actually, I'll just write a new review later on, this is completely inaccurate. I would just like to completely apologize and say I'm sorry again.

 

[Flaze]

I have to admit I'm not proud of chapter 29 as I was just coming out of my problem and I rushed it cause I was really behind. Chapter 29 wasn't as much filler as much as I did it because I wanted to put more focus on Claudia and Allison. However, due to multiple factors things didn't quite come otu as good as I had originally thought them out in my head so I apologize for that.

And I can notice your reviewing improved xD Might I ask what you did? I want to get better myself.

 

[Sweet Veil]

I have to admit I'm not proud of chapter 29 as I was just coming out of my problem and I rushed it cause I was really behind. Chapter 29 wasn't as much filler as much as I did it because I wanted to put more focus on Claudia and Allison. However, due to multiple factors things didn't quite come otu as good as I had originally thought them out in my head so I apologize for that.

I see, it's always a good thing to give more focus to supporting characters, so it makes sense with this chapter.

And I can notice your reviewing improved xD Might I ask what you did? I want to get better myself.

Basically, I did a "Criticizing the reviewer" camp-type thing on another forum. Where my own reviewing skills are critiqued and judged and where I read quite a few fics of different genre to judge and evaluate. From doing this "reviewer criticizing camp" I really got better at my evaluating other fics. Not to mention there's a list of things that I use as a general rule of thumb when reviewing.

Bleh, sorry about that. I gab on too much XP

 

[Flaze]

Well can I know what this rule of thumb is? xD

 

[Sweet Veil]

Well can I know what this rule of thumb is? xD

Well, it's more of my own personal way of reviewing rather than any specific guidelines that everyone has to adhere to. Everyone has a different way of reviewing.

 

[Kihote]

Just managed to read the latest chapter and well done, it was a lot better than the other recent ones and I cannot remember seeing any spelling/grammar issues. Despite little happening action wise, the tension was kept up n'stuff. Also, Keeeeeevinsss!!! I each time the scene changed I got them mixed up a bit but you introducing them with their last names each scene and also not letting them interact with each other really helps XP

Last thing:

Spoiler

“Then…” Kevin leaned closer to Miko; so much that he was now whispering to her ear. “How come you just say you like him?”

That completely caught me off guard, well done man, well done

 

[Sweet Veil]

Chapter 30

Word variation, fewer spelling errors, and a few other problems. Though it was better than the last two chapters. I personally thought those two things you gave definitions for pre-chapter could have been better left explained in the story than being independent on their own. You set-up the future battles nicely and got everything all ready and hyped for what comes next. Though errors and awkward dialogue kept breaking the flow of the story for me.

her leaving her

her leaving *him

Overall, a better chapter than the last two. A little word variation would do a lot of work for this chapter.

Kevin waved his hand around so as to signal for the other Enforcers to leave. Miko then turned to her own club, she doing the same thing for them; though they seemed hesitant to leave her alone.

Take out the "She" in "she doing the same thing for them." It's not needed.

Miko nodded her head, she staying vigilant about what Kevin did.

The "she" is not needed, it sounds incredibly forced.

He grinned slyly something that caused Miko to look at the wall.

"He grinned slyly,something that caused Miko......"

“Reggie’s dedicated and besides.” She then turned back to glare at him. “He wouldn’t use me like you did and I like him a lot.”

You're certainly using "she" a lot.

“That doesn’t matter now.” Miko looked at Kevin with disdain now, she glaring deeply into his eyes as she clenched her fists.

"Miko looked at Kevin with disdain, glaring deeply into his eyes while clenching her fists."

Removed a lot of useless words and the sentence doesn't sound awkward and flows much better. Try doing this in the future.

“How come you just say you like him?”

"Said"

Reggie frowned as he glared at Kevin.

Something other than glare, its been used quite a bit already and word variation really helps bring out the scenes better.

He stated simply as he let go of

Candidly, commonly, directly, ordinarily, or just stated. You're using "simply" too much.

Miko finally intervened, she putting her arms in between Kevin and Reggie so that she could separate them.

Take out the first "she" it sounds repetitive and awkward.

Miko pointed out as she turned to Reggie; she gently putting her hand on his arm.

I don't think this needs any explaining.

Reggie glared at Kevin and clenched his fist, he noticing that Chigon was glaring at him as well.

Again, no explaining needed.

“That faux confident again I see.”

confidence*

getting ready to eat Dinner.

dinner

She giggled.

Now giggled is veering toward overused.

“Come on it’s about to start!’

remember, double quote at the end.

He stated simply.

I:

 

[System Error]

So after much delays and having read this from the very beginning of Dragon's Roar all the way to present, it's time to finally post a full-fledged review. And with this being a good time, hey, here we go!

The whole thing sort of feels like an anime...which I kinda find neat? It's especially apparent early on into Dragon's Roar, although it wanes a bit over time. I've never really been a fan of the genre, mostly because I can't keep up with it, but again, I do like it. The big thing - it's not at all like the Pokemon anime, so no points lost there!

For as many main characters that you have going on, you do a good job of making them feel fairly distinct regardless of having to have such a broad lens. There's things going on with both the characters that returned and the characters that are new. So let's talk about a few.

Spoiler

Memento Mori. I like the concept of naming/basing their top generals after the seven deadly sins. They've been built up to be legit as fuck, and brutish to boot. It's a stark contrast to the previous antagonist, who had a smaller group. When they pulled Genesect, it was like FUUUUUUUUUUUUU.

The Enforcers, the horribly unenforced that they are, are decent as well. It'll be interesting to see the dynamic between Keith and Reggie, who are enemies now, but could become allies at any given moment. Then we have Tyson to contrast, who also has a pretty big beef with Reggie in the name of righteousness and what-should-being. Mr. Movie Star, apparently deceitful battler and apparently takes his romantic losses more seriously than he would like everyone to believe (I mean, why else would he care this much?). Zephyr in as a sympathetic contrast. Then we have the other two, but hey, superflousness is to be expected in a few places.

It's good to use that to lead into the staff, starting with the one responsible for their creation. I don't like Brendan at all. I don't know what it is. I mean, he just pretty much threw together the Enforcers and gave them power over the school, just for the sake of bringing out Reggie and co's power. And it's like, he's just so...ugh. He's a good character, but he's just the kind I don't like - not from a writer's standpoint, but from a reader's standpoint. Stacy I didn't like at first either; but after she just flat-out coldly rejected the initial proposal to help with the club, I enjoyed her character a little more. Taisha on the other hand, meh. I found it odd that Brendan even think to hire the former Incendio, but I guess that just adds to his image, and at least it came as a surprise to him, too.

And now the main characters. Let's start with what I've told you before, and that despite I do think Kevin is so butthurt right now, I do agree the relationship between Reggie and Miko is kinda weak. That chapter though, it really put a different spin on things. I never really pegged her as an attention seeker, but it would explain a bit. Her heart definitely lies with Reggie, but she pretty much said herself she used Kevin to get Reggie to notice her (well, okay, she went out with him because Reggie didn't care only to flop back when it turned out he did, but same difference ). I dunno. Something about the whole thing does indeed feel flimsy, but fitting with the characters, so it's all good.

I still stand by Claudia x Reggie. I liked the introduction of her character. Reggie is a notable student, by cause of his saving the school the year before. The effect should therefore be an increase in popularity. Quite appropriate. We saw an extreme case right before we were introduced to her, with a stampede of people coming after him and Fin, but getting to know one - and one who is even more timid than Reggie ever was at that - was a neat little thing.

Jack and Marie. I figured I'd group them together, because well, that's what you did, and they aren't nearly as important in SYR as they are in DR. But to talk of the latter a bit, I did find it a bit out how Jack went from "occasional bully" (your words) to part of Reggie's group after one loss. And as with the above girl, I did like Marie x Reggie better in DR - maybe because she was someone who chose to be with Reggie, rather than feeling a need to be with him. And because of that, she chose otherwise. Or maybe I just like purple hair, I dunno. Their development in SYR seems to have plateaued just a bit, but of course, with a war of the strategists coming up and much more to go, we can't say anything's cemented yet.

Fin. I never really pegged the guy as someone who thinks with his Dragon Fang, but here we are I suppose. A total bro, there's really not much to say about him. I forgot most of the specifics of his daddy issues, except that Lance in one of his appearances still looked young regardless of age. I do like how he's been steadily progressing as the fic has gone on, even in subtle little ways. A good second-in-command, so to speak, and his escapades biting him (and the others) in the ass helped add to his character.

Darren, our once-rival way back in DR. Now sort of the loner figure of the group. I like those kinds of characters. He's hasn't played nearly as large a part here as he did back then, but he's still managing to be who he is while helping move things along - what better way to build up the Enforcers than by having him get fucked the hell up? Was wondering when the whole Zivok thing was going to be brought up to him again. His rival though, well. I was going to give her as much attention to her as you gave, even if that was intentional, but with a few recent developments and (again) more to go, I'll say...we'll see what happens yet.

Valerie. Another character I didn't really like much at first, but in retrospect, she feels like the most "normal" out of everyone. She just seems to fit better in SYR in general. But Johann...I dunno. Something about him just didn't click with me, but I can see that he sorta fits in as the brother Reggie never had. The rest of Reggie's family is interesting, particularly his father, and I'm especially looking forward to seeing what happens with the one guy we've never seen yet - his big brother Alex. I fully expect shit to get real.

Finally, the man himself. First off, it must be said - I *love* how Reggie regressed. You really don't see that often enough in fics, and it ensured things remained interesting. The best part is, it's slightly deceptive early on. He developed a lot over the course of Dragon's Roar, but apparently, it was all in his mind, or led to a brick wall. And yet, it doesn't seem like he's reverted. There's so many little things going on with him, be it being looked up to by others (whatever happened to that Matthew kid, anyway?), wanting to be looked at favorably by others (that whole bit was surprising), or standing up to his dark side (I am dying to see how Reggie collects). He's making progress little by little. He has an interesting team, and - in regards to the strategy thing, if he doesn't become an all-rounder, I'm looking forward to seeing how he can unite them all under one banner.

If there's one thing I don't like, it's how a number of them have a relation to a canon character, are linked to them, or even are them.

Now let's talk about your creation, Chigon. It's an interesting concept, and one that's handled quite well. I forget what it originally reminded me of, though...it was probably Digimon. It's an interesting theme how Reggie is growing not to rely on it nearly as much before, to paraphrase what was said. It's basically gone from a focal point in DR, to just a little something extra special in SYR. A stark contrast. Reggie's outburst on it really put things into perspective, both before and after the fact. Though they got reunited, I'm still wondering what's going to happen from here with them - especially with a potential 7th member of Reggie's squad from a certain douche in an Egg waiting to hatch and be called back.

InstaLink, aka Full Synchro. I generally liked the MMBN series, so I generally liked this as well. It's good that you brought it back. It doesn't seem out of place, and has some clear drawbacks, so it's not too OP.

There's not too much to say about Elemental Academy itself. I occasionally forget about the intricacies, and I found it weird how there's been little mention of the fact that there's more than just the one island in SYR. I occasionally forget what it's like, lol. I suppose it's to be expected here, given the grander scale this fic is set in (in contrast to DR, which was more school-orientated, or at least on the past of the islands it was built around). Speaking of which, the related schools were a good thing to bring in, and I'm looking forward to see how they're going to factor into the equation.

One thing I am meh about is the battles. They're generally good, if occasionally neurotic. The theme of a battle style is a step in the right direction - although one thing I did find weird is how deceit is a big part of your battles, and you went and made a character who is about the deceit which seems to pop up in most battles. I will say that personally, I think a lack of a style can work just as well, since from another angle, you're not relying on any one method. Still, it's definitely going to help advance things along.

Grammar...it's not something that bothers me too much, but I know it does for some. Compared to early DR, you've progressed brilliantly, but it wouldn't hurt to be just a little more prudent. There's occasionally some really out-there blunders that make even me raise my eyebrow. One good example came in Chapter 28.

“You don’t have to do this.” The girl friend before moving her hand away.

Things like that...you really have to be cautious. A typo is a typo, but something like that can give readers the impression that you're a careless/awful writer. Which you're far from.

One thing I gathered from VMs - don't be afraid to change plans or generally be adaptable. I'm not talking about changing the plot so it goes in a completely different direction. But if you can make an addition, take something out, or do something to build detail without compromising what you definitively have in mind, it's not a bad idea to do so - as long as you have a good reason, of course. Think of it like editing a draft. I know you've probably felt some things didn't turn out too well when you write them, and if it just feels awkward, it's likely to be a problem for the readers as well. I can't remember any specific examples at the moment, but I know there's been a few. It's not something straightforward, but it's not too bad to get the hang of after the initial troubles.

Your main strength, again, is the character juggling. Besides that, you seem to be good at managing the tension level - not only in the characters, but in the readers as well. There were a few instances where I didn't know which way things were going to go. The mood always feels how it should, and even when disjointed or unable to relate, I could generally understand why things were the way they were.

So yeah. That's about the gist of things I can think of right now. Keep it up, Stellar.

 

[Flaze]

@Soulmaster; @Instrutilus; @Tophat Dragoneye; @The Jingster; @System Error; @AetherX; @Gotpika;

After so long I finally finished this chapter, and I ended up spending the whole day doing so, I tried my best to reread this one as well as write it in a way that I could spot any problems, though feel free to point out any that you might notice if you'd like.

The chapter turned out a little longer than I expected but with this I can finally start the main event in the next chapter, so for now enjoy it.

Chapter 31: A Strategist’s Game
The forest of Elemental Academy stood quiet now; the boom from the cheering crowd only being heard at the center of the forest. Pokemon had now been able to calm down had gone back to their daily routine, bird Pokemon flew around the academy; curious as to what had gotten the humans so flustered.

A curious Swablu flew above the forest, a smile on its face as the wind hit its face head on. For a flying type Pokemon this feeling was like nothing else, one could say that it was what made a Flying type feel like one.

The bird Pokemon lowered itself to the level of the trees, causing leaves to wave and float around as they were spread throughout the forest. However, as the flying type made its way closer to the tree’s branches its attention to the trees was broken by the loud booming sound that resounded not too far from it. Following the sound was a powerful explosion that sent the bird Pokémon falling onto the trees; its body becoming surrounded by smoke.

The Swablu let out a soft whine; its cloud-like wings moving around to try and allow him to lift itself from the floor. It raised his head slowly; trying it’s best to scan around through the dust cloud in front of it.

The sight that lay before it was something that the Pokemon had never seen in its life. Standing in front of it, inside a large crater were a pair of humans, strange creatures where they lacking the appearance or abilities than any Pokemon it had seen. The Pokemon felt a chill go up its spine, remembering all the things that its mother Altaria had told it about humans, how they captured Pokemon against their will and had them fight against each other.

The Pokemon prepared to take flight; its body finally responding and leaving the state of free that it had been subjected to after the explosion.

However, before it could grab its chance and take its leave the Pokémon’s attention was taken once more, this time focusing on the center of the still smoking crater. Its eyes opened wide as it saw the two heavyweights that collided against each other; trying to push each other back before jumping out of the cloud.

Standing on one side was a black colored Charizard, something that the Swablu had never seen as it was rare to find Pokemon of different colors. On the other side stood an Emboar, its fists surrounded with flames as it panted heavily; obviously tired from the battle that it had been led into by its trainer.

The Swablu was able to see why its mother didn’t like these things, even the Pokemon standing before it seemed to hate what they were doing…or so it thought.

The Swablu looked at the faces displayed on the Pokemon, confidence and courage showing as they stared at each other; almost as if they were fighting just through gazing at each other. At that Moment the little Pokemon began to feel something stir in him; almost as if he wanted to be as strong as those two, to no longer be just another forest Pokemon that had to run away from stronger predators.

“You’re not half bad kid.” The Swablu looked at the human standing behind the Emboar, his long red colored hair covering his forehead and similar colored eyes. The man, much like his Emboar was confident in his abilities; something that even Swablu could tell from the way he stared at his opponent. “I might even recognize that you took down the boss.”

The other human just scoffed, his white messy hair waving around a little as he turned away from his opponent. The human, in Swablu’s eyes, seemed just as special as his Charizard; it had never seen a human with white hair before, or at least one that was as young as this one. “You know I think the principal is out of his mouth, making you a teacher in this school.” He spat with a faint hint of disdain in his voice.

The other human just pocketed his hands and moved his head back a bit; a smile crossing his face. “It’s true that I was an enemy last year, but I’ve taken a new road if you want to call it that way.” The man nodded his head simply and petted the Emboar. “There are still a long of things in this world that I haven’t seen, and I think that being here will make me do just that.”

“I don’t care what you want.” The white haired boy gritted his teeth, his fists clenching before he raised his right hand and looked at his Charizard. “Charizard, use Flare Blitz. I’m tired of stalling this so much!”

“Oh, someone’s got bad temper.” The red haired man snickered in delight as he saw the dragon Pokemon surround its body in a hue of crimson flames. The Pokemon spread its wings out as much as it could, its body becoming completely crimson before it charged at the Emboar standing on the other side of the crater.

Even Swablu was able to tell that it would have to take cover after this, with that the Pokemon proceeded to lift itself from the ground and started flapping its wing frantically.

This was to no avail though, cause as soon as the Charizard and Emboar collided again another; even more powerful explosion, rang out, sending the Swablu flying away along with the two trainers.

And yet it still had that lingering feeling in its head, that maybe battling wasn’t as bad as other Pokemon made it out to be.

***

The cheers of the crowd thundered through the green house; making the glass walls of the house vibrate due to the sheer strength of the sounds the students made. Everyone was hyped up and ready to see this battle, though most of the focus had been put on Jack and Zephyr the other participants hadn’t exactly been put aside.

Reggie and his friends stared attentively as they saw Marie standing on one side of the field; her eyes staring at the Enforcer, not with fear or confidence, but with sheer will and seriousness. “Marie seems a lot different than from what I’ve seen, even in the tournament last year she was never this serious.” Miko noted with amazement.

“Of course, Marie’s a trainer as well after all.” Fin grinned as he looked at the girl and then at his opponents. He could feel his own blood boil as he looked at the Enforcers, like a knight being stared down by a large dragon. “A real trainer isn’t able to back off when he or she sees such a powerful opponent standing in front of them.”

“Really? Because they all seem really scary to me.” Claudia spoke hesitantly; she covering her ears so as to drown out the sound from the crowd. “Will they be okay though?”

Reggie was the one to respond this time, something that caused the group to look at him as he had stayed quiet throughout the whole conversation. “Marie and Jack are strong, that much is for sure but…” He faced the Enforcers once more, feeling fear crawl up through his spine. “The Enforcers are the best this school has to offer, with each one of them focusing on a different field that relates to all of the clubs in the school, sports, arts, battles, mental games, media and management. They are all balanced.”

“So you’re saying that the Enforcers just have to send out someone that can counter their respective opponent?” Fin questioned with a raised eyebrow, though he was mostly shocked that Reggie had said something so deep. “Well, the Enforcers are a group known because each of its members has a different style, and it’s obvious that they’re not going to let just anyone take their place at the top.”

“All right then!” Marie screamed, finally managing to quiet the crowd down. She looked at the Enforcers and sighed in exasperation. “Then, let’s do this,” she said firmly; raising two fingers into the air for the crowd to see. “We will settle this with a two round battle; we will use two of our members against two of yours.”

Keith smiled and nodded his head. He seemed really calm and quiet; something that everyone thought was impossible with so much tension. The teenager raised his head and turned to look at his teammates, whispering for what seemed like minutes.

Finally Zephyr and Angelo stepped up, the two of them standing by the sides of the field as Angelo adjusted the green beret he was wearing and smiled at Marie. “Madam Marie, allow me and Madam Zephyr to be your opponents for this battle.” Angelo smiled politely and bowed, though there was a clear mocking tone in his voice.

Marie didn’t reply, knowing that there was no longer any room for talking. She looked at Jack; who was now staring down along with Zephyr; probably preparing for the battle to come.

She knew that she and Jack were already at a disadvantage now that the Enforcers had sent people with similar styles of battling to fight them, but she still wasn’t willing to give up even through this. “All right then I’ll start.” Marie grabbed one of the poke balls that hung on the belt around her mini skirt and proceeded to send out her Roserade.

The Pokemon spread its arms out wide, rose petals fluttering around majestically as the Pokemon assumed a battling stand. Everyone seemed mesmerized by the appearance of Marie’s Roserade, and a couple of students were already taking pictures of it. Marie bit her bottom lip slightly, her mind racing with every possible Pokemon that Angelo could use against her.

“A beautiful entrance, as expected of a Coordinator’s Pokemon.” Angelo nodded his head in approval and smiled warmly. He put his hands inside of his pockets before taking out a pair of paint brushes. He waved his arm and the brushes around; almost as if he was painting a portrait on the air. Angelo stopped after a few seconds though, a smile creeping across his face as he looked at Marie. “And with that, I’ve painted the portrait of your defeat mon amie.”

With that Angelo proceeded to send out a Smeargle, the Pokemon spinning around on its tip toes as paint from its paint brush-like tail sprinkled around on the field. “How about we make our battle interesting.” He raised three fingers into the air, a cocky smile crossing his face. “Let’s make this a three minute battle, and we’ll decide the outcome in contest style, at the end of the battle we’ll let the public’s applause decide who wins.”

It was a risky method, that much was sure; however she knew that she had just as much of a chance at winning as Angelo did. Marie nodded her head simply before speaking. “I agree; we will do this battle through contest format then.”

“Why would he send out a Pokemon that can only learn one attack?” Marie wondered, raising an eyebrow in doubt as she looked at the Smeargle. Smeargle’s move Sketch was something that any trainer could figure out, a move that allowed Smeargle to copy its opponent’s move. However it was a move that could be easily countered. “Roserade, let’s hit him fast and hard. Start with Magical Leaf!”

Roserade charged forward, its feet skipping around on the battlefield gracefully as more petals were sent floating around the arena and scattering around its opponent. The Pokemon seemed confident in itself and the orders of its trainer as it stopped itself in the center of the cloud of petals.

Smeargle and Angelo didn’t react as the leaves started to glow in a rainbow color before diving towards the painter Pokemon. Smeargle raised its head and grinned as the leaves got closer, almost as if it was ready for what was to come.

As the leaves got closer Smeargle began to side step and move around, its body waving and passing through the leaves as if they were going in slow motion. The petals were thrown aside; each one of them losing their purpose and falling to the floor when they missed their target. Marie gritted his teeth when she saw the Smeargle’s speed, it wasn’t the type of speed that its species was supposed to have…it was almost as if…

“Wait a second, that’s Agility!” Marie exclaimed in disbelief as she saw Smeargle avoid the last of the Magical Leaf attack and assume its fighting stance once more. “But how?” she gritted her teeth in frustration.

“Smeargles can use Sketch to copy a Pokémon’s attacks as you probably know.” Angelo flicked his black colored hair back, his face showing an air of confidence as he lowered his arms and pocketed it. He hadn’t lost its composure; in fact, it was more as if he had become even more confident after seeing the last attack. “However, my Smeargle is different than most, I’ve trained my Smeargle so that it can “re sketch” all of the attacks that it sketches in other battles.”

Marie stood agape, the world stopping completely around her as the cheers from the crowd began to vanish slowly. It was as if the pressure was finally falling on top of her, she was finally seeing why someone like Angelo could’ve been picked to be part of the Enforcers. “How could you…there’s no way you can teach a Smeargle to just memorize every moment!”

“That’s why this is not Sketch.” Angelo raised his index finger and wagged it at Marie playfully. “I call it Perfect Sketch, when my Smeargle copies someone’s attacks it is able to remember that sketch and use it again, just how a painter is able to remember the paintings that he has created.’ She scoffed and crossed his arms, his expression becoming more sinister; though he never let off his usual composed smile. “I am the strongest Coordinator in this school as well as the best artist; you can’t expect me to lose here.”

Marie’s mind went into overdrive as soon as she heard his explanation. She had to think fast and figure out a way to counter the Perfect Sketch and she had to do it as fast as possible. “Roserade, let’s mo…”

“And what are you going to do Marie dear?’ Angelo interrupted, his voice changing to a clear mocking tone as he pointed at her with his paint brush. He enjoyed the sight of Marie’s face becoming full of doubt; especially as he saw the realization dawn on her more and more. “You might’ve had a chance to beat me if you had kept attacking Smeargle while he was dodging, you might’ve had a chance if you had attacked instead of wondering how Perfect Sketch works…however.” He lowered the brush and pocketed once more with a swift movement of his wrist. “2 minutes have already passed since the battle started, and with just one minute you just don’t have enough time.”

“I can still do something; if I can get the public to go to my side then I can beat you regardless of time!” Marie screamed and threw her hand forward. “Roserade, use Flash then Giga Impact!” Marie commanded loudly.

Roserade was now running once more, its bouquet- like arms glowing before it held them forward, sending a large and blinding flash of light throughout the field. Smeargle, at seeing the flash of light was taken aback and began to hold its hands against its eyes in an attempt to recover. This was the chance that Roserade needed though as it charged straight at Smeargle and threw its right arm forward with one quick thrust.

Smeargle wasn’t willing to go down so easily. The Pokemon jumped up just as the Giga Impact was about to collide, its body moving around like a feather in the wind as it jumped onto Roserade’s arm. This managed to throw the grass type off and even caused it to slip during its sudden halt, something that was later supported by Smeargle jumping off its arm and making it fall to the floor.

The crowd began laughing, some tried to hide it, and others let it out without any shame as they saw the battle unfold in front of them. Marie on the other hand was just embarrassed. She had failed to notice Angelo’s attempts at tricking her into buying more time, and what was worst was that she herself had agreed to such a battle out of her own cockiness. “I…I can’t believe this.” Marie clenched onto her green colored skirt and looked down at the floor, she no longer felt confident in her skills, now that she had finally realized the true hopelessness of her situation.

She didn’t even want to face her friends; not being able to bear the shame and the fact that she had failed them by letting Angelo take advantage of her situation. She then turned to Jack; who had gone quiet as the battle had progressed. She wanted to show her true strength to him, to show him that she too could be useful in a battle, that he didn’t had to rely just on himself. “I’m sorry Jack.” She whispered inaudibly.

“Well I guess it’s true what they say.” Angelo interrupted her train of thought, though this finally got her to look back at the battle field. “A criminal’s child has to make up for all the evil their parent has done, it’s too bad since you’re such a beautiful girl but what are you gonna do.” He shrugged.

Marie stood still now, her eyes opening wide in shock as she stared at her opponent. She wanted to fall to her knees after hearing those words, knowing that now the rest of the people in the room had been able to hear his words, that now everyone would know of her lineage and link to the old Team Galactic. “You know you should just…”

“Shut the hell up already!” Jack screamed, causing Angelo to turn to him as he saw his Electivire jump into the air.

What happened next was something that no one could’ve predicted. The Electivire’s tail clashed against Smeargle straight on, pushing the Pokemon against the ground and creating a small crater. The noise was enough to cause the crowd to finally became quiet and covered their ears. Of course there was another reason for it to become quiet.

Jack was now standing next to Marie; he was adjusting his glasses, making his amber colored eyes that were now shining with anger and outrage visible to the world. He didn’t speak, nor did he give any sign of speaking; the only thing that was sure was the bitterness that he felt towards Angelo.

The Enforcer on the other side was speechless, staring at his defeated Smeargle with disbelief. He was mostly shocked at how quickly the electric type had been able to take it down, especially with how sudden it had been. Angelo chuckled nervously and looked at Jack. “You know, you didn’t have to overreact like that, I mean the battle was still going and your interruption just made her loose.” She piped, though it was clear that he had now lost his composure and was shaking in fear.

“I don’t give a damn.” Jack stated bitterly, his glare intensifying even more as he pointed at Zephyr. “If I can beat her then I can kick your ass to next Sunday during the tie breaker right? Then that’s good enough for me you ass.”

Angelo smirked at this, almost as if he was starting to recover the confidence that he had lost a few minutes before. “You might be treated as a good strategist but there’s no way you could be better than Zephyr.” He pointed out with a grin as he stepped back so as to allow Zephyr to take his place.

The crowd immediately went quiet once they saw the two battlers take their place. They were making sure to watch their every move, waiting anxiously for what the two trainers would do first. “So we finally meet huh?” Zephyr spoke calmly, a small smile going across her face as she stared at her opponent. “I’ve read up a lot about you Jack, it seems like you have great talent for someone young, though maybe it has to do with your heritage.”

Jack raised his head slightly and smiled. “I wouldn’t compare me if I were you.” He stated simply and adjusted his glasses, though this caused the crowd to gasp a bit thinking that he was going to do something. “Though I can say that I’ve definitely heard things about you.” He smiled slyly.

“I’m glad you’re as expectant of this battle as I am.” Zephyr nodded her head and smiled.

Jack grabbed one of the poke balls of his belt and proceeded to return Electivire. He needed a Pokemon that could help him out, one that he could trust the battle to if it weren’t to turn against him. “Go, Venasaur!” Jack shouted before sending out his Venasaur into the field. The large grass type stomped on the ground, causing small vibrations on it before it let out a roar.

The crowd stepped back a bit, though some couldn’t stop clapping as they saw the magnificent creature that had appeared before them. Zephyr; who had been resting her arms against the armrest of her chair slid her right hand downwards and took out a pokeball of her own.

“Then please don’t go easy on me because of my condition.”

***

He panted heavily now, his hair covering his face as his dirty and bruised body stood there. His eyes fell down on the crater that he was lying on, the sun now starting to cast a shadow over his body. Darren looked up in disgust and annoyance, seeing that Kevin Blaze, or rather Incendio was now staring down at him; a grin on his face. “I think we had a bet.” He smiled.

Darren gritted his teeth in frustration. Surrounding him were the defeated figures of Charizard, Aggron, Seviper, Houndoom and Honchrow, all of them taken down and unconscious. “Though honestly I’m really disappointed in you man.” Incendio shook his head before scoffing.

“I mean all it took from me was Emboar and Magmotar and you were done for; guess the boss was having a bad day when you beat him.” He simply shrugged, still keeping up his usual smug grin. “Now how about we do this,” he said slyly and began to slide down into the crater.

“Should a teacher really be acting this way towards a student though?” Darren snickered as he looked up at the battling teacher as he approached him. “Though I guess I can’t call a fake like you a teacher.”

“We all have a reason for the things we do.” Incendio nodded his head sagely. “I’m just following on mine is all.” He was now towering over Darren, making the student feel the difference between them increase even more. “Plus we made a bet; you just have to pay your end of the deal is all.”

Darren clenched his fist in annoyance as he stood up from the floor. “You could use Pikachu, but he’ll just lose too so why should we keep arguing.” Incendio retorted.

“Fine I’ll do as you say.” He spoke, though he had a hint of resentment in his voice.

“Good boy.” Incendio grinned widely. He proceeded to put his hand on Darren’s head, something that just caused the teen to become even more annoyed as he glared at the teacher. “Now let’s go, we can’t talk about this over drinks since you’re underage and all but some dinner wouldn’t be bad.”

Darren didn’t reply, instead opting for following Incendio reluctantly.

***
The sun was beginning to set above the green house, casting a shadow above all of the people that had gathered around the battlefield. The tension had risen as everyone stared at the battle going on in front of them.

However, unlike what most people would expect, things hadn’t actually moved much from the time the battle began. Both Venasaur and Chandelure had merely stared at each other, attacking only occasionally as if to test the waters of the battle. Jack and Zephyr weren’t any different either; the two of them hadn’t stopped staring at each other, both of them trying hard to pick a road that they could take to beat the other.

Jack looked at Venasaur and clenched his fist in frustration, if he couldn’t come up with a strategy that could defeat Zephyr he could end up losing the battle. He turned to look towards Marie, who had now finished drying the tears that had come out before. He couldn’t fail her, not after he had promised to help her out, not after everything that she had done for him.

“It seems like we’ve reached a stalemate.” Zephyr interrupted, a smile crossing her face as she looked towards Jack. “However, I think we both know that if it comes down to our strategic sense I have the upper hand, but the fact you’ve been able to hide all your openings is something that impresses me.”

Jack raised his hand up and put it on the center of his glasses, his eyes staring towards Zephyr carefully as he grinned. “Actually, I wouldn’t say that if I were you.” He pointed out simply before lowering his hand once more. “Because I’ve been able to figure out a strategy that can allow me to win this.”

Zephyr raised an eyebrow in confusion, a bit shocked that Jack had been able to think of a strategy that she herself hadn’t thought of before.

“You see in wars generals have to come up with quick strategies so as to ensue not only victory but the safety of their soldiers.” Jack explained as he stared at Venasaur; who was now gazing back at him as if trying to see what its trainer had in mind. “However, sometimes when two sides face off a simple strategy isn’t the solution, so sometimes a general has to make a choice, a risky one.”

He raised his index finger up in the air; making the crowd move along with the finger. “Sometimes a battle can be settled with just one shot, a strategy that, with just one simple move can turn the tide of the battle completely.”

Zephyr’s expression didn’t change much instead she seemed to have become more bored after hearing Jack’s explanation. “Did you hear what you just said? For a strategist putting everything on just one shot is like suicide, it’s a risky move and it could end up causing you to lose.”

“Really now?” Jack wondered with a grin.

“Yes really.”

“I wouldn’t think so. You see it isn’t just in wars, but competitions as well, sports, art, even in media there comes a point where someone has to just forget about thinking through things and put their all into just one shot.” Jack stated slyly, his voice having become more confident and louder. He turned his head around to look at the rest of his friends, a serious expression crossing his face as he turned back. “That’s what they have taught me; in a battle between strategists it is all decided by who makes the first move, not the other way around.”

“You know Jack I used to think you were really interesting, I’ve read a lot about you in your profile after all.” Zephyr rested her arms on the arm rest once more as she turned away from Jack. “I thought that you were someone that I could connect with, but it seems even you have turned into one of them.”

“One of them?” Jack raised an eyebrow.

“That doesn’t matter, but if you’re going to do something you should do it now, though be prepared that I know everything you could do.” The two of them eyed each other once more, the tension had risen even more now that Zephyr had uttered those words; Jack didn’t like to be underestimated and as thus Zephyr’s words had managed to irked him more than he let on.

“You asked for it!” Jack exclaimed and threw his arm forward. “Venasaur, attack!”

Venasaur let out a loud roar that rang through the green house, making the glass dome shiver slightly due to the sheer force of the sound wave the grass type produced. The Pokemon proceeded to stomp on the ground once more, however this time the ground started to rumble and shake slightly, causing everyone in the crowd to move away from the battlefield and the small shockwave.

Suddenly a large brown colored vine popped out from under the ground, the vine was surrounded with spikes and latched at Chandelure instantly. The vine wrapped around the Ghost’s body, stopping the ghost type from countering or dodging.

Zephyr gasped in disbelief as she saw the vine wrap around her Pokemon, but before she was able to ensure a counter attack more vines popped out from Chandelure’s surroundings and started to wrap around its limbs and the rest of its body. This combined with the feeling of the spikes piercing through its body caused the Pokemon to shriek in agony, an ear piercing scream that brought about fear and shock from the students as they saw a purple gas ooze out from the Pokemon.

Zephyr gritted her teeth in frustration as she glared at Jack. “Do you know what you’re doing? You’re risking it all on one attack like this.”

“That may be true, but it’s also true that while Frenzy Plant is in play your Chandelure won’t be able to counter due to the pain its receiving.” Jack explained with a smile as he pointed at Zephyr. “Besides, let’s not kid ourselves, you might be the best strategist but you’re far from being the strongest of the Enforcers, hell you’re probably second only to Angelo!”

“Hey! I resent that!” Angelo exclaimed from where he stood; though his screams fell on deaf ears.

“Wait that’s great isn’t it?” Miko asked, a smile going across her face when she saw what Jack’s plan involved. She turned around to look at the rest of the group, though they all seemed to be quite serious and worried about the situation. “What’s wrong?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Frenzy Plant really is a risky move.” Allison was the first one to speak this time; though she didn’t move her gaze away from the battle. “Because when a Pokemon uses an attack like that it has to wait a little while before being able to use another attack, this means that if Jack can’t beat Zephyr with just that attack then it’s all over.”

“However.” Fin chuckled from where he stood. “There is one way to use more attacks without having to wait for a Pokemon to recover, and I’m sure that’s what Jack wants to do.”

“Keep adding pressure to it Venasaur!” Jack ordered, his voice sounding more frustrated now. Venasaur had planted its legs on the ground as it increased the pressured and tightness of the vines that were now around Chandelure. The Pokemon continued to scream out in pain; though the screams had subsided slightly.

“You won’t be able to win, while it is true that Frenzy Plant is a powerful move there’s no way you can keep it up for too long.” Zephyr narrowed her eyes on Chandelure. “Chandelure use Incinerate!” she commanded loudly.

The Ghost/Fire type Pokémon’s eyes started to glow in a bright orange color. The flames on its arms started to light up and increase in side, causing the vines around the Pokemon to become surrounded by flames and start to cinder.

Jack stepped back, seeing the Chandelure’s flames shine brighter and brighter the bigger they got. He could hear Venasaur’s fast panting; it was becoming even more tired with every passing second, and after making use of Frenzy Plant for so long it was obvious that it wouldn’t last.

“You said that the first move could decide the tide, well you were right.” Zephyr said with a more serious and professional tone now, she raising her head more so that she could look directly into his eyes. “That’s why I had Chandelure use Endure; I had it use all of the energy it could muster so that it could take whatever you threw and while your Venasaur lost its power mine was able to conserve his, aside from that you also forgot about the type advantage that my Pokemon had over yours, had you had the advantage then the difference in strength would’ve been enough to beat me. Now, Flame Burst!”

Chandelure’s arms began to wave and dance around before they each began pointing towards Jack and his Venasaur, who had now stepped back as they saw the flames at the tip of its candles gather around into large fireballs.

With that Chandelure proceeded to fire a barrage of large fire bullets straight towards the grass type and its trainer, the bullets coursing through the air and breaking through air pressure as they approached and started hitting the grass type’s body.

Jack lowered his head, fists clenched as he looked at Marie from the corner of his eyes once more; that expression of worry that reflected on her face as she saw his Venasaur being hit by Zephyr’s attack. He felt something slide off his face though, his glasses, they had always had a problem with sticking to his face and as thus he always had the need to adjust them from time to time, however because of all the movements he had made they had now slid off his face and fallen to the floor; leaving his amber colored eyes exposed to the world.

How could he have forgotten about the type advantage, he had been so focused on making the strategy that came to his head a reality that he himself had forgotten what kind of Pokemon he had been battling; even if he had dragged the battle longer he would’ve had more of a chance to win.

He looked towards Venasaur once more and gasped in disbelief. The Pokemon had been surrounded by a green colored hue that now wrapped its body completely. “Overgrow?’ Zephyr raised an eyebrow before grinning. “I see, so you wanted to push Venasaur to his limits to make it activate Overgrow.”

“Yeah so now…”

“But it’s far too late.” Zephyr interrupted him, her voice becoming somber and quiet. This was what finally made it dawn upon the Pikachu Thunder student, while Venasaur had been able to activate Overgrow the amount of fatigue from keeping up Frenzy Plant as well as the Subsequent Flame Burst had caused the Pokemon to lose what little energy it had left. Venasaur let out a faint sigh before slumping down on the floor, its body now defeated.

“You put up a good fight Jack.” Zephyr nodded his head. “But you forgot to analyze the situation completely, believing that you could beat me with a simple strategy that used the difference in strength, so it is sadly your loss.”

Reggie stared at Jack’s defeated figure, he wasn’t moving; rather it seemed as if he was replaying what had just happened in his head, desperately trying to find for a way in which his loss wasn’t his fault. It hadn’t been because Zephyr was a better strategy, but because Jack had gotten overconfident in his own plays.

Before Zephyr was able to roll away from the battle field Keith had already walked towards her, putting a hand on her shoulder. “You did great Zephyr.” He smiled warmly at the girl before looking at the rest of the crowd; particularly the Media Club. “The battle is over and it is our victory!” He stated with a cold tone.

“Now I’m sure that as you all know this Inter Club Tournament is supposed to last for the whole week, however I’m sure we can all agree that it is useless.” He lowered his hand from Zephyr’s shoulders and had now spread both of his arms out in a preaching position. “Which is why I along with the rest of the Enforcers have agreed on this, the quicker we settle this the more days off that you will all have from class to enjoy to yourself, so we have a proposition,” he said sagely.

“In two days we ask you to come to the academy’s own battle stadium, any club that still wants to participate and thinks they can face us are welcome to come there. If you do not feel like doing so then I think we can agree it is best to drop out, there are already a lot of groups that have after all.”

The crowd didn’t respond the cheerfulness and strenuous screams that had gone on throughout the battle had now subsided as everyone allowed Keith’s proposition to sink in. Reggie himself seemed hesitant, after what Zephyr and Angelo had done in the battle he was certain that even with his training he wouldn’t be able to beat them; he looked at the rest of his group for approval; only to see that they too seemed hesitant about their choice.

The Enforcers had gotten tired of games and they had finally made their move.

***

Darren and Incendio had followed through with their dinner proposal and had now gone to one of the restaurants inside of the castle. Darren looked around in shock. They had now entered a small Japanese style restaurant; the restaurant itself seemed to be mostly made out of wood and had multiple desks and chairs all around.

In the center of the restaurant was a wooden counter that went around the kitchen area in a circle; allowing customers to see how their food was made. The smell of the food being cocked as well as leftovers was indeed an amazing feel as even Darren began to feel his own stomach start to grumble. He narrowed his eyes on Incendio; who seemed to be absorbing the smells happily before letting out a sigh of content.

“You’re from Sinnoh so I guess you wouldn’t know much about this, I mean Sinnoh style food leads more towards the same taste as Unovans right?” Incendio pointed out with a smile before walking towards the counter and sitting down; urging Darren to follow him.

“Yeah, but I’ve never been much of a food person myself.” Darren pointed out dryly as he sat down next to the teacher. He noticed the chef walking towards Incendio, a smile on his face and considering how the two men began to speak to each other it seemed as if they were used to exchanging pleasantries.

About a minute or so later Incendio stopped talking and lean close to the man’s ear to whisper something; once this was done the chef gave him a smile and a nod before turning around and walking towards the kitchen area. “What did you do?’ Darren asked with a deadpan; ensuing a soft chuckle from Incendio.

“Now just sit tight and wait kid,” the teacher said cheerfully while wagging his finger at Darren. “I’m paying after all so you shouldn’t be picky about what I order.”

“I’d like to have my opinion on what I eat thank you very much.” Darren grumbled.

“You need to get laid dude.” Incendio sighed before turning to the kitchen. “Or at least try to appreciate more about life.” Darren didn’t respond and turned away from him, making Incendio’s smile get wider.

A few minutes later the chef came back holding two bowls of ramen, something that made the white haired teenager raise an eyebrow as he stared down at his plate. He looked over at Incendio and noticed that the man was already using his chopsticks and was eating the noodles at a great speed. “What is this strange stuff?” Darren asked as he poked at the noodles with one of the sticks.

“It’s ramen…it’s good.”

“It’s noodles soaked in soup with pieces of other foods floating around,” Darren said bitterly, still poking at the noodles. “It looks disgusting.”


“See, this is why I say you should try new things…hmmm.” Incendio gazed upon Darren’s plate and smiled deviously; as if he had just come up with the solution for all his problems. “Tell you what, taste it, if you don’t like it you can leave and you don’t have to tell me anything at all…deal?”

Darren scratched his chin in thought. While it was true that he didn’t like the idea of eating it if it was able to get him out of the situation then it was plausible. “You know I could just lie and say that I didn’t like it right?”

“I trust you.”

Darren stared at the bowl in front of him and proceeded to scoop some of the noodles with the chopsticks, he still seemed a bit doubtful but nevertheless proceeded to swallow the noodles as they slid into his mouth. It was warm and soft, yet it was also wet at the same time; he tried to block the flavor, knowing that if he let himself go he wouldn’t be able to put on his façade.

Unfortunately this failed and as soon as he opened his eyes he saw Incendio’s cheeky grin staring back at him. “Shut up!” Darren exclaimed before folding his arms in frustration.

“That wasn’t too bad now was it?” Incendio laughed.

“Anyways shouldn’t we start talking about what we came to talk about?” Darren frowned with disdain, still keeping his gaze away from the teacher.

“Actually, speaking about that.” Incendio proceeded to lower his chopsticks and setting them on the counter. He put his hands together before laying his head on the intertwined hands. “I already know what I need to know, I just hadn’t told the principal cause I figured it would be a good chance for me to test your skills.”

“So you made me go through all of this for no…”

“Not for nothing!” Incendio stuck his index finger in front of Darren. “I did it cause I wanted to show you this.” He then pointed down at the ramen bowl. “This is the key to overcoming your recent losing streak.”

“A bowl of noodles?” Darren scoffed.

“You’ll see it when you’ll see it.” Incendio shrugged. He put his hands on the counter and spun the chair around slightly, now staring straight in Darren’s direction. “I know that you obtained the InstaLink in the ruins at Tohjo Falls, the old man that lives there must’ve given it to you like he did the boss.”

Darren didn’t face Incendio; instead deciding to keep eating from the bowl in front of him and nodding his head. “Yeah.” He responded after a few seconds. “I was exploring Tohjo Falls and got into an accident, the old man nursed me back and gave me that mark, and he was always so twisted.”

“I also know the reason why your hair turned white.” When he heard this Darren stopped eating, his fingers instead clenched the chopsticks tightly as he bit his bottom lip; nervousness, something that he rarely showed in public. “The InstaLink is a special mark that allows a trainer to give his energy to his Pokemon and increase their attributes; this can be used the other way around as well.”

“However, in order to do this a trainer must give out some of their own life force, the InstaLink sucks it out as payment, it’s like a debit card in a way, you can pay for what you want and your money is taken out directly but if you pay too much…you’ll run out.” His expression became more serious and thoughtful as he and the teenager exchanged glances with each other. “Your hair turned white because of how much you used that mark’s power, I’d say that your life force is probably that of a man in his early 60’s maybe a little younger.”

“Yeah, so what?”

“Meh, I’m not gonna preach, just wanted to know If you knew where ya stood is all.” Incendio said as he stood up. “Though one last question, do you really not know anything about Memento Mori?”

“I know the old man used to mention them when I visited, he offered me to join them one time but I refused.” Darren replied; now going back to eating his ramen. “But that’s all I know.”

“Okay then. Though sadly the old man seems to have vanished from what the principal told me so we lost that lead.” Incendio smiled and patted Darren’s head once more, causing the young man to grumble with annoyance. “Also remember, the secret in that ramen is the key to becoming stronger.” He winked and then proceeded to walk off.

Darren just stared down at the bowl, what did he mean when he said that? He still didn’t understood that but he did know one things, if he wasn’t able to recover his edge then his next fight would just end up like the last two and he couldn’t risk that happening against Keith. “Why must everything be so freaking annoying.” He sighed in annoyance.

End of Chapter 31
Next Time: 6 vs. 6 the Last Challenge Begins


Also about the Swablue, mainly I did things from his perspective to see if I could do it, though the Pokemon will appear once more during the next few chapters so it wasn't an asspull on my part.

Spoiler

Also regarding the title of the next chapter, it means 6 vs 6 people rather than a 6 vs 6 battle between Pokemon, just keep that in mind.

 

[Tophat Dragoneye]

It was actually great to see the first part of the chapter from the Swablu's perspective, you did it very well. Whether or not we're going to see it again, though, only time will tell. Likewise, seeing more details about Darren's power and some explanation about it was excellent, but also worryingly. If Darren has used so much of its power that his life force is equal to those around sixty years old...

Now for the battle between the clubs. It was some relatively simple battles between them, not there's anything wrong with that. Marie's battle with Angelo, while it was disastrous for her, it well described, and so was Jack's battle against Zephyr.

It's unusual for Jack to simply forget Chandelure's type advantage against his Venusaur, but I guess Angelo's cruel speech about Marie's parents really got to him, which is understandable. Speaking of Angelo, we got to see his true persona, one who isn't afraid to mock his opponents any way possible, as well not afraid to torture them with something personal.

The Enforcers are beginning to become more and more antagonistic, though Zephyr seems to be the only one not being that, but that's just my impression of things. Besides that, they seem to become somewhat overconfident of their abilities since they issued a final challenge to everyone.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this chapter and I'm keen to see what's going to happen.

 

[Sweet Veil]

Anyway, let's get to work.

A curious Swablu flew above the forest, a smile on its face as the wind hit its face head on

"A curious Swablu flew above the forest, smiling as the wind hit its face head on."

Try to get rid of unnecessary words. Plus using face twice like that seems repetitive.

For a flying type Pokemon this feeling was like nothing else, one could say that it was what made a Flying type feel like one.

Are you capitalizing Flying-type or not? Pick one and try to be consistent with it.

The Swablu let out a soft whine; its cloud-like wings moving around to try and allow him to lift itself from the floor. It raised his head slowly; trying it’s best to scan around through the dust cloud in front of it.

You referred to the Swablu as an "it" up until this point, now you give it a gender with the "his head." Try to be consistent. Also it's "its," "it's" is "it is."

something that the Swablu had never seen as it was rare to find Pokemon of different colors.

I suggest trying to make sentences like this sound a little less ambiguous. I understand that the Charizard is alternate-colored but different colors just makes it sound like the Swablu had never seen other Pokemon before, I would have said something more along the lines of the Swablu hadn't seen a Charizard of such a special color.

At that Moment the little Pokemon began to feel something stir in him; almost as if he wanted to be as strong as those two, to no longer be just another forest Pokemon that had to run away from stronger predators.

Moment shouldn't be capitalized, also watch out on the word repetitiveness. "Strong(er)" for example.

The other human just scoffed, his white messy hair waving around a little as he turned away from his opponent.

"white, messy hair." Items in a series, use comma(s).

“Oh, someone’s got bad temper.” The red haired man snickered in delight as he saw the dragon Pokemon surround its body in a hue of crimson flames. The Pokemon spread its wings out as much as it could, its body becoming completely crimson before it charged at the Emboar standing on the other side of the crater.

I would have gone for a synonym for crimson.

This was to no avail though, cause as soon as the Charizard and Emboar collided again another; even more powerful explosion, rang out, sending the Swablu flying away along with the two trainers.

"because," not cause in normal description.

The petals were thrown aside; each one of them losing their purpose and falling to the floor when they missed their target.

That was a nice piece of vivid description.

“And what are you going to do Marie dear?’

Quote error.

Roserade was now running once more, its bouquet- like

bouquet-like, spacing issue.

“You know, you didn’t have to overreact like that, I mean the battle was still going and your interruption just made her loose.”

Lose*

Go, Venasaur!

Venusaur

Venasaur into the field.

The sun was beginning to set above the green house,

Greenhouse is the facility that stores plants, "green house" is a literal green house.

Both Venasaur and Chandelure

Jack looked at Venasaur and clenched his fist in frustration

“You asked for it!” Jack exclaimed and threw his arm forward. “Venasaur, attack!”

Venasaur let out a loud roar that rang

Venusaur

through the green house

Greenhouse, "Glasshouse" also works if you want it to be a bit more differentiated.

shockwave.

Two words not one.

“Keep adding pressure to it Venasaur!”

Venasaur had planted its legs on the ground as it increased the pressured and tightness of the vines that were now around Chandelure.

The

The Ghost/Fire type Pokémon’s eyes started to glow in a bright orange color.

"bright, orange" items in a series.

J He could hear Venasaur’s fast panting; it was becoming even more tired with every passing second,

U not A.

Zephyr said with a more serious and professional tone now, she raising her head more so that she could look directly into his eyes.

Remove the "she." It sounds awkward.

Venasaur lost its power mine was able to conserve his,

Venasaur once more and gasped in disbelief

“Overgrow?’ Zephyr raised an eyebrow before grinning.

Quote issue.

while Venasaur had been able to activate Overgrow

the amount of fatigue from keeping up Frenzy Plant as well as the Subsequent Flame Burst had caused the Pokemon to lose what little energy it had left.

Is there any reason you capitalized "subsequent?"

Venasaur

Before Zephyr was able to roll away from the battle field Keith had already walked towards her,

Battlefield is one word, not two.

“You’re from Sinnoh so I guess you wouldn’t know much about this, I mean Sinnoh style food leads more towards the same taste as Unovans right?” Incendio pointed out with a smile before walking towards the counter and sitting down; urging Darren to follow him.

Interesting that Sinnoh food would be similar in taste to Unova food, considering Sinnoh is based on Hokkaido, a region in Japan only about an hour away from the other regions that are the PokeWorld equivalents. Where as Unova is based on America which is around a 7-12 hour play ride nearly around the world.

façade.

Why wasn't that just written as "facade"?

black colored Charizard,

his long red colored hair

similar colored eyes.

Angelo flicked his black colored hair back,

making his amber colored eyes

Suddenly a large brown colored vine

leaving his amber colored eyes exposed to the world.

a green colored hue that now wrapped its body completely.

Try dropping "colored," you use it a lot when describing something and it's extremely repetitive and gets wordy. Just calling it a "black Charizard" flows better.

Something I noticed a lot here also is that you've abused semicolons a lot in places where they really aren't needed, try to work on that.



Anyway, this chapter was solid. Zephyr being expanded on as a strategic battler was nice if only because it gives more to her character. I was a bit surprised at Jack's intervention into Marie and Angelo's battle as well as the idea of "Perfect Sketch." The battles were pretty simple, not many attacks were exchanged. Nothing wrong with that though, it actually managed to be engaging due to the dialogue between the competitors. I was surprised to find out Jack is a strategist and Marie's parents apparently were criminals and in-league with Team Galactic. Didn't expect that, mainly because I know so little about your cast of characters. So, the Enforcers speed up their plans and want to go all out against them, interesting. Zephyr's strategy to win was clever, though I think it was weird a Frenzy Plant would one-hit KO a fully-evolved Fire-type in the first place. I thought it was strange Jack really forgot he was up against a Fire-type too, despite the fact he let his head go to the gutter a bit. Darren and Incedio scenes were somewhat amusing. I'm not sure about the Swablu, I wonder what actual purpose it will serve to the story since it seems to have taken a liking to battling. I had no clue Darren had white hair. So, it's white due to his age being upped so much and I thought it was weird that he was so nonchalant about it. Usually have such a huge jump in growth is a cause for concern. I liked how Angelo had a Smeargle, it fit his motif and I really like Smeargle as a Pokemon.

Anyway, other than that, I think you should work on making your sentences a little less wordy and removing unneccessary words so the dialogue doesn't come off as too clunky at parts. Also regarding the quote, spelling, comma, and semicolon errors. Proofread, proofread, proofread before you release a chapter. I proofread my chapter around three to five times before releasing them. You can and will miss errors at times but you must check thoroughly.

That's it for now!

 

[Flaze]

OOooooooo ffuuuuck xD sorry about the Venusaur mistakes, in all honestly all my life I always thought it had an a I even looked it up in the internet and I missed the u so I completely apologize for that @Gotpika; As for facade, word corrected it on its own so I figured I'll just leave it like that, same with the semicolons.

Regarding the sinnoh thing, I do know that it's based on Japan but in the world that Pokemon Academy takes place the regions kind of have varied influences, Kanto and Johto are more traditional when it comes to their food while Hoenn has more diversity, Sinnoh leads more towards Unova, there's still the culture but there are those like Darren who have only known western food, this is more true for Darren since he has lived going around from city to city and region to region so he always goes for something that he can eat quickly.

Yeah Darren's hair was mentioned to be white in the last chapter and during his descriptions a lot of times before, but it's easy to miss little details really. Jack losing his control was mostly cause of him rushing through things due to how angry he was at Angelo, that and he sent Venusaur before Zephyr sent out he rown Pokemon.

Actually Darren himself hasn't grown, his hair just turned white and his life expectancy has decreased, and the reason he acts nonchalant about it is because he's already come to terms with it over the four years since he obtained the InstaLink, plus he knew what he got himself into when he started using it for his own purposes.


Anyways I'd like to thank you and @Tophat Dragoneye; for your reviews and I really appreciate it, and I will try to make things less wordy for next chapter.

 

[AetherX]

All caught up! Glad to see you back to writing.

Gotpika went over most of the specific mistakes, so I'll just leave a general review. Chapter 29 was certainly not your best work. Entertaining enough, I suppose, but far from quality. As others have said (and this applies to other chapters as well), avoid using so many words. Less is more. It can be particularly throwing when you use the same word (noun, adjective, verb, anything) to describe something over a short period of time. As always, remember to proofread and proofread again. Honestly, I think typos and grammar mistakes are the biggest things holding you back at this point, although you've had some serious improvement.

Plot-wise, your characters are all over the place as always (in a good way). I can't honestly say I see Reggie as the main character just looking at these last few chapters

It was nice to see Reggie grow a pair and pull off a semi-badass moment in standing up to Kevin, even if it might cause some problems later. The expansion on Claudia's and Allison's personalities was good, and I particularly liked the battle between Jack and Zephyr. It was a clever touch to have him be so preoccupied about standing up to really advanced strategies that he forgot about the simplest strategy of them all: type advantage. The battle between Marie and Asshole-o was good as well. That "Perfect Sketch" thing seems really OP. Isn't he basically turning his Smeargle into Mew by doing that?

Also, I think I know where you're going with the ramen thing. Darren really needs to work on being slimy, delicious, and commonly mixed with vegetables.

Overall, excellent job. You're getting exponentially better. If you ever want a full-length review just say the word, I feel like I owe it to you. For the sake of time though, this is all I've got. Keep it up!

 

[Flaze]

I tend to get overly wordy with description when it comes to battles xD I guess I worry too much about leaving something out while I write them, but I'll try to not make the next chapters as wordy.

Also I'm glad that you think that actually, I've been wanting to give attention to the other characters as well as focus on their own issues, Reggie's the protagonist but don't expect him to have all the focus, or at least that's what I'd like to show from now on.

Regarding "Perfect Sketch" as the attack will be seen again I can't reveal too much, however while Smeargle is able to use any attack that it has copied before it cannot use it perfectly, there's also the factor in strength to consider so even if it fired water gun against a Camerupt the Pokemon probably wouldn't be as affected as if it was from a Pokemon that could actually learn it.

Also, regarding the ramen thing, you're not quite there but you do have an idea.

 

[Kihote]

I really enjoyed reading this one and loved the swablue(I most likely spelled it wrong but whatevs) thingy. Seeing the world from another perspective is always nice and I may or may not steal that idea for later use in my own fic...

Aaaaanyway, strangly, despite so little attacks being used in the battles, they didn't feel rushed(at least to me) and really pulled me in, though perhaps it was the amount of tension you put into it.

Darren and the ramen.......what could it mean? Perhaps he needs to try new things.....either that or get a tangrowth

Only bad thing I could see were grammar issues and you constantly changing everyone's genders, though I'm sure you'll be able to surpass that with time and proofreading

 

[Flaze]

@Soulmaster; @Instrutilus; @Tophat Dragoneye; @The Jingster; @System Error; @AetherX; @Gotpika;

Well it's finally here, the newest chapter. Once more it took a bit of a while for this to come out thanks to me also working on Requiem but hopefully the way was worth it.

This is the last chapter before the battle begins so I hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 32: 6 vs. 6 The Last Challenge Begins

The members of the Media Club, minus Reggie and Darren were now gathered around their club room; including Stacy who was reading a magazine while listening to the other speak. After the battle between the Enforcers and the gardening club the day before the whole academy had gotten quiet; with everyone wondering who would be the one to accept the Enforcer’s clear challenge.

“Okay so what should we do regarding the Enforcers?” Fin was the first one to speak, causing the rest of the girl to raise their heads and turn their attention to him. The red haired trainer rubbed the back of his head, flashing a clueless expression their way. “Don’t look at me, I’m the one asking. I have no freaking idea what to do.”

“Well it’s not like I know what to do either,” Valerie sighed in defeat, leaning against her desk. She wouldn’t be much help regardless of what the team did since she had no Pokemon. “Why don’t you just challenge them to a battle, I don’t think Darren would mind,” she shrugged nonchalantly.

Allison tapped her foot on the ground impatiently, almost as if she was waiting for the others to just make up their mind. She knew that she didn’t have much of an idea herself and Valerie had just now said the only thing that was going through her mind. “Valerie’s right!” Allison yelled, only for her to cover her mouth once she realized her voice had come out louder than she had wanted it to.

Fortunately, it had an opposite effect on the others. The feelings of doubt and weakness that had fallen over the room were now all but lifted, especially now that everyone was trying to hold their laughter at Allison’s antics. “Honestly I think settling everything with a simple battle is kind of pointless, but it’s what you guys are good at,” Stacy interjected with a sageful nod.

“It’s not that easy though,” Miko said worryingly, she scratching her chin as she leaned back against her chair; her head looking upwards in thought. “I mean the only capable trainers we have are Fin, Darren, Allison and Reggie. The latter two aren’t exactly on par with the Enforcers though.”

“Especially since Keith beat Darren’s ass before,” Valerie added.

“You know he’d be pissed if he heard you say that Val!” Fin laughed hysterically while leaning against his chair. He turned to face the window though, his mind taking in what Valerie had said before. They weren’t exactly rookies when it came to battling but it was true that the Enforcers were in a much higher level. Fin crossed his arms and faced the group once more. “Regardless, since we’re technically going to be the challengers we’ll be fighting by their rules either way so it’s not like we can plan anything ahead of time.”

“So then what do you suggest we do?” Valerie raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

“You guys already know the battling styles that the Enforcers use, don’t you?” Stacy spoke, her eyes not turning away from the magazine that she had been holding. “Then just make preparations for that, simple as that.” She nodded her head.

“Claudia do you have any ideas?” Miko turned to look at the quiet girl sitting on the other side of her desk. Not knowing much about the situation itself, Claudia had decided to just stay quiet and read her book, it’s not like she didn’t want to help though but she just didn’t know how.

“Um…well maybe a full battle against them, 6 of our members against 6 of theirs.” Claudia suggested shyly, nervous that the group wouldn’t like her idea. “We know that if it comes down to fighting strength Angelo, Kevin and Zephyr are their weaknesses regardless of Zephyr’s strategic ability, and it’s not like Alexandria is too strong so the only ones you have to worry about are Tyson and Keith.”

“True,” Fin nodded his head in agreement. “If it was a fight against three of their members they’ll go with their strongest ones, in a fight between 6 people and 6 people then that gives us a chance to have 4 victories at best,” Fin explained, his lip pouting slightly as he thought on this choice; however, it quickly turned into a frown as he looked at Claudia once more. “Except we have only five trainers, you and Valerie don’t have Pokemon after all.”

“Actually I uh…” Claudia stuttered quietly as she turned to the floor. She slowly raised her head once more, her expression showing clear embarrassment. “I actually do have a Pokemon…sorry.”

“You do!?” Both Allison and Valerie closed in on the girl, causing her to yelp and lean back against her chair. This in turn caused the chair to almost topple over and for Claudia to yelp yet again. “I didn’t know that.”

“I don’t usually tell other people,” Claudia breathed out a sigh of relief, mostly at realizing she hadn’t actually fallen on her back like she had expected. “I normally leave her in my room and I tend to leave her in the pokeball when people visit.” She rubbed the back of her head nervously.

“This is not something you can just keep,” Fin frowned with annoyance; unfortunately for him this caused the rest of the girl to frown at him instead. Fin chuckled nervously, knowing that he had talked too much. “But anyways…just having a Pokemon doesn’t mean you can battle.”

“True but if we run with the luck of Claudia battling against one of the stronger members, the ones that we know we can’t beat anyway, then that’ll help us out,” Miko raised her index finger; her voice sounding more knowledgeable and confident now.

And yet Fin still felt unconvinced. The Enforcers weren’t a group that they could just take lightly, and speaking as if they’ll be able to take them down so easily just made things even worse; he was an experienced trainer himself and he knew that things would not just go as they plan them to go regardless of how well they do it. “You know what?” Fin raised his head before lowering once more and grinning. “Let’s do a barbecue.”

This proposal came as a bit of a surprise for the girls, especially due to Fin’s childish smirk. “Um Fin…I know this is hard to believe but that was the stupidest thing you’ve ever said,” Valerie spoke bluntly, her voice dripping with annoyance as she stared at the blue uniformed student. “We’re discussing a serious ma…”

“I don’t give a damn, I’m hungry and I want to eat some food,” Fin yawned, completely dismissing Valerie’s statement as he stood up. “Miko call Reggie and Darren and tell them we’ll meet at the back of the Charizard Flame dorm, the barbecue there is awesome. Allison, come with me and Valerie to the kitchen to look for ingredients and Claudia you go look for your Pokemon.”

The girls couldn’t do anything but stared at each other in confusion as Fin gave his orders; They eventually sighed, realizing that he wasn’t someone that would just listen to what they had to say anyway. “Well I don’t know what he’s planning but we better do as our leader says.”

“I’ll take care of the drinks and make a salad, eating only meat is bad for girls after all.” Stacy nodded her head and smiled as she closed her magazine. She then turned to look at Fin in curiosity.

“The stars should be beautiful today.”

***

Reggie panted heavily, his body covered in warm sweat that was now softly running down his neck, coating it completely before it quickly ran down to his chest and arms, this in turn left sweat marks all over his white t-shirt.

He could barely stand up anymore; not that he wasn’t trying either. Once more he tried to stand and once more his body’s own quivering legs pushed him back down. “This sucks,” He whined.

“Don’t be such a girl,” Darren frowned. He was sitting on the grass next to Reggie and was sipping on a bottle of water. “You should already be used to the weights,” he pointed out with a bored expression while looking at his apprentice’s fallen form.

“Yes Darren you’re right, cause getting used to the weights means that I’ll be able to run three miles like they’re nothing!” he said sarcastically, his eyes staring directly at Darren. “Plus that’s my water bottle!” he yelled before throwing his right arm forward, desperately trying to grab onto the bottle.

“When you can stand up you’ll have your precious water.” Darren replied; he stretching his leg forward and putting it on Reggie’s face so as to stop him from reaching the bottle.

“Shouldn’t you be trying to figure out the ramen analogy though?”

Darren raised his head as he glared at the younger trainer; his leg putting more pressure against Reggie’s face and causing him to groan. “How do you know that?” he hissed with disdain as he clenched the water bottle.

“Kevin…told me…” Reggie groaned, his face now plastered against the ground and making it hard for his words to make it through.

“Did he tell you about his secret too then,” Darren grumbled.

“I always knew,” Reggie sighed, finally being able to get away from Darren’s foot and sit up. “It takes more than just changing your hair color and hair style you know, I just chose not to say anything after I finally realized.”

“I commend you then,” now it was Darren’s turn to speak with sarcasm, though he decided to just roll his eyes and go back to drinking the bottle.

“I sat now give me my wa…”

His Academy Dex beeped loudly, causing Reggie to raise his arm and look at the red watch-like device. He tapped on the screen of the device lightly, making it glow brightly before a holographic screen appeared before him, with Miko being on the other side. “Oh hi Miko,” Reggie’s face cheered up instantly when his girlfriend’s face appeared through the screen.

“Hey, how’s the training going?” Miko waved and smiled before looking at Darren and waving; though the latter just raised his head in recognition.

“Darren’s being an ass but other than it’s going pretty well,” Reggie pointed out; he and Darren looking at each other as if waiting for the other to speak. “What’s up?” He asked curiously.

“Oh…well Fin decided we should face the Enforcers tomorrow,” at hearing this news Darren scooted closer, obviously becoming more curious about what Miko had to say. “So the knucklehead decided we’re going to hold a barbecue in the back of the Charizard Flame dorm, I wanted to tell you guys so you’d know.”

“Awesome, we’ll be there.” Reggie nodded his head; though he noticed that Darren had once more moved away.

“Anyways I hope you’re not too tired, otherwise I’ll have to take care of you,” Miko grinned mischievously, something that made Reggie’s face turn red.

“What do you mean?” He stuttered nervously.

“Meh you’ll find out later,” she said as she stuck her tongue out playfully and proceeded to hang up.

“Well good for you, you get to get laid tonight…probably,” Darren shrugged.

“Are you coming too?” Reggie asked. He knew that Darren wasn’t the type of person for gatherings, but he figured it wouldn’t be too bad to ask him in the end. “There’ll be lots of food, plus we’re all friends,” he smiled as he looked at the white haired teenager.

“First of all we’re not friends,” Darren stated with a condescending tone as he raised his index finger in front of Reggie. “I’m only in the group because being in a club gives me something else to do, though I wouldn’t mind being able to train freely,” he explained as he put the water bottle down.

“Second of all, if we’re really facing against the Enforcers tomorrow I’d rather train today than to go and eat some stupid barbecue.”

Reggie just stared at the water bottle in thought. He honestly didn’t know why Darren was so adamant about becoming part of the group, especially since they had already gone through so much together, even more now after training Reggie for over a month. “Come on!” Reggie exclaimed. “All work and no play makes Darren a dull boy,” he chuckled nervously, though Darren didn’t seem to take it lightly.

“Shut up,” Darren deadpanned.

“Yes sir,” Reggie sighed in defeat.

“So then, you might face off against Kevin huh?” This comment made Reggie’s mind go back to the events of two days before, as well as what Kevin had told him. “Knowing you you’ll probably fight to prove him wrong so, you need a plan.”

“I do have something,” Reggie nodded his head as he stared into space. He could feel his hands digging into the grass as he stared at the trees on the other side; the wind was now causing them to rustle and for the leaves to blow around. “But it’s a risky measure…can I borrow the weights?”

“They’re yours anyway,” Darren shrugged, not caring about what Reggie might’ve had in his mind.

***

About an hour or so later the group had all gathered in the back of the Charizard Flame dorm. The barbecue had already been started and Allison was hard at work, though she seemed to be a bit bothered by the fact she had been put on cooking duty if her frown was a sign of indication. “I’m almost done guys so get the plates ready!” she exclaimed as she turned to look at the others, only to deadpan when she saw them all gathered around a wooden picnic table, they’re attention completely away from Allison. “They’re still on that.”

“It’s so cute!” Miko squealed as she sat next to Claudia, her eyes falling on the Vulpix that was now sleeping soundly on her lap. Due to it being the first time any of them had seen her Pokemon the whole group had their focus set on it, the thing that made it more interesting though was the Vulpix’s yellow colored fur, giving it a more exotic look. “How lucky for you to have a Shiny Vulpix.”

“Yeah, I can’t believe you kept this to yourself all this time Claudia,” Valerie smiled brightly, her eyes shining with expectation. She proceeded to take out her camera, deciding that she wouldn’t miss even one second without taking pictures.

“I’m just not used to showing it to people is all,” Claudia nodded her head, her expression showing a clear embarrassment. She was glad the group was interested in her Vulpix, but she honestly didn’t even know what to say whenever someone made a comment on her Pokemon. “Mom gave her to me on my 13^th birthday; she got it in Mt. Ember while doing a news report.”

“I can kind of understand how you feel Claudia,” Reggie chuckled innocently before turning to look at Chigon, who was now running along with Fin’s Floatzel and Reggie’s Fraxure and Azumarill. The rest of the Pokemon had taken their chances to relax as well, knowing that they would have a hard battle the next day.

Miko’s Combusken was having a sparring match against Monferno, the two of them apparently not agreeing with the idea of resting. Watching over them were Fin’s Dragonair, Garchomp and Lapras, the latter of which had Allison’s Swampert sleeping next to it.

“Well it seems like you guys are having fun.”

Everyone turned their heads around, coming face to face with Jack and Marie who were now walking into the backyard. “Everything smells delicious Allison,” Marie said politely as she waved at Allison, who actually seemed pretty happy at being noticed once more and waved back eagerly. “We brought more drinks.”

“So Jack, bet you’re feeling pretty down now that you’re not the best strategist and all,” Fin smirked as he casually put an arm around Jack, something that the teenager didn’t take too fondly. “What? I’m just kidding with you buddy.”

“Honestly you shouldn’t be so conceited, that was my mistake,” Jack said bitterly, his head turning to the side so that he wouldn’t have to look at Fin. “But if I could give one advice it would be not to take the Enforcers lightly.”

“Well they are pretty strong, we know that much,” Reggie nodded his head in agreement. He didn’t need to see Jack’s and Marie’s battle to know that the Enforcers weren’t enemies that they could underestimate, and it was going to be their turn the next day as well.

“Don’t get bummed out Reg!” Fin exclaimed before smacking Reggie’s back, Reggie yelped in turn as he tried as hard as he could to not fall over from the picnic table. Fin sat down next to the boy, a satisfied expression on his face. “Listen, they’re strong that much is true, but so was Goliath and we all know how he ended up.”

“If you say so.”

“Okay guys food is ready so either get your asses over here or starve!” Allison screamed, her chest huffing as the group finally turned their attention towards her. “What? I had to snap you out somehow!”

As the group ate their own fill the conversations escalated more and more, though now Allison had the pleasure of being included as well. “Wow this meat’s really tender Ali,” Valerie stated with a grin.

“Well it’s a technique my dad taught me.” Allison nodded her head sagely before taking a bite out from one of the ribs on her plate. “It’s all about the way you season it and the amount of time you wait really.”

That’s when Allison finally had a chance to look at the group itself. All of the girls were gathered around the picnic table, well except for Miko who had gone off to look for Reggie and Chigon. Jack and Fin were sitting on the grass not too far back; they seemed to be talking about sports or something she didn’t really care much about.

“I can’t believe you don’t agree, the 2016 season was the best season yet, no one could take down the Blazikens!” Fin exclaimed, an expression of annoyance showing on his face, which contrasted very well with Jack’s uncaring expression.

“Any season after 2015 was just crap, it seems to be recovering right now but both the players and the Pokemon slacked off very much, there’s barely any skill left,” Jack argued.

At this point Allison decided to turn away from the two, she was a battle girl but she didn’t really care about anything but that.

There was someone missing though, probably the person she most wanted to see actually. “Where’s Darren?” Allison asked curiously; her face turning towards the other girls.

“I think Reggie said he didn’t want to come,” Valerie shrugged. “I wanted him to come too but I guess you just can’t deal with him,” she grumbled in annoyance.

Allison didn’t reply to her last statement, instead she leaned back against the table. It’s true that she saw Darren as her biggest rival due to her previous loss, and yet why did she care so much if he was there or not, it’s not like he had been there for any of the other events that the group had had to face.

And yet she couldn’t shake off this feeling of anxiety, almost as if it was telling her to do something, but she didn’t know what. She groaned before standing up, causing Marie, Valerie and Claudia to raise their eyebrows. “Where are you going?” Marie asked.

“I’m going to take some food to that idiot,” Allison replied harshly, a small blush on her face. “Don’t think too much of it, I just wanna give him a piece of my mind is all.”

***

Darren sat in the floor of his dorm room, his eyes fixed upon the pokeballs that were spread around him. The next day was going to be the fight against the Enforcers, and he was dead set on facing off against Keith; however, that left a doubt in Darren’s mind, mainly the fact that he needed a team that was good enough against his.

“Keith is going to expect me to use Charizard so he’s out of this battle, but I’ll still need to pick a Pokemon that’s good enough,” He scratched his chin in thought as he looked down at the balls once more, he knew that he couldn’t go with Pikachu due to it being his weakest Pokemon, but none of his other Pokemon were a shoe in either. “Maybe I’ll go with Honchrow, I haven’t used it in a while and it has an advantage over Keith’s Excavalier…though Charizard did too.”

The teenager sighed in frustration before letting himself fall to the floor. He stared at the roof, his mind drifting back to his battle against Incendio and what he had told him back then. What was his weakness? Surely it couldn’t be related to the stupid ramen analogy he gave him, and yet, he had no other leads. “And what’s worse is that I like that damn soup now,” he groaned in annoyance.

He was dragged out from the confines of his mind by a loud knock on the door, causing Darren to sit up once more and raise an eyebrow at the door, he wasn’t used to receiving guests. “Who is it?”

“It’s me Allison!” Darren sighed once he made out the voice of the female student. He had been bugged by Allison countless times for a rematch, something that in all honesty just annoyed him even more.

Nevertheless he still opened the door for her, mostly because he thought it would be a better way to tell her to leave him alone. “What do you want Allison?” Darren asked, with only his head peeking out from the room.

He was a bit taken aback when he saw her better though. She was holding an orange colored plate that was big enough to fit both of her hands. The top of the plate was covered by plastic paper but he could make out the pieces of meat and ribs that were concealed underneath it. “I brought you some steak and ribs, and a little chorizo too, though I didn’t know if you liked it,” the girl nodded her head before giving Darren a warm smile.

“I don’t want food,” Darren pointed out with a bitter expression on his face. It took a second or so but eventually Allison’s expression changed, her face becoming more serious before she glared at him. “What?”

“Okay I don’t know why you have to be so bitter about stuff but you should at least eat, or is it because I’m the one bringing you food!?” Allison exclaimed with rage, her voice being loud enough that even some of the other students were now checking to see what was going on.

Darren didn’t reply, instead looking down at her. She was the one that suddenly came to his room and started making a ruckus and now she was acting as if he was the bad guy. “I’m sorry that I’m not like you guys, but the only thing on my mind for tomorrow is to win that battle, I’m not some idiot who thinks that just giving his best is good enough.”

“You know maybe you’re the one judging us too much. Or maybe you’re just taking this too seriously!” Allison argued as she and Darren glared at each other, neither one of them willing to back down. “Besides I just thought it’ll be good for you to have something to eat, or did you think that the only reason I come to see you is to ask for a battle?”

“It’s about what you do 99.9% of the time,” Darren scoffed. He stared at the girl once more, his eyes clearly scanning the determination that shone in her eyes. It was weird but even if it annoyed him there was something that he found interesting about her eyes. He sighed in defeat before opening the door completely. “Fine, I’ll have some of your food if it’ll shut you up.”

Allison smiled cheekily as she saw this, almost as if she was proud of the fact that she managed to convince Darren to let her in. “See, now was it really that hard?” she teased as she stuck her tongue out at him.

Darren turned away from her as he grabbed the plate from her hands. “Just follow me to the kitchen,” he ordered and began walking once more. There was something else though, a strange feeling of…warmth that crawled on his face.

As he walked past the mirror in his living room he looked at his face; it was just a quick glimpse but he was able to see it, his face had turned a little red. “Something wrong? You seem bothered by something?” Came Allison’s voice from behind him.

“I’m fine. If you keep asking questions then I’ll kick you out,” he retorted as he kept walking. This feeling was so alien to him, he wasn’t one to show warm feelings and much less a blush but this girl had managed to do it in some strange way. He shook his head softly in a desperate attempt to get rid of the blush; he couldn’t let those feelings get the best of him after all.

Allison didn’t reply, instead a grin went through her face as she followed her upperclassmen. “You know, if you win your fight tomorrow how about I make a cake. You like cake right?” Allison’s grin widened; she walking in front of Darren now so that he could look at her smiling face.

“I don’t mind cake,” was all he said as he moved his face away from her. “I guess cake from time to time isn’t bad,” he nodded his head before lowering the plate down on the wooden table of the kitchen. “….thanks…Allison,” he muttered ever so slightly, probably so that even Allison wouldn’t hear him.

***

The crowd thundered with excitement and anticipation, their loud screams could be heard from a mile away as even more people were crammed into the stadium.

It was finally the day of the battle against the Enforcers and all of the students were already prepared for what was to come.

The stadium’s roof had been closed, making the lights that fell on the stage to be the only thing that kept the room away from total darkness. As people gathered in their seats they each turned their focus towards the two groups that stood on the stage.

On the left side of the stage were the Enforcers, all lined next to each other. The group seemed to be in a serious mood for one, though they were most likely just thinking about how they would deal with their opponents. They quickly turned to look at the opposite side were the Media Club stood.

Reggie twiddled with his thumbs nervously as he stared at the crowd. He had never been good when it came to being the center of attention and even after all the battles he had already had in that stadium he was still scared out of his wits. “Hey.”

He felt Miko’s soft hand tap on his shoulder, making him turn to look at her as she smiled back at him and slowly put pressure on his shoulder. “You’ll be all right you hear, we’ll win this,” she said, though it was clear that she herself was nervous if the trembling of her hand was any sign.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Reggie nodded his head in agreement. He quickly looked towards the center of the stage, something that only caused him to become even more nervous when he saw Valerie standing in the center of it.

She was wearing a figure hugging black sleeveless shirt, she had a short black colored skirt on that revealed her legs to the crowd along with a pair of black slippers. She was wearing a headset over her head and was carrying a MIC on her left hand. “What?”

“Your cousin’s hot so of course she’ll be the announcer….” Fin trailed off, his eyes drifting to that he could look at Valerie’s legs better.

“Welcome everybody!” Valerie yelled at the top of her lungs, the MIC now held right in front of her mouth as she waved at the crowd. “I’m sure that you’re all looking forward to today’s challenge, the final challenge to decide the winner of the ABR tournament between the Enforcers!” she stretched her right arm towards the Enforcers, ensuing a thundering roar of cheers from the crowd. “And the Media Club!” This time she extended her left hand; unfortunately the crowd wasn’t agreeing with them quite as much as they did with the Enforcers.

“They’re not very nice,” Allison inflated her cheeks in annoyance as she stared at the crowd.

“Well what did you expect, everyone knows that the Enforcers are…technically stronger than us,” Darren muttered, though unlike the others he was keeping his eyes closed so that he could keep his focus.
“Then we’ll just have to show them won’t we!” Fin exclaimed with a smug expression on his face. He actually seemed to be the only one of the group with high hopes for the battle as he wasn’t shaking even a bit. “I’m the leader of this group and that means we won’t lose.”

“Anyways without further ado how about we get this event started!” Valerie cheered. It was actually hard for her as well since her own group was facing against the Enforcers, but alas she had to keep an unbiased view as she was just the announcer. She looked at the group and then at the Enforcers. “If you will all turn to the screen.”

The crowd and the two groups all looked upon the large screen board that overlooked the stage. The screen lit up, showing six different pictures at the top of the screen, with each picture showing what seemed to be multiple types of battling fields. On the bottom of the screen were 12 slots, with six on one side and six on the other.

“The rules of this final challenge is the ‘Academy Rundown’ where the six members of each group will be facing each other in one of the five selected fields, in which one of them will have a double battle!” she announced while pointing up at the screen. “Each of the field has been made so that it has its own difficulty and in turn each of the battles will have a specific condition for it to end.”

She then lowered her head, now pointing towards the 12 slots that were on the bottom. “Here we will select the 6 match ups, I think that’s simple enough.”

With that the screen lit up once more, only for each of the picture to start glowing one by one. The pictures then shrank and began to crawl down in between the two rows of six. “Now, let’s pick the fighters.”

With that each one of the slots began to glow brightly, only for the pictures of each one of the group members to start appearing and disappearing. The switch occurred at a high speed at first, something that increased the tension amongst the two groups.

Darren gritted his teeth in frustration, if the fights were picked randomly then it meant that he would have less chances of fighting against Keith. A similar fear went through the rest of the members as well, knowing that their original plan was now nonexistent.
Finally the top slot stopped glowing, causing everyone in the stage to turn to the screen with anticipation. “And the two people that will face off in the water field will be Fin Wave and Tyson Match!”

Fin smirked, his hands going into his pockets as he shifted towards an equally smirking Tyson. “I have an advantage in both type and field, this’ll be fun,” he said smugly.

Slowly each one of the slots stopped one by one; making the crowd gasp in amazement every time they saw the match ups. Anticipation and quietness had taken over the original excitement and desperation.

“And so, facing in the Graffiti field will be Allison and Angelo!” Valerie announced as the stage lights fell upon both of the aforementioned trainers. Allison actually felt better with herself now, knowing that Angelo wasn’t a strong battler from what she had seen in the fight against Marie.

“Perfect Copy or not, I’m still gonna kick his ass and then I’m gonna eat cake,” Allison nodded her head cheerfully.

“Facing off in the forest field will be our best strategist Zephyr Gale from the Enforcers against Claudia Ryder!”

Claudia and Zephyr, unlike the four trainers that had come before them didn’t even exchange glances. On her side Zephyr was simply looking at the screen, her mind probably on the battle that was to come. Claudia on the other hand was facing the floor nervously.

“Don’t worry Claudia.”

She turned around when she heard Reggie’s voice, seeing her teammate wave at her and giving her a thumbs up. “It’s true that Zephyr’s a good strategist but remember to do your best and that we’ll be supporting you.” Reggie nodded his head, though his voice sounded a bit unsure about what he was saying.

“In the Tag field at the academy’s volcano the four challengers will be Keith Gray and Alexandria Smith vs. Darren Schiffer and Miko Sakai!” Valerie interrupted, now making the stage lights switch to Miko and Darren.

“Guess we’ll be working together huh?” Miko smiled; though Darren’s expression was barely more than his usual adamant gaze.

“Just don’t get in my way okay?” he asked as he pocketed his hands.

“And last but not least,” Valerie stopped at this, her face becoming a bit more nervous as she prepared to state the final match up. “Facing off in the wind field at the top of the castle will be Kevin Samuels and Reggie Damon!”

Reggie looked towards Kevin, who unlike him seemed pretty confident about the match up that had just been picked. He took a deep breath as he lowered his head, it was now or never, after having to deal with Kevin’s belittling for so many months he was now getting a chance to put an end to it and prove himself to everyone.

“That’s right…” Reggie muttered softly. “This is my chance…”

“Don’t get cold feet Reggie!” Reggie raised his head; now coming face to face with his opponent. Kevin smiled at him, only to stretch his hand and form a fist with it. “Let’s give this crowd a show shall we my friend.”

Miko didn’t reply, instead she just gazed upon her boyfriend. While she had encouraged him all that time she knew that he was still nervous about finally facing off with Kevin, especially after what Kevin had said before.

“Yeah…let’s.”

To Be Continued…

End of Chapter 32
Next Time: Skipping Stones/The Battle Girl Falls
Part I ends in 5 Chapters

 

[Kihote]

This chapter had a lot less errors than normal, good job

There were a few times where you said girl instead of girls though, but that didn't distract that much.

I liked the idea of relaxing the day before the final battle, might be used alot, but the same can be said about the train nonstop before it so still cool. Now onto the dialouge, which was honestly quite entertaining. The interactions flowed great, and this chapter really let your specialty shine through, the characters and their interactions.

Also DarrenXAllison is now a ship....deal with it.

I'll admit, I feel like you could have described the stadium and the selection process a little better, but maybe that's just preference, though you did manage to build up the tension throughout it. I bet Zeph has no idea what to expect since Claudia's little friend is unknown to most people, though then again, it might be in the acadamy archives so she might know about it......is it wierd that I'm mostly looking forwards to Claudia vs Zeph?

Most of the other match ups were expected, except for Allison and artboy, that one caught me off guard

also...mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm chorizo :drool: