Bab 7: Trials of the Guardian Clan(Part 1)
It has been four long years since Gary Oak has been reborn in the truest sense of the term.
Today is a regular morning in the Oak Residence where two persons are sitting in the dining table having their breakfast. They can used to depict the two extremes of the age spectrum.
One is THE Professor Oak while the other peraon is like an adolescent kid with a height of 5 feet 1 inch having sparkling white hair with a pretty boy face. This is none other than Gary Oak who has turned 10 years old the previous day.
Even Gary himself is often surprised at his own appearance. He has silky white hair that settles down easily unlike the spiky brown hair of Gary as shown in the anime. There is no trace of that annouying trademark smile of Gary's on his face. If not for the memories of this body, he would have been hard pressed to recognise himself as Gary Oak.
These thoughts brought back the memories of the last four years of hard ass tutoring of his Grandfather's and the slave driver like old cot Alakazam's psychic training. The one instance where that damn old pokemon was hurling stones at him, and he had to stop them or divert them using his psychic power, brought a chill down his spine and specially when the size of the stones incresed exponentially if he sidestepped or moved his body to dodge.
Speaking of his psychic powers, the psychic web has become tangible to his hand, but he was still stuck outside the web unable to enter inside, thus still far from even the six-year old Sabrina.
At his current ability, Gary could lift upto a compact weight of 1.2 kg, but he could only controll around a total of a kilogram of distributed weights within a 5 meter radius.
According to Alakazam, when a psychic is able to enter the web, that person undergoes a second awakening which substantially boosts up the inherent untapped psychic power.
But one must not be rash in entering the web. If the influx of psychic power gets out of hand, then various problems arise which include lose of emotions, multiple personality disorder, a person couod even turn into someone who kills for fun and many others. Thus, it is very necessary to tread carefully.
The lessons on specific pokemon were quite gruelling and easily forgettable. In this matter, his psychic powers were like a god sent gift. The side effect of increased brain processing speed and near perfect memory made it easy for him to endure through them.
The battle tactics lesson was one of the hardest and was the subject in which he had to spend the most grey matter of his brain. His grandfather typically gives him a scenario of a pokemon battle and asks him to chalk out two or more ways to resolve the situation. This class was a real eye-opener for the young Gary. More than often, Professor Oak intentionally diverts his concentration towards other topics to increase his instinctual awareness.
His sister Daisy turned sixteen last month and took part in the Pokemon Co-ordinating Liscense Exams which is held specifically for budding Pokemon Co-ordinators. She took the third spot in the Kanto Region and is currently the only Co-ordinator sponsored by his Grandfather. She departed for Hoenn last week. Daisy was unable to wait for his birthday because the registration for the Hoenn Grand Festival would have closed by then.
But he still got a beautiful hand-knitted scarf from his sister as an advanced birthday gift. Gary and Daisy in the last four years had often got themselves into petty squabbles which ended up quite a number of times in embarrassing situations.
Gary realised that there existed a particular reason for sixteen being the starting age of pokemon trainers. The people in the pokemon world developed faster and had considerably longer lifespan. So, they experienced their puberty during the age period of 10 to 16. So, the trainers usually had crossed their maturity period before their journeys.
After finishing their meals, the grandfather - grandson duo trotted off to the laboratory.
But today, the Professor had an extremely serious expression on his face.
Taking a seat, he straightened his back and started, "Take a seat, Gary. Do you have any idea why I handed over your psychic training to Alakazam personally?"
Gary was quite taken aback at this question but chose to remain silent waiting for his grandfather to continue.
"I had certain expectations towards your psychic prowess which you have already fulfilled. Today I will take you to a certain place where you will take part in a trial. This area or specifically the current Pallet and its surroundings has been guarded by this clan for eons. Even I am not sure about the true strength of them. If you manage to pass, you will be free to choose a new member of their clan as your first partner."
The sudden bomb dropped by Professor Oak stunned Gary for a few minutes. Then a huge wave of excitement, apprehension, expectation and a large number of other emotions poured into his mind creating a mess. His entire body started trembling at this unexpected good news. If he succeeded, he was going to have his first pokemon.
As if sensing his inner turmoil, a heavy and gruff voice sounded inside his mind.
(Calm down, grandson. The clan can be said to be as old as the first advent of pokemon. So, their requirements are very stringent, your grandfather has only one chance to recommend someone to them and he has placed his trust on you. So, you should be aware of the responsibility you hold on your shoulders.)
This unexpected piece of information shocked him. He suddenly felt that there was an unimaginable amount of pressure upon his shoulders. He realised that behind that sometimes gentle sometimes strict visage, Samuel Oak cared a lot about both of his grandchildren.
"What does the trial consists of?", inquired Gary.
"I'm not aware of what the trial entails, but one of their requirements was that the person must be a competent psychic, thus I can make a guess that at least one stage will have something to do with your psychic power."
"Does that mean the pokemon is a psychic type?!!"
In response, Professor Oak smiled mysteriously.
"You will know when you will reach the place. I named them the Guardian Clan, and the place they inhabit, I call it as 'Valley of the Guardian'. This time I do not have to say anything, you yourself will realise the importance of secrecy of the events that will transpire and the sights you will witness there."
After this, the Professor slowly got up and gestured Gary to follow him. He approached a closet marked with a pokeball symbol. He opened the closet with a key from his pocket and took out something.
Gary was curious about what his Gramps was doing and was about to go to him, when the person came towards him and put something on his hand.
Gary was shocked to see a great ball on his palm. A great ball is quite costly and has still not become as popular as it will be six years into the future. So, it is highly probable that the one in his hand is one of the prototypes. This is no longer a matter about money, one has to be considerably influential to get ahold of these. To hide his knowledge, he purposely looked at his grandfather with a curious gaze.
"This pokeball is called a great ball. If you succeed, capture the pokemon with it. It has a 50% higher capture rate than normal pokeball."
Stuffing the great ball in his pocket, Gary followed Professor Oak to the outside open area. As if on cue, a large Pidgeot landed in front of them. This particular pokemon is known to Gary. His grandfather mostly used it for delivery and transportation.
Gary saw the Professor taking a seat on the avian pokemon. He followed him and made himself comfortable behind him. Unable to satiate his curiosity, he read the stats of the Pokemon.
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Pokemon:- Pidgeot
Type:- Normal/Flying
Potential:- Pseudo Silver
Rank:- Advanced
Moves:- Gust(P), Quick Attack(P), Sand Attack(P), Quick Attack(P), Agility(P), Air Slash(P)
Hidden Ability:- Tangled Feet
Innate Talent:- Twister(A)
TM:- None
———————————————
Gary was astonished at the stats of even a normal transport pokemon of his Grandfather.
As the avian took off, Gary steeled his nerves and stabilised his psychic power, getting ready to take up whatever challenge the Guardian Clan throws at him.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone