Pokemon Advanced Course

Hello everyone. DiancieIsBae AKA Baku reporting here with a new series I decided to make. Now I wanna prefice this and say that none of the content here is actually "mine". Rather, this is a direct adaptation of a Pokémon Tabletop United campaign that actually started a couple weeks back (it's a once per month campaign), and the DM approved of me making the adaptation. Therefore, none of these characters or their dialogue/actions (aside from the occasional scene that I may decide to add for the sake of fleshing out) are owned by me.

Also this series will likely be updated more frequently than Ageos Chronicles, as the chapters in this series are a looot shorter than PAC's. That said, this is gonna be more of a side series, that is in no way associated with PAC. (Even if this series does share the same acronym.)

With all of that out of the way, I hope you guys enjoy. (And as always, no responses in this story thread aside from me updating chapters.)

Spoiler: Summary

The Onix School for Dedicated Studies (or Oz for short) is among the most prestigious schools in all of the Ferrum region. The new term for this school has just started, and a new batch of first-year students have been accepted here to study. Among these students are the command-heavy Buddy Frey and the kind-hearted Mabely Blue, as they go through their day-to-day lives alongside many other first-year students like the dramatic Lucian Grey, the tech savvy Herbert Thunderstone, and the incredibly antagonistic Ryder Relgum.

Chapter 1: The Onix School for Dedicated Studies

Spoiler

The Ferrum region. Home to cities, towns, stadiums, ruins, a volcano, an island, and even a dragon’s nest. As the scene zoomed in towards a relatively green portion of the region’s map, rustling through numerous rather tall and thick trees, it came to a square block of land that was boxed in by a metallic gate. Then it swiftly zoomed in and faded to a part of a building that contained an emblem resembling the outline of an Onix’s head. Then everything around the Onix emblem changed, the emblem itself no longer being on a building and instead now on a blue cloth banner that was hanging from the wall above it within an auditorium. Numerous young teenagers, both male and female, were walking into the auditorium and sitting down in the foldable chairs that were laid out in columns in front of the stage.

Two of them in particular were one boy and one girl. The boy had clean orange hair with a flame-esque tuft on the front, while the girl had neck-length straight blue hair. All of the students wore what looked to be a standard Japanese high school uniform - black buttoned blazer with white highlights, white undershirt, yellow tie that was mostly tucked underneath their blazers, and black khakis. Or for girls, black skirt. Some of the girls, especially the blue-haired one, also wore black pantyhose and chic shoes. All of them also had some sort of pin on their blazers below the collars. As everyone sat down, a man looking both distinguished and to be in his mid-30s began walking across the stage from the students’ left to the podium in the center.

“Looking out over all of you, I see the future. I see a group of fine, young adults ready to open their minds and expand their horizons.” As the man was giving his inaugural speech, the scene shifted to the outside, where it showed the wide building that the auditorium was in, as well as the two fountains and bushes on the sides of the entrance. Then it showed separate small forest areas on the far west and east sides of campus, between the gate and their respective side’s large dormitory buildings. In the center of the campus area was a large multi-section building looking about four stories high, with one smaller four-story building each to the left and right of it. “I see in each of you one of our many alumni, who have gone on to do great things. Legendary things.” There were two trees slightly north of the large building, and two bushes on the sides of the south end. Both of the smaller buildings each had three trees south of them, and three more north. All of these trees were positioned triangularly. “And so, I’m struck with a thought. For as honored as I am sure many of you are to be admitted into an institution as prestigious as ours, I and the rest of our professors here are equally honored to be a part of your journey. Because I know full well that I stand before a group of legends in the making.” South of the big building, near the southern gate entrance, was what looked to be a two-story building. There was one fountain each on the west and east sides of it, four straight uninterrupted lines of bushes - two on each side of the building’s entrance, and small tree-like bushes scattered around the remaining space. “A few things before I dismiss you. After this, you will all be signing up for your dorm rooms. Men’s dorms are located on the west side of campus, and ladies’ are on the east. Make friends now because space is limited; the majority of you will likely have roommates.” Finally, the collective walkway of the campus was shaped like a cross between a wheel and a cross, and there were many lamps spread throughout the campus, predominantly near the walkway.

After all of that, the scene shifted back into the auditorium, with the middle-aged man walking around the stage while speaking. The blue-haired girl looked to be attentively listening, whereas most everyone else just listened normally or even dozed off slightly. “Second, the Lapel pins included with your uniforms are expensive, and will not be replaced should you lose them,” he continued. “If I have a quarter for every time a student asked, I wouldn’t need to be headmaster here anymore.” A soft chuckle was heard from the general area of students from the remark. “And third, the first year overnight trip to the Blue Dome is roughly a month away. I’m sure many of you are excited, so I am sure you also know that any violation of campus protocol puts you at risk of spending the trip here in detention with Coach Spruce, rather than off having fun with your peers. Now, may be a good time to remind you that the weekday curfew is 10 o’clock, so I don’t expect to see any of you out and about past then.” He paused for a moment, everyone else still listening normally or dozing off. “Now that’s all I have to say. May you all have a wonderful first year, and welcome to the Onix School for Dedicated Studies.”

After these words, the blue-haired girl applauded gleefully, while everyone else kind of applauded, albeit half-assedly.

. . .

A few minutes later, all of the students were seen in front of and inside their respective dormitories - the orange-haired kid heading to the west building while the blue-haired girl was at the east. Each dormitory also had a few different recreational rooms inside, such as a small gymnasium area, a library, and even a computer room. Most of the students still hadn’t signed up for their dorm rooms, which each looked a varying amount of either pristine or generic. As he was walking towards the west dormitory, the orange-haired kid noticed the end of what looked to be a Pokémon battle. One of the students, a gruff-looking dude with wavy dark blonde, almost greenish hair, was still standing and seeming rather antagonistic. His Pokémon, a black-and-brown lizard creature, looked a bit worn out itself. Whereas the other student, a sheepish-looking guy with messy black hair with a single red streak in it, was lying on the ground beat up alongside his incredibly small tick-esque Pokémon.

The redhead began running towards where the battle took place, while the intimidating blonde went and signed up for one of the pristine placed rooms, which had a nice view outside and was right near the entrance. The aura he was putting off was so intimidating that nobody else wanted to really sign up to be his roommate, thus giving him a wide berth. Then he took his stuff and headed towards his new room. The other kid, at around the same time, brushed himself off and picked up his small tick partner.

The ordinary-looking boy, seeing the intimidating blonde walk off, went over to sign up to be his roommate. But the sheepish-looking student put his hand on the kid’s shoulder. “Don’t...It’s not worth it,” he said a bit weakly. “He doesn’t seem like...I don’t know what his deal is.” He looked and sounded defeated.

“Hey hey hey,” the ordinary boy replied with a smile. “Somebody’s gotta keep ‘im in check, alright? I got this.”

“That’s what I was hoping but I--” The sheepish-looking kid looked even more defeated, not knowing what exactly to say in response. “I don’t--Ok.” Eventually he gave in and went off on his own, leaving the orange-haired boy to sign up for the room. He wrote down the name “Buddy Frey” right under the intimidating blonde’s name.

During this, the blonde noticed him writing his name. He stopped walking, and turned his head halfway towards him. “I sleep alone, thank you,” he said in a low, almost menacing tone, glaring at Buddy at the exact same time.

Buddy looked over at the blonde and pointed at his name, the name above it reading “Ryder Relgum”. “My name’s on the paper, dude,” he replied. “Sorry about it.”

Ryder then turned almost fully towards Buddy, his facial expression not changing even a millimeter. “Look, do you wanna battle for this room, or do you wanna go and get a different room?” he asked. “‘Cause I am not sharing my space with anybody.”

“I’ll battle for the room,” Buddy replied rather casually, taking out a Poké Ball from his belt.

Rider, in response, sighed heavily. In his mind, he didn’t believe even for a second that even if he did win the battle, Buddy would take his name off. He glared at Buddy for a couple seconds as a result, looking visibly more pissed. Then he took his own name off the list, and went to go find a different room altogether looking kind of done with everything.

After all of this happened, Buddy looked over at the room list to see if his name was written down. After confirming such, he went off to go find the sheepish-looking student. Arriving at the far north side of the dormitory, he found the kid standing next to a slightly taller student than he, both appearing to have just signed up for a room together. Buddy silently stared at the two with a smile, everyone else signing up for rooms and settling in themselves over the next couple minutes.

. . .

The next day arrived. Buddy and the blue-haired girl were seen with a few other students - notably Ryder, the sheepish-looking kid, and another boy with flowing blonde hair - in the gymnasium of the south building of campus. All of them were in their gym uniforms of shorts and either tank tops or t-shirts. In front of them was a somewhat chubby man with spiky dark brown hair and a bandage on his cheek. He was wearing a red track suit, a white undershirt, and black sneakers.

“Welcome to your first day at Oz,” the coach-looking man began speaking. “I am professor Spruce, or Coach Spruce, it doesn’t really matter which. I’ll be your PE instructor. Something that stands for Physical Education, but I prefer to view it as Practical Education. And depending on why you’ve come to school here, my class is either going to be your favorite or your most hated.”

Next scene, Spruce and his students were seen walking off campus down a dirt walkway between two walls of trees. Coach Spruce was also continuing his introductory speech to the students, while the camera panned to Buddy, the blue-haired girl, Ryder who looked as intimidating as usual, the sheepish-looking kid, and the blonde. “It’s true that you’re here to gain an education most other kids don’t have the luxury of obtaining. But smarts alone don’t get you far in this world. There’s a reason most CEOs and political figures are accomplished Pokémon Trainers. It’s a mark of respect, and that respect opens doors for you.” The coach paused for a moment, everyone else either looking amongst themselves and chatting quietly, or silently pondering. “There will be voluntary battle exams throughout the year that will earn you credit towards Pokémon League entry upon graduation. And I suggest you take them seriously.”

Then, after a bit more walking, everyone arrived at a somewhat wide open field. There was a river flowing in the middle of the field, with a bridge over it connecting both sides of land together. On the left half was the blue flag while the red flag was on the right. Both flags were half-surrounded by five trees, with the entire path between them (including the bridge) completely open. Coach Spruce resumed speaking, turning around to face his students. “With all that said, this first exercise is going to help gauge how well you collaborate with others, handle your Pokémon, and operate in the frey yourselves. In a moment, I will be pairing you off into teams of three. Your objective will be to go into your opponent base, and bring their flag back to your own flag pole. The catch is, you have to carry the flag yourself. You each are allowed one Pokémon on the field to aid you. While they may disarm the flag from players, they are not allowed to move the flag themselves. Barring that, and knowing that you all come to this school with many different skills under your belts, you can use whatever means you like to accomplish your goal. Don’t expect to excel in this class without getting a little banged up, by the way. We have expert nurse staff on campus for a reason.” He paused for a second, holding in front of him a clipboard. “Now gather ‘round so I can make your teams.”

All of the students surrounded Coach Spruce. A couple minutes later, Spruce finished grouping the name together. “The two groups who are going against each other today...Red team will be Buddy Frey, Mabely Blue, and Lucian Grey. The blue team shall be Ryder Relgum, Herbert Thunderstone, and Laura Clearwater.”

A soft chuckle was heard from the other students while they were walking away. Buddy and the blue-haired girl, who was named Mabely Blue, walked towards the blue flag alongside the blonde, Lucian Grey. At the same time, Ryder and the sheepish-looking kid, whom everyone chuckled at due to his name being Herbert, walked towards the red flag. Their third member was a girl with long light brown hair tied up in a ponytail, whom a lot of the other boys in the area seemed to talk about.

“Hi guys,” Mabely said to Buddy and Lucian in a cheerful manner. “I think if we all work together and try our best, we’ll all win.”

Buddy, meanwhile, had his eyes directed towards Herbert off in the distance near Ryder and Laura. “I’m gonna persuade that Herbert kid that got beat up yesterday, to turn on the guy that beat him up, and hand us the win,” he then stated.

“That’s not really fair, don’t you think?” Mabely said nervously, looking at Buddy in much the same fashion.

The orange-haired boy looked at Mabely for a second before responding to her question. “...Do you want a good grade?”

Then Coach Spruce, almost as if he was overhearing Buddy’s strategy, spoke once again in a raised tone. “I expect you all to be trying your hardest, by the way.” Buddy, Mabely, and all of red team looked over at him. “Because losing team runs 20 laps around campus when we get back.”

Lucian, on the other hand, was looking down at the Poké Ball in his hands, with a worried expression on his face. Buddy and Mabely looked back at him. “Y-Y-You don’t think he was being serious about being banged up do you I can’t imagine myself getting hurt or my dear Caldwell.” He was speaking fast with zero punctuation or breaks. Then he threw his Poké Ball upward, sending out a very round, gelatinous Pokémon that housed a lighter-colored dual-ovaled nucleic body.

“Oh wow, that’s a very beautiful Pokémon,” Mabely exclaimed gleefully.

“Thank you, isn’t he gorgeous?” Lucian replied almost as gleefully, hugging the Pokémon he just sent out.

“What is his name?” Mabely asked.

“Oh his name is Caldwell, he’s my favorite,” Lucian replied, still hugging the Pokémon. “He’s been with me since I was a little kid.” -Lucian

Buddy, in the meantime, took out his Pokédex and scanned the blob-like creature.

Solosis, the Cell Pokémon. A membrane filled with fluid surrounds Solosis's body which allows it to live anywhere. It defeats its enemies using its formidable Psychic-type powers.​

“I came here because I wanted to be a top Contest Coordinator,” Lucian continued speaking. “We’re gonna enter the beauty Contest we’re gonna be amazing.” Once again, he spoke without punctuation pauses.

“Ohh, I know,” Mabely replied, sounding more heartwarming now. “It’s just, that just sounds wonderful.”

“So I just can’t imagine anything just happening to my dear Caldwell, I mean, I don’t wanna put him in any danger.” The blonde continued speaking, though with only a small amount of punctuation pause.

“What moves does he know?” Buddy asked.

“He knows several Psychic moves, he knows Psywave and Reflect and Psyshock, he can Trick items off people but the coach just said he can’t carry it himself so...” Lucian paused for half a second. “That’d have to be one of our jobs.”

“Could he Trick and drop?” Buddy suggested.

“He could,” the blonde replied, then looking nervously towards red team’s side. “But I don’t know if I wanna have him so close to the enemy, in--in danger.”

“He won’t have to. He can just stay behind me.” Buddy replied with a smirk, pointing his thumb towards himself. “He’ll stay behind me, he’ll get Reflects up, I’ll get in the frey.”

“Well, if you say so...” Lucian muttered almost depressingly, still looking nervous.

Buddy then deadpanned him. “Do you want a good grade?” he asked.

Lucian had a slightly shocked expression on his face in reply. “I mean, I-I don’t wanna run 20 laps. That’ll get me all sweaty and--” He began shaking his head rapidly. “I don’t even wanna think about that.”

Buddy then brought his smirk back. “Do exactly as I say, and we’ll get through this just fine,” he replied to Lucian. Lucian nodded in response.

Then, a few seconds later, both teams were seen in front of their respective team flags. Blue team’s members stood beside each other, with Caldwell levitating in front of Lucian. Then the camera panned over to red team’s member, who were all standing beside each other as well, but with no Pokémon in front of any of them. Then the scene shifted to the entire field being in view, and after a couple seconds, the artstyle of the scene turned painting-esque.

To be continued...​

 

Chapter 2: Capture the Flag

Spoiler

The red and blue teams stood on opposite grassy sides of the bridge, in front of their respective flags. Caldwell was in front of Lucian as the only Pokémon on red team that was currently sent out, while blue team still had no Pokémon out on the field. Then, Buddy and Mabely sent out their respective Pokémon - For Buddy, it was a small orange chimpanzee with a flaming tail that stood next to Buddy; and Mabely’s Pokémon was a blue-green quadruped reptilian creature with a plant-like bulb on its back, landing in front of Mabely. Then, Coach Spruce grabbed the whistle around his neck, put in in his mouth, and blew into it.

Immediately afterward, all of red team’s Trainers, Buddy’s Chimchar, and Mabely's Bulbasaur ran forward. The Chimchar ran at the exact same pace as Buddy, the Bulbasaur was running ahead of Mabely, and Lucian was a fair distance behind Buddy. Caldwell didn’t move that fast either, staying near Lucian. Herbert and Laura both began running forward as well, Laura running a bit faster than even Buddy.

Laura also grabbed a Poké Ball from her belt. “Start moving, Bosca!” she exclaimed, throwing it forward.

When the Ball popped and the beam materialized its Pokémon, it revealed a chubby, round blue seal that immediately rolled forward at an unusually fast speed. This led Buddy, his Chimchar, Lucian, and Caldwell to stop running and look at the seal.

“That round thing.” Buddy muses, pulling out his Pokédex and scanning the spherical Pokémon.

Spheal, the Clap Pokémon. Spheal moves more quickly by rolling than by walking. They are sometimes known to cross oceans atop icebergs.​

“My gut tells me we should have Caldwell handle him,” Buddy said upon seeing and hearing the dex entry.

“You want my Caldwell to do what?” Lucian exclaimed in a terrified tone.

Then, Buddy and Lucian noticed that Harbert and Laura were running a bit faster than they were before. “Do your best, everyone!” At roughly the same time, they heard Mabely cheer her team on.

Then, a second later, the blue-haired girl stopped running as soon as she noticed a very small, almost microscopic Pokémon on Herbert’s shoulder. A Pokédex screen and border appeared around the small yellow tick.

Joltik, the Attaching Pokémon. Joltik cling to larger Pokémon, and absorb static electricity, storing the energy in a special pouch.​

Then the orange-haired boy, flowing blonde, and orange chimp continued running at the exact same paces they were running at before, getting onto the bridge.

“Sassy! Focus!” Buddy exclaimed towards the Bulbasaur.

“Bulbasaur!” Sassy replied, looking more determined than before.

Then the Bulbasaur leaped upward, bringing out two larger-than-average vines from underneath its bulb. Then it slammed both Power Whips into the rolling Spheal, knocking it back a fair distance and killing all of its momentum.

“Good job Sassy,” Mabely exclaimed happily.

“Bulbasaur!” Sassy replied, sounding much the same as her Trainer.

Ryder, during all of this, simply walked forward with his left hand in his pocket while tossing the Poké Ball in his right hand upward and catching it a couple times. Then he tossed it upward higher, and almost as if a command, the Ball opened and sent out a small light brown-and-black striped crocodile. Then, immediately after he caught the now empty Ball, Ryder put it back on his belt. He took his left hand out if his pocket, revealing a remote device in that hand, which he pushed almost immediately after. The shock collar around his Sandile’s neck activated, zapping its neck and causing it to recoil from the shock. This caused the Sandile to look angrier.

The Spheal was still rolling a slight amount, as Laura got in front of it. “Guard yourself!” Bosca heard Laura’s command, and instantly became more spherical than it already was, and also shined slightly more.

The Solosis, floating forward slowly, began emanating masses of visible psychic residue all clustered into two glass-like sparkling circles that disappeared shortly after.

Buddy and Lucian were still running, Lucian emitting some sort of aura that allowed Caldwell to move slightly faster than before.

Herbert, while running, stretches his arm outward beside him, his Joltik crawling down and around it towards his hand. Then the black-haired boy stopped running just in front of Caldwell, and tossed his arm towards the Psychic-type, the Joltik immediately hopping off and beginning to spin like a drill. Then the small bug managed to grab ahold of Caldwell with its teeth while still spinning and drain a small amount of energy from him. Lucian screamed at this sight.

Just then, however, a glass-like barrier formed around the Solosis’ small bite mark, then shattering and pushing the Joltik off of him. Herbert was seen jumping forward and spinning once, the yellow tick landing on his right hand.

Herbert, a second later, landed on the ground and slid a few inches. Then Jim, Buddy’s Chimchar, clapped in front of the two, causing the Joltik to fall off of Herbert’s hand and onto the ground nearby while Herbert himself was knocked back a small amount as if he were hit by an actual attack.

Caldwell, after shaking itself, levitated towards Bosca, a mass of psychic energy surrounding him. Laura, seeing this, began sprinting forward again while Bosca starting rolling in place. Then the Spheal zipped towards Caldwell, all of its built-up momentum exploding at once. The psychic energy surrounding Caldwell then turned into multiple pointed prismatic glass shards, which Caldwell fired at his target. The Spheal got hit by all of the prismatic glass shards at once, causing it to fly and roll above Caldwell and slam into the ground below. Its eyes became swirls after this happened.

Meanwhile, Mabely was sprinting rather quickly across the bridge and towards blue team’s flag. Ryder, seeing this, stood his ground and pressed his device’s button a second time. His Sandile recoiled again only slightly, this time looking more focused.

“Stop that, you’re hurting him!” Mabely exclaimed, seeing this act.

“Why should I? He’s my Pokémon,” Ryder replied in a slightly intimidating tone.

Mabely, still running, passed by the Sandile, who glared at her and Bit town on her ankle. The same glass-like barrier that surrounded Caldwell formed between the Sandile’s teeth and Mabely’s injury, pushing the lizard off of her ankle. But as Mabely continued running afterward, the Sandile in mid-air slammed his head against the girl’s back almost like someone would backhand another person. This hit, along with inflicting more pain on her, gave Mabely more momentum and allowed her to run faster towards the flag. Upon reaching said flag, she grabbed it, only to notice herself between Ryder and his Sandile.

Then at the bridge, the Joltik was seen dodging both Buddy’s punch and Lucian’s stomp with ease due to its small size. Laura was then seen running past the small insect, and the others. Herbert looked back at her as she got off the bridge.

“Go for it, Laura!” he exclaimed towards her.

Then out of nowhere, Herbert was then Power-Up Punched in the face by Jim who jumped up to him.

Laura, during her run, noticed Bosca out cold, and recalled him back to his Poké Ball. She also passed by Sassy, who hopped up and spun around clockwise to slap Laura’s whip with her vine. Laura, almost unfazed by the attack, continued running, while Sassy landed back on the ground facing the Joltik and rammed headfirst into the Joltik, then quickly drifted 180 degrees and rammed into Laura’s ankle, which caused her to stop running only for a second before she resumed her sprint.

Then, Laura felt a rippling wave hit her back, the camera angle immediately shifting to show the attack coming from Caldwell. Then, Sassy quickly ran towards and slid around Laura, and Tackled her away from the red flag. The collective beating caused Laura to kneel down, panting.

Back at blue team’s side, Mabely looked towards her own team’s flag, seeing Laura close to it. She then started sprinting towards that other side, but after a couple seconds, was knocked towards her right by Ryder, and then felt the Sandile Bite down rather violently on Mabely’s hip. While it didn’t induce any bleeding, the attack did cause her to collapse in pain, slowly letting go of the flag and letting it drop on the ground.

The ponytailed girl looked back at her team’s side, noticing Mabely go down. She looked off to one side, seemingly in a lamenting fashion. [Did he have to be so rough?] she thought. Then she noticed Caldwell gathering psychic energy again, and looked shocked. [Crap!] She then started running towards the flag again as fast as she physically could, trying to gain as much distance from Caldwell as possible. [I have to get that flag. I’m so close.]

But she wasn’t fast enough as Caldwell converted half of his psychic energy into prismatic glass shards and sent them flying into Laura, which resulted in her losing her footing and falling unconscious.

Then Caldwell looked over to his left and saw Sassy ramming into the Joltik and sending it in the air towards the river. The Solosis, seeing an opportunity, converted the rest of his built-up psychic energy into more prismatic shards and shot them at the small bug. All of the glass impacted the Joltik’s body in a rush-like fashion, the last impact sending him flying upward and then falling into the river below.

Buddy and Lucian, their path between them and blue team’s side unhindered, continued their run towards that area, with Lucian still a bit behind Buddy.

“Buddy!” Lucian exclaimed. “If you get the flag, toss it to me!”

“Got it!” Buddy exclaimed back, nodding.

Then the orange-haired male sprinted to the flag, immediately grabbing it upon being at arm’s length and then doubling back to Lucian and passing it off to him.

“! Behind you!” Lucian exclaimed, noticing Ryder’s Sandile Bite down on Buddy’s foreleg, forcing him to kneel from the pain.

“Rrr--rrrrr!” Buddy grunted from the pain, then looked back up at Lucian. “Go, now!”

“I won’t let you!” Suddenly, Rydar dashed towards Lucian and attempted to grab the flag off Lucian’s hands. Lucian, at the same time, was flailing his arms about rapidly, making Ryder unable to get even the slightest of grips on him or the flag.

But then, for an instant, the flowing blonde’s eyes glew, and then he vanished from sight completely before reappearing some distance away immediately after. Ryder’s eyes widened in shock from witnessing this, while Lucian still looked scared and started running back towards red team’s side.

Buddy, at the same time, got back up and shook the the Sandile off his leg completely. He then spun around clockwise once and downwards kicked the lizard in the head with Rock Smash, causing the Sandile to bounce off the ground once. Buddy then started bringing his leg around to try and kick the Pokémon a second time, but the Sandile regained itself and then Bit down on Buddy’s shoulder when it was first able to reach it. Buddy, feeling even more intense pain from the second, more violent Bite forced him to collapse on the ground, but not fall unconscious. As this happened, a cathartic smile was seen on Ryder’s face.

Lucian was still running towards his team’s flag, passing by Herbert on the bridge who tried to slap the flag out of his hand, but missed completely. Then Herbert faced Lucian, and looked surprised when he saw Caldwell between him and Lucian. Then he noticed off the corner of his eye Jim jumping up to him. The Chimchar then Scratched the side of his face, and knocked him down.

Herbert, landing on his stomach, looked towards Lucian, his surprised look intact. Then he closed his eyes and faced the ground with a defeated look, as Lucian made it to his team’s base, with the camera freezing on Lucian jumping upward in excitement.

At the same time, Ryder was busy beating up Buddy who was still knocked down. Then, the whistle was heard and Ryder stopped. “Blue team wins!” everyone heard Coach Spruce announce.

Several of the other students who were watching from the sidelines began cheering for red team’s victory. Ryder, on the other hand, looking towards Lucian, looked much angrier, and growled accordingly.

Laura and Mabely were both seen regaining consciousness, almost immediately noticing Lucian with blue team’s flag. Laura both looked defeated and had a smile on her face, while Mabely simply had a warm smile.

. . .

A minute or so later, Laura and Herbert were seen with Ryder. The Joltik had been retrieved from the river and recalled back into his Poké Ball.

At the same time, Lucian was hugging Caldwell tightly and happily. “What kind of Pokémon was that?!” Ryder was busy chewing out Herbert in anger. “What the hell was it going to do for us?!” Then he pointed at Herbert. “What were you even doing?! You went down without putting up even so much as a fight!”

Mabely, hearing all of this, decided to walk towards blue team. “Hey, everyone worked together, and as long as we all tried our be--”

“BE QUIET!!” Ryder angrily screamed, interrupting her.

Mabely gasped surprisedly before shaking her head and walking back over to Buddy and Lucian. “Hey, do you guys wanna have dinner together?” she asked. “Like, as a celebration?”

“I’m down with that,” Buddy replied casually.

“Oh of course we, afte-after this traumatic experience we--I would love nothing but to celebrate, that this is finally over and done with.” Lucian responded, still shaking a bit from either adrenaline or excitement.

Ryder, almost as if he heard all of this, glared angrily at red team before grabbing his belongings and leaving the area.

“You’re back here same time tomorrow.” Coach Spruce yelled out to all of the students, most of which groaning as they followed Ryder back to campus, although from a distance.

Mabely and Lucian were also beginning to walk back, but stopped when they saw Buddy approach their PE instructor who was writing down on his clipboard who won the exercise.

“You saw what Ryder did, didn’t you?” Buddy asked, grabbing Spruce’s attention. “The little button he pressed, and the pain that the Sandile felt from his collar. W-We’re just not gonna talk about that? Like, what’s goin’ on?”

The coach sighed, looking back at Buddy. “There are many different ways to be a Trainer,” he began in a disapproving tone, his expression matching such. “And something we hope that people will realize when they come here, is that...certain methods aren’t as effective as others.”

“...” Buddy was silent in response.

Then he walked back over to Mabely and Lucian, and the three head back to campus together. Coach Spruce, for a few seconds, silently looked towards their general direction before he began walking back himself.