Chapter 11: The PTLTs
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I am extremely sorry for the late update. Actually, my semester exams are ongoing and it will end on Monday. So, I was late.
Anyway, enjoy the chapter.
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(Six years later)
The clock has struck 7 am in the morning.
In a bedroom of the Oak Residence, a young boy of 16 can be seen pacing around the room from one end of the room to the other. The boy is currently wearing a blue full sleeve t-shirt and cargo pants. On his neck, the signature necklace is hidden inside the t-shirt. The boy has a face that can be described as quite handsome with sharp eyebrows, deep abyss like eyes with sparks of intellect hidden within them, white sparkling hair cut short upto the nape of his neck.
But the implicated person is currently in a diificult situation.
On the bed, rested a white pokemon with two white appendages attached to its its circular main body having a single golden horn at its centre. Its two red eyes are constantly following its trainer as it paced the room.
The person pacing the room was constantly hitting it with barrage of questions.
"Say Metang, I will be able to write all the correct answers, right?"
(...)
"By the way, why I am forgetting about the habitat of Skorupi? What is the answer, Metang?"
(....)
"Why does it feel like I am forgetting everything?"
(...)
"Ahhh! I think I will mess up everything?!!!"
(.....)
"What will Gramps think of me if I am unable to get into the top three?"
(...)
Metang was finally fed up at its trainer's nervousness.
(Calm down, friend trainer. Being tensed will get you nowhere. Sit quietly and meditate, your psychic fluctuations are in complete disarray. If a pschic of your caliber goes haywire, then this entire abode will be shredded to pieces if Master is unable to interfere in time. Besides, what will your kind think when the ever confident Gary Oak will be seen sweating with tension.)
"Hmph.. Very funny!!"
But he still considered the advice and sank into a meditative state and calmed down his emotions which have been in complete disarray.
"Huuu...."
Releasing a deep breath, Gary collected his senses and stood up. On his face, there were still signs of tension but at present, they were under his reign.
"I am going to have breakfast, I will have to report to my test center in Viridian within ten o'clock. So, we will leave at around nine. You must not slack off in your move trainings. The Heavy Slam move is still not completely within your grasp. With your Heavy Metal ability, it will be our trump."
(Rest assured, I do not slack off like a certain someone.)
"Anyway, goodbye."
As Gary exited the room, a soft smile spread on his face thinking about the day, Beldum evolved a year ago. When his first partner after five long years, shone with a brighter light as its Psychic move finally reached Proficient Rank, his heart was filled with an indescribable happiness and satisfaction.
Training the first pokemon is always the hardest and training a Beldum to evolve into a Metang was a monumental task. Only about 10% of the colony evolves into Metang, such is the difficulty. The Stones have breeder license for breeding Beldums, but the pokemon given to trainers are Metang, not Beldum. If one wants a Beldum as a pokemon, they have to pass through stringent tests by the family.
As Gary finished his breakfast in a gusto, he realised that Alice had reduced the quantity of food today realising his loss of appetite.
He packed his belongings in a deep blue Siph Co. space bag and slung it over his shoulder. He knew that most likely, he would have to leave his bag in the car.
The technological development of the Pokemon World is quite ahead of the previous Earth. The inside of the space bags had much larger capacity compared to their size, and even the weights of the items kept inside could not be felt by the bearer of the bag. To prevent the examinees from carrying any kind of cheating methods, the technical researchers of the League developed special extended space detectors to detect space pouches and bags on the body of the examinee.
He met up with the Professor's trusted aide Jefferson who would drop him off at the test center and after the theory papers, would again meet him with his lunch, after which the practical tests will begin.
After boarding the car, they set off for Viridian City by the car route, which was different from Route 1 taken by pokemon trainers setting off for Pallet.
After half an hour past ten, Gary was seated in his alloted place and was going through the paper and the answers were finally flowing out smoothly from his mind, did his tension finally ebbed away completely.
After two hours of constant answering questions ranging from easy ones like "Which types have advantages over Poison type pokemons?" to tricky ones like "What is the best method according to you to deal with a pokemon with Moxie ability?", Gary exited the test room with a relieved smile on his face that spoke volumes of his confidence in scoring in the top three, at least in the written portion.
The practical tests would begin after an hour of lunch break. Most examinees lose their concentration after a mentally tiring three hour long written paper, but in this case, Gary had a God - sent gift of being a psychic. Due to his psychic powers, he could easily wash off his mental fatigue.
Gary's time slot was from 2:30 in the afternoon and he had to report at Room No. 3F.
As far as Gary knew, in the practical test, he would be allowed to choose a pokeball from three random pokeballs without knowing about the pokemon inside and participate in a one vs one match against the examiner with that pokemon.
To prevent the integrity of the results from being tampered due to the personal feelings of the examiner, the matches are completely recorded
which are then evaluated by a group of League judges.
Gary quickly finished his packed lunch which comprised of a pair of sandwiches, and a smoothie. When he was having his lunch, he looked around at the other would be trainers in hopes of seeing a familiar face.
Unable to find any familiar faces in the crowd, he resorted to asking Jefferson, "Jeff, is there anybody from Pallet in this center?"
"Actually, no, there is another center in the block next to this, there your classmate Leaf has been assigned. Ash has been assigned to a center near the Viridian Gym. The rest of your classmates have their centres in Pewter", replied Jefferson amicably.
"Oh by the way, the Professor has asked to pickup the Ketchums from their centre at the end of the exam."
"Sure Jeff!"
Having finished his lunch, Gary slowly took strides towards his room to report.
Sitting outside his room, he saw a girl running out of it with tears in her eyes. He shook his head and mused to himself, 'There is no such rule that you will have to defeat the examiner to pass the test. It's more like a test of one's composure in a pokemon battle and how the trainer treats his/her pokemon. It will be ridiculous for the League to believe that a person who is still not officially a trainer to defeat a league trainer. After all, every examiner is at least an Advanced Rank League Trainer.'
"Examinee No. PL0012, Gary Oak, please come inside the room." As soon as the announcement was made, Gary stood up from his seat and entered the room as the door opened up.
Inside, he spotted a Pokemon trainer, he spotted two persons, a man in his early thirties, most probably his would be opponent and a person wearing an official referee's uniform.
"Gary Oak, I presume?", asked the examiner.
"Yes, sir!", came his smooth reply.
"You will choose a pokeball from the three balls in front of you, and I will choose one from the remaining. Take your time and make a choice", rang the no-nonsense voice of the examiner.
Gary was waiting for this beautiful chance to utilise the cheat of his. He quickly concentrated on the pokeballs and brought out their info.
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Name:— Golbat
Type:— Poison/ Flying
Rank:— Intermediate
Potential:— Pseudo Silver
Hidden Ability:— Infiltrator
Moves:— Toxic(P), Screech(P), Supersonic(P), Air Cutter(P), Astonish(P), Mean Look(P), Agility(P), Steel Wing(N)
Innate Talent:— Gust(P), Quick Attack(P)
TM:— None
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Name:— Pidgeotto
Type :— Normal/ Flying
Rank :— Intermediate
Potential :— Deep Bronze
Hidden Ability :— Tangled Feet
Moves :— Quick Attack(P), Agility(P), Steel Wing(P), Roost(P), Gust(P), Wing Attack(P)
Innate Talent :— Sky Attack(N)
TM :— None
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Name:— Spearow
Type :— Normal/ Flying
Rank :— Intermediate
Potential :— Pseudo Silver
Hideen Ability :— Keen Eye
Moves :— Peck(P), Leer(P), Agility(P), Fury Attack(P), Gust(P), Drill Peck(P), Wing Attack(P), Steel Wing(P), Double Team(P), Protect(N)
Innate Talent :— Mirror Move(N)
TM :— None
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Gary realised that his test will be an aerial battle, which is quite tough for novice trainers. He made the obvious choice of picking Golbat's pokeball.
The examiner, on the other hand, picked up Spearow with a twitching face.
Gary had a sneaking suspicion that the examiner knew which ball contained what. If he had picked any other pokeball, then that man would have picked Golbat.
"These are the moves known to your pokemon", the referee said to Gary, swiftly handing him a piece of paper.
He ran his eyes through the paper and saw that the general characteristics of the pokemon were listed there along with the moveset and the ability. The mastery of the moves were also stated clearly.
"Battlers, please take your position, and on the count of three, release your pokemons together." The voice of the referee rang out in the room.
Gary confidently strode towards the trainer box opposite to the examinee.
"Three, Two, one, go."
There were two bright flashed of light from the two pokeballs and two pokemons materialized from the white light, facing each other.
One was an average sized Golbat while the other was a normal Spearow.
"As the examinee, I will give you the first chance to make a move."
"Don't regret it", taunted Gary with a smirk.
The examiner was a little taken aback at the sudden mood change of Gary from calm and confident to a cocky one.
"Golbat, mean look, followed by Toxic."
Golbat's eyes glowed red for a second, signaling the occurence of Mean Look and immediately, fired off Toxic.
The examiner cursed silently and stated, "Spearow, counter with Protect."
But the Toxic passed through th barrrier and Spearow let out a pained cry, "Rowwww..", signifying that it had been poisoned.
"Bloody Infiltrator ability", Gary's opponent cursed silently.
The examiner being hell bent on finishing the match before his pokemon succumbed to the poison, called out, "Quick Spearow, Agility into Steel Wing."
Gary was not ready to allow Golbat to be hit by the super-effective steel move, called out, "Dodge with Agility, keep your distance from it, and counter with Screech."
Then, occured a game of cat and mouse between two flyers, enhanced with Agility for the next minute.
Golbat stopped at a sufficient distance from Spearow to prepare Gust. As the Spearow took this chance to gain on Golbat, Screech was released at close range, which destabilised Spearow's senses.
Unwilling to give up the upper hand, Gary called out, "Finish it off with a full-powered Quick Attack."
Spearow could be seen panting, as the poison was slowly acting up.
"Quick, use double team."
With its last bits of energy, it pulled off a Double Team to confuse Golbat, who passed through the fake copies without dealing any damage.
"Tchh, use Air Cutter to sweep th images and use Quick Attack again." Gary was annoyed at the last ditch effort of his opponent, but quickly regained his clamness and commanded.
Golbat flapped its wings and released blades of air, dissolving the afterimages.
This time, the Quick Attack slammed into the already poisoned Spearow and knocked it out at full force with swirls in its eyes.
"Spearow is unable to battle anymore, the examinee wins the match."
Gary relseased his pent-up breath at the successful completion of the match that will go onto the League Records as his first pokemon battle. He approached the Golbat who had landed in front of him and scratched it slowly behind its ears, "Good job and thanks for being with me."
The poison pokemon closed its eyes and released a pleased hiss, "Gol...bat...".
Gary then called it back and handed the pokeball to the referee.
"You are quite good, I am Alex Storm." Gary's examiner approached him and shook his hands.
Gary quietly shook the other person's hand to express his acceptance at the praise. He then slowly trudged out of the room, happy at finally finishing his PTLTs.
After Gary had left the room, there was a serious expression on his examiner's face, 'Hmm, the Oak kid is very good, I will have to inform the boss.'
He then regained his previous expression and continued with the exam.
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END
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By the way, I have a question, anybody please clear it.
While I was researching the Infiltrator ability, there I saw that Noiverns too possess it.
So, in the anime of XYZ, in the semi-final match against Sawyer, shouldn't have Ash's Noivern's attack bypassed the Salamence's Protect?
Anyway, I am signing out.
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