I dreamt about my middle school.
I was surrounded by old wooden benches in my classroom that would creak from any movement made when sitting on them. The orange framed windows stuck out from being covered in dust partially. The huge blackboard showing gibberish written by chalk. The yellow painted walls looked even brighter when the sun shone on them. I realised it was an afternoon.
I always goofed around in class. My friends and I were inseparable. I look around to see various charts pinned on the walls with colorful drawings on them. I notice one of water cycle and something about global warming.
My lovely homeroom teacher calls out my name. She was one of the first people who influenced me to be who I am now. I loved her as much as my own mother. I miss her. She died from stomach cancer a few years ago. I still have her gifted t-shirt in my cupboard as a keepsake. I make a hand gesture at her, announcing my presence. She doesn't react or respond. It seems like I'm not physically here. My mind feels light.
After middle school nothing was the same for me. High school was over in a jiffy and college was memorable for it's hardships. I made many friends over the years but not a single one stayed in my life for long. Whatever it may be, so long as the memory of certain beloved friends lives in my heart, I shall say that my past life is good. My friends in middle school whom I'd spent the most time with were discussing about comics and video games like we always used to.
"Actually I think DC is so much better than Marvel."
"Well Marvel doesn't have Wonder Woman in it."
I smile feeling warm. I miss these days so much.
"DINGGGGG!"
I hear the bell ring. With that my dream was over.
"What was that?"
I got up early today. I hear the noise of soft breezes rustling through leaves, trees cracking in strong winds, and distant buzzing of beedrills. The sun shone brightly, hitting my face from an opening in the middle of the tent. I grimace while getting up from my comfy bedroll. It was hot in there now. I felt the sweat on my back.
'How do I wash myself?' I thought. Misty had told me that her gyarados could control his water gun so it acted as a mobile shower for her literally. I wonder if Bob could do that too.
"Hey Misty! Wake up" I call to her beside me in her blue bedroll.
"Ugh just one more minute." she replies groggily.
'Alright I should start packing things up.' Sooner I finish my breakfast the faster I can train my pokemon. I have multiple potions and antidotes ready in case they need it. Which they will. By tomorrow I'll be reaching Pewter City. It won't be long until I face Brock.
My main goal is to have Bob the squirtle learn water gun. Misty told me about it yesterday but I need to try things my way first. How did the games work exactly? Some moves which where learnt by the Pokemon itself were learnt through level ups in game. But I'm not seeing any levels in this world.
I wish I had a system just to show levels like in the fanfics I read all the time. The novels where the protagonist has a leveling system are pretty great to read and easy to understand. It's very easy to just follow the changes happening to the main character and enjoy how powerful he becomes. But I'd rather not have one. It'd make me feel worthless if I became the strongest only by doing what some program tells me to do.
Well the games gave XP to pokemon after winning battles so their must be some thing like this here. I have to theorize about it. What if XP was nothing but the satisfaction of winning the battle? So that meant winning battles will surely improve my pokemon gradually. What if they battled with each other?
With the question on my mind and the motivation to get better as always I grab all of my five occupied pokeballs.
"Come out everyone!" I take out my five man squad of Bob the squirtle, Percy the spearow, Tyson the rattata, Chungus the Pikachu and Icarus the pidgeotto.
"Good morning y'all." I greet them. I want to pet each one individually but I need to do something before that.
'While Misty is sleeping I'll conduct a battle royale among all my pokemon.' I wanna see my pokemon battle by themselves without my help or instructions.
"Everyone, I hope you're well rested and are ready to battle." I say aloud. I don't have a pokemon language translator so I hope they understand me somehow.
"Squirt" Bob nods his head firmly.
"Pijj-OOH!" Icarus flies up in the air doing a whirl in the air to free his stuck feathers.
"Skree!" Percy cries aggressively. It seems like he knows what I want to do.
"Pika-pi!" Chungus replies already in a lying position. How did he survive so long being this lazy?
"Rattata!" Tyson just calls out his species' name for the first time. Do researchers also have scientific names for every pokemon in this world?
"Alright so spread out in all directions equally with me at the center." I tell them.
Bob struts towards my north. Icarus flies to my south, Tyson runs off into the west. Percy already moved to the East before everyone. I had to carry Chungus the Pikachu to a position between Bob and Tyson as he didn't feel like moving.
"Okay you all fight without injuring each other seriously. If you can take someone out of the fight easily you can do that too." I encourage picking on weak matchups. It's not fun for the opponent but everyone here is weak to someone else.
"Whoever remains standing after the battle will receive extra berries for the whole week and the losers will have their berries taken away!" I wasn't going to take away my pokemon's food but I have to increase the stakes for each of them artificially somehow.
"1,2.3 GO!"
I move out of their way and the battleground. I took them to a grassy terrain right below the ridge formed by the century old tree.
"SKREE!" Percy flies in for a peck on Bob. I think he sees the battle as a way to get back at Bob for defeating him before.
"SQuirt!" Bob prepares to use the bubble attack instead of withdrawing into his shell involuntarily in the past.
"RAttata!" Tyson rushes in to tackle Chungus the Pikachu. Not knowing the prowess of Pikachu in the battle against Rhydon, Tyson probably thinks this lazy pokemon is a weak link in the team.
"Pika" Chungus starts to yawn, bored already. Aside from having type advantage against the most of the team his double team move won't allow anyone to lay an attack on him successfully.
Icarus flies up to get a bigger picture of the battlefield like a predator hunting it's prey. I think he's waiting for the moment everyone is weakened from battling each other and taking the advantage.
'Feels like I'm just spectating them. I need to know what each of them excel at so I can let them battle with their full potential.'
Icarus was a calm and observant type now. After witnessing the strength of Rhydon it seems like he's been brought back to the ground. I don't want his ego flying too high and him ending up as the Icarus from the Greek mythology.
"Blub blub blub" The sound of bubbles reach me and I look towards Bob. He's continuously spraying bubbles in a straight beam toward Percy.
Percy, after failing to get a hit on Bob uses fury attack, trying to jab Bob with his beak countlessly.
"Thud Thud Thud" I look toward Tyson tackling into each illusion of Pikachu. With each hit the illusion gets replaced by another in a never ending manner. If it's going to continue like this, both Tyson the rattata and Chungus will tire themselves out of stamina. I'd say it's a stalemate for now.
"SKree!" Percy realised he's fighting a losing battle. Once the bubble beam hits him his wings will be drenched and he'll lose. Bob, after taking a few hits to the body doesn't flinch from attacking Percy with his countless bubbles.
Percy flies toward Tyson to help him beat Pikachu and team up together to be able to beat Bob.
"SQuirt?" Bob doesn't know what happened to Percy that made him retreat.
He looks towards where Percy is flying and sees the newcomer Pikachu out of breath and running from Tyson's pursuit attack.
"SQUIRT!" He finally realised what'll happen once Percy beats the Pikachu and waddles toward the fight.
"PIKA PI!" Chungus seems to be anxious about facing Tyson. Not knowing that his thundershock is capable of defeating him in a head on battle.
"Rattata!" Tyson stops to acknowledge his friend coming to help him out. But cries out again to tell Percy about the approaching squirtle.
"SKREEE!" Percy cries out. Then I see them switched their opponents. Tyson runs to tackle Bob and Percy uses fury attack on Chungus the Pikachu.
"SQUIRT!" Bob uses bubble on Tyson but he tanks the barrage to close the distance. Tyson jumps at Bob quickly and bites hard on Bob's neck with his sharp front fangs. Making Bob flinch. I liked that Tyson used hyper fang for the first time but Bob suffering from the attack makes me feel bad about making them do this. Well one way or another, all of my pokemon need to toughen up so we can win the Indigo League together.
Bob bites back after the initial shock. Tyson couldn't take the attack on his neck as well as Bob did. Bob now angry at Tyson finishes the battle with a bubble beam. Tyson fainting immediately.
"SKREE!" Percy pecks at Chungus and lands a hit. He didn't know about Pikachu's ability static that put foes using physical attacks on Pikachu in danger of being paralyzed. Percy wasn't fully paralyzed but I could see some sparks of electricity on him visually.
He seemed to slow down in front of my eyes. His wings not carrying him with as much fluidity as before. He became stiff in every sense.
"PIKA! PIKACHU!" Chungus cries out, using thunder shock concurrently. Percy faints after receiving the jolt of electricity.
"SQuirt!" Bob approaches Pikachu. He doesn't seem to know about his type disadvantage against Chungus. He looks brazen, thinking that he's invincible after tanking the hyper fang from Tyson.
In truth, both of them were in a bad condition. If I bought them out in this state to battle other trainers, I'll get scoffed at relentlessly.
"PIkachu!" Chungus didn't back down from the fight. He knows his power of thunder shock well enough now. He hurls the electricty like the zap spell from Clash Royale towards Bob.
If Bob withdraws into his shell now maybe he can live this attack to land a counter. Both of them will fall to one attack any moment now. I notice Bob preparing his signature move, Bubble beam. That may knock Pikachu out if it hits , even with acknowledging the type disadvantage of the move itself. I make a self note to teach Bob earthquake once he's a Blaistoise. So he can cover his disadvantage pretty well.
At first, what left Bob's mouth was scattered bubbles, soft but focused, popping harmlessly in the air. Then the bubbles began to collapse inward. The spray tightened. What had been a spray of bubbles became a jet of water. With a sharp breath Bob released it and a single, focused stream of water cut forward.
The water blasted Chungus in his face making him fall to the ground. The thunder shock was absorbed by the water itself and didn't reach Bob at all.
"SQuirt! Squirt!" Bob turns back towards me, lifting his two fingers up in a Victory sign to signal me about his victory. Well he's forgetting about someone else...
"He just used Water gun." I hear Misty speaking from behind me. I wasn't paying any attention to her all this time. Not that she needed any protection from anything.
"Ah Good morning!"
"You too but what are you doing first thing in the morning? Don't you know battling on an empty stomach is bad?"
"Well my pokemon told me they're okay."
"I'm talking about you dummy. You should focus on taking care of yourself first. A trainer who isn't good at self-management won't be good at managing their pokemon well."
"Ah but they're battling by themselves I'm just watching them."
"Oh. Well this type of training is a first for me. They're battling it out like in the wild. Maybe it'll improve their natural instincts and intuition. That'll make them not as reliant on their trainer in their battles. I see why your pokemon are so great now Red." She seems amazed.
"Well this was a first for me too." I laugh. I get that not every pokemon trainer trains their pokemon distinctively but there should be some trainers out there willing to experiment like I do. I'm excited to discover and battle them all across the world.
"It seems like Bob has won the free for all."
"Not quite." I say looking up at Icarus still flying tirelessly in the sky.
"PIJ-OHH!" He cries out landing swiftly on the ground near Bob and striking Bob with his large, imposing wings spread wide to inflict damage.
Bob cries out "SQuirt!" sharply in pain and faints on the ground.
"This guy didn't even sweat." Misty laughs about it for a while unpacking our breakfast, it consisted of Packed rice balls with fruit jelly in them. Weirdly tasty. I miss eating my spicy curry and instant noodles but hunger doesn't discriminate among food I believe.
"So I just let them drink the potion?" I ask Misty. I thought spraying was the correct method.
"Yeah that's way more effective."
I do exactly that and notice that the potion releases restorative energy when inside my pokemon. Each glowing with a green energy around their bodies. Immediately closing the injuries on Tyson and Bob from each of their bites.
Each one needed one potion except for the winner of the battle royale, Icarus. Who looked happy to flaunt that he had won to the others.
"Squirt!" Bob cries at him. Probably accusing him of underhanded tactics.
Icarus ignores him altogether further infuriating the little guy. Him being a pidgeotto now the height difference between the two is even bigger.
"RAt-rat!"
"SKREE!"
Percy and Tyson both acknowledge Chungus the Pikachu as a strong individual. Pikachu reciprocates their remarks with a sly "PIKA-PI."
I'm happy my pokemon get along together somewhat. Seeing them together fills me with a joy I never experienced before. It's like being friends like in middle school again. Eating, laughing every where together. Like a family.
I take my time and enjoy having breakfast with my team and Misty. Feeding Tyson, Bob and Pikachu some of my riceballs while Percy and Icarus enjoyed a stash of berries I brought along. Icarus getting more of it as I promised.
"Hey are you another trainer from Pallet town?" A dude in samurai armour arrives.